Friday, June 20, 2008

Fast Trax Ultra

Well is been almost a week since I participated in The Fast Trax Ultra last Saturday. I decided to wait until they posted the results to give a proper race result. Usually I am aware of how my race went, or sometimes I don't even care. This time I decided to stick around to the end.

Fist I should tell you more about the days leading up to, if only because I like talking and second because I truly believe it had everything to do with the race results for me.

Days leading to the race I decided to buy a GPS Garmin StreetPilot c550, just to avoid being late again. Also I found a participant for the 50K that wanted to carpool from Calgary. I was a bit worry since I was concerned about my music taste which is eclectic to say the least, not all Latin music is sexy, specially if it is mariachi music. Zoltan a young guy on his way to Edmonton on what it was his first ever ultra and I drove on Friday around noon. I had told him to bring his i pod to take turns with the music. When it was his turn I quickly realized his taste was around Enya( is she still making music?) And ambience music (think waterfalls and wind chimes) his turn never came, and it reinforced why I am still single, I am bad a compromising.

We arrived at the campground 5 hours later. I was not feeling well, I didn't taper for the race since I am suppose to get stronger, I also found out I was registered on the 50 miler not the 50K as I originally intended. I went to bed early but when I got to go to the bathroom, it was so cold that my legs cramped right out. The next few hours where distant memories of fever and painkillers. I woke up three hours later not sure if I was going to be able to run.

We arrived at the race, I decided to keep the 50 mile instead of changing it to the 50k, and since that distance always have the biggest number of participants. In my mind as long as I took it easy and aimed to finish, I was going to be OK.

The race was at Godlbar Park and it was a 10K loop, I was supposed do 8 loops and a bit since it's a bit more than 80K. At 6 am we all started, I stayed behind, for most of the race, Petra Graen lapped me twice to win the 50K race first overall at 3:43:34, Wayne Gaudet was second and fist male at 4:08:16. At 45K I was still third last overall and even Rick Webb and Carmen Pavelich who would eventually win the 100k race at 8:07:55 and 9:59:44 lapped me. This is the first time on a race where the words of encourage where, “come on, pick it up”, ' You can do it"," show us what you got", but I just didn't want to risk injuring myself. I kept a pretty conservative pace for the first 45k. Then something amazing happened, I started to gain on the people ahead of me, I was going slow enough that i didn’t need walking breaks, by the time I crossed the checkpoint at 50K I feel good enough to pick up the pace, my hamstring was tight but not hurting. Armed with Ibuprofen, I decided to kick my pace and avoid stopping at the aid stations, the next 30K I barely slow enough to grab a bottle of water or perpetuem that was conveniently mixed in a bottle. By the time I reached 57K I passed the female lead of the 50 miler and I managed to unlapped myself from Carmen. At this point there where a lot of people slowing down but I was feeling just fine.

I miraculously finish top female at 8:38:27 and second overall behind Logan Beulieu whose winning time was 7:35:11.

The moral, pacing does work, at least this time it did. I don’t know if the outcome would have been the same if I had speed up ahead with everybody else. I do have to say it's hard to stay behind, especially since it was a loop course and I got to see everybody that was ahead of me each time they turned around. Sure they high five me, at one point I decided to play my music mariachi and all loud enough for me to just tune out and listen to my body.

Jack Cook of Fast Trax did a wonderful job at his second Ultra. It was perfect weather and the flat course meant 5 times where improved over last years times included mine. Jack is applying host the National 100km Championships in conjunction with the 50km and 50mile events. Edmonton is a great city to host sports events. I was lucky to participate in the World Masters Games in Edmonton in 2005 for Triathlon and I was impressed on the venues and the quality of the volunteers.

I want to thank Peter Lubbers for the help. I emailed him panicking last minute because I was unsure I was training smart. He not only reassured me, he also wrote a detail plan for me to follow :- )

7 comments:

Leslie said...

ilovekeith
Looks like you are on track all right Norma! Nice work, that is fan-frickin'-tastic I would say.

Leslie said...

I have no idea what happened with this:

ilovekeith

Peter Lubbers said...

Hey, way to go, Norma! Rest up for the next one. Isn't that one next month?

Norma Bastidas said...

yes, I have 1 a month for the next 3 months. Next month is 135K and about 19,000 feet of elevation, three weeks after that is 125K at 17,000 feet of elevation and then my first 100 mile race, is confortably 6 weeks after that one. so according to the plan, keep training for my next race, then start to back off intensity and mileage by August to prepare for 100 mile, right?

Anonymous said...

How do you do? Congratu-
lations. The first prize in
female?
It is of fantastic record, because you decided to try
50miles(80k) instead of having
been going to do 50k. I am not
able to change and to win the
game; because of running
career short.
Good luck with your running
enjoyable.


P.S.: I am trying 7-hour-
running competition. I will
win the first prize, because
I like and am good at long distance running (long-hour-
running, ultra-marathon,
42.195k marathon, etc).

Anonymous said...

Hi Norma!

Thank you for encouraging me to run this Ultra.
It was a wise move to use it as a training run for this Sunday's HSBC, where all shall fall into place.
My goal is clear. I am confident. I will succeed! Thank you kindly for the constant reinforcement to believe in the goal. If I see your lovely face at the half way point, I might end up winning! ;)

I will soon be running an 80km, but as with all things in running, I will be building up to it over the next short little while.

Your multi stage race coming up sounds awesome!! :) You are most definitely on a runaway train! Good job, girl!

One last thing...you have me pegged 100% the wrong way (must be some terrible misunderstanding) with respect to my musical tastes...waterfalls and wind chimes? Not sure where that came from...hehe
Enya? 2005/06 was her last recording of which I know! :)

Norma Bastidas said...

Zoltan, I love that you read my post, but let me refresh your memory, my GPS comes with music, ambience music and yes you did wanted to play it, I then told you as an excuse, as I kid I was lost in a forest in the jungles of Mexico and now I was afraid of waterfalls. LOl

You will do fantastic this weekend, I have no doubt you will qualify for Boston, you run such a stron race at Fast Trax even placing second on your age group. I DNF on my first ultra

Have fun Sunday, and I'll see if I can come to cheer you on.

Norma