Time for some analysis.
I think I ran about as good a race as my training allowed. No major mistakes to slow me down. This is a little suprising since it took me three tries at the marathon before I managed to do things correctly.
I am glad that my ultra debut went well since I have been strongly considering jumping in headfirst. Now I am convinced that I can do it. My opinion is that I will be able to do well in ultras because I have a short efficient stride that should minimize the effects of repetitive pounding. Now I've got my eyes o nthe Squaw Peak 50 miler next June. If that goes well I will try something even better.
Lesson #1. I think the major thing that prevented me from running a little faster was lack of training. I only went over 10 miles 7 or 8 times in the several months preceding the race. I averaged about 70 miles a week for the 8 weeks before the race, but the weeks prior were much lower. Also, a fair amount of that milage was done on the elliptical since it didn't aggravate my hamstring. I suspect I was only in shape to do a 2:45 marathon, if lucky.
Lesson #2. I ran too slow in training. most of my training was in the 7:30-8:30 pace range. I did very little speedwork and I really only ran race pace on a few of my long runs. I needed to do more of my daily runs at the planned 6:30 race pace. I realized this when about a week before the race when I did to 10 miles at 6:30 and it made me rather sore. If I can't do 10 miles easily, 31 isn't going to happen.
Lesson #3. I'm going to need to do some strength training if I am to try longer races. I failed to mention this earlier, but my shoulders and neck were and still are really sore. As for my legs, they seen to mostly be suffering form tendon weakenss which weight training would help.
Lesson #4. I did pretty good with my water intake. The 4-6 ounces of Gatorade every 2-3 miles didn't upset my stomach and I only dropped 3 pounds during the race. I probably could have taken in a few more calories, but I carried the wrong stuff in my pockets. I need to try a bigger vriety of stuff in training. Gels work OK, but after a while they are not very palatable. As a side note my body can handle GU, but I think powergel upsets my stomach.
Lesson #5. Blisters. I didn't get any on my feet, but I did get then under both of my second toenails. Same thing happened in last marathon. I'm gonna have to figure out how to deal with this. They didn't bother me in the race, but I bet they would have become a problem if I had kept going.
I suppose that's all I've got for now. I'll add more as I think of it.
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