Monday, August 29, 2011

DNS at Lean Horse

Well, I jumped out of the Lean Horse 50K just as fast as I jumped into it. I had hoped to run a fairly fast 50K this weekend, maybe even contend for the win in a small field, but I spent most of Friday night tossing and turning with some stomach issues. Woke up a couple of times convinced that I was going to puke, but never did. The stomach settled down for a couple of hours and I actually got some sleep, but when I woke up I couldn't stand the thought of eating anything and everything just felt off. Running 31 miles did not sound like any fun at all, so I pulled myself from the race and spent the day doing race directing duties instead. It wasn't easy sitting at the finish line watching the first 50K runners come in and wondering if it could've been me, but my stomach was still off then. I didn't each much of anything all day...pretty sure the first Hammer Gel I tried to take if I had run would've come right back up. My daughter had the stomach flu earlier in the week and my son ended up getting it on Saturday too. Just unlucky timing, but better that this happen for this race than for one that I trained a long time for and invested a bunch in. If it would've happened before the Lean Horse 100 last year, I would've been devastated. As it was, I was disappointed, but it's not a huge deal. Feeling better now, so time to focus on the remainder of the trail series races.

Congrats to everyone who finished Lean Horse this weekend! Some pretty amazing performances...the overall winner of the 50M crushed the women's course record and ran the 2nd fastest 50 ever at Lean Horse. The 100 winner ran a 15:34, ten minutes off of the course record. Pretty brutal heat this year. It got up to 102 in Hot Springs, a little cooler (mid to high 80s) up in Custer and Hill City.

As an example of why we refer to the Black Hills 100 as Lean Horse's evil stepsister, there were 29 sub-24 finishers at Lean Horse this weekend. Only 32 people finished Black Hills period, and only 2 were sub-24. Yes, Black Hills had a severe thunderstorm, but Lean Horse was hot.

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