Rockin K 2019
This was my 4th trip in the last 5 years down to Kanapolis the first weekend in April. I was on the road around 3:00 from Grand Island and arrived at pre-race pack-up a little before 7. The drive down was pretty much uneventful. I did free style some songs about running with my friends in Kansas. Those videos wil not be making this blog lol.
I got to meet up with Brady, Alicia and Jodi at the pre-race dinner for some spaghetti and chatting about the course. Brady was doing his 1st 50 miler out here, Alicia was crewing him and Jodi was pacing the last 25 with him. He totally crushed it! I shared whatever knowledge I had on the course from the 3 years prior as we chowed down our dinners.
The day quickly faded to night and cars started pulling out of the lot leaving just me and my Subaru Outback for the night. I found myself a spot and tried to catch some sleep. I need to figure out the mattress issue because I had another hard time side sleeping on the current pad.
Anyways I woke to the first racers coming in the morning and made my way out of the car. I slept in what I planned to run in so it was pretty nice to just throw on shoes and a hat be ready. This was the warmest start of any year I've been down here; it was around 45 degrees at the start. Crystal, Jenny, Mindy, Jodi, Brady and I all hung around together chatting up till it was time to take the start line. They counted us down and we were quickly off. The half mile section on the road is always fast before we hit the trails. I was the 3rd person going into the trails with Jeremy (doing 50 miler) and a guy from Oregon (I forget his name) doing the marathon in front of me.
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| First m |
The first 5ish miles I sort of struggled to find my flow. I felt more cautious than normal and I was stumbling more over rocks than I typically do. The turns weren't coming instictually and I had to always be looking for flags. I have nothing to blame it on, I feel in the best physical shape of my life. It was just one of those things that started off slow. I did find it later on though. It was around the 3 mile mark I realized the front 2 were out of site and so was anyone behind me. Pretty much the rest of the race would be solo, which I loved. For the entire run I had a handheld water bottle with my normal morning matcha tea in it (amazing grass brand) and 2 chocolate Gu's in the pocket. I had no phone or pack, nothing else on me except those 2 simple things. I wanted the least amount to worry about as possible. The next 6 miles all felt pretty smooth, trying not to over exert. I love the trails here. a combo of rocky, prairie and sandy trails with some really cool rock formations. I filled up my water at the unmanned aid station at mile 6. It was somewhere between 6 and 8 ish i started seeing Jeremy in front of me again.
I wouldn't catch him until mile 13 when we entered the aid station. I did not need anything here so I just shouted out my number and rolled on. I chatted with him some at 14 and moved on to see if I could catch the other guy in front of me. I picked up the pace on this bluff loop. The bluff loop is the section from 13 to 18; it starts and ends at that aid station. It has a fairly significant amount of climb but also some pretty good runnable sections. I was thinking to myself if I push here I can find out at 18 how far ahead of me he is. I came into the aid station feeling really good. I thought I was around a 3:45 finish, which would be about 6th or 7th fastest time ever ran on this course in the 21 year history and a few minutes faster than my 3:47 in 2016. I had momentum, I was focused and ready to really push these last miles. I had 9 miles to go, 9 miles to try and see if I could catch this guy.
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| Smile every mile |
At the aid station at 18 I asked them; How much time does the leader have on me?
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| focused |
"Oh he is killing it, he left here about 20 minutes or so ago"
Ohh crap lol. wow. that is impressive. he would go on to finish in 3:29 for a new course record. I didn't even let myself entertain the idea well if he blows up in these last 9 and has to walk in the last few maybe you'll catch him. I set new goals for the remaining 9 miles. Things I could focus on, at first it was ok when you have an hour left see if you have a chance at a Personal Best on this course (3:47). when I got down to 1 hour left it was clear I didn't have enough left in the tank for that. I knew I had almost an hour ahead of 3rd place so the last hour of running was about focusing on "controlling the pain." I used this time to really play with the idea of - "you are in control of the pain", lets go back and forth in it and back out of it, understanding it, making peace with it, learning some things about it. This was how I spent the last hour of the 2019 Rockin K. I do that stuff on a long training run here and there but to be mindful enough to do it during a race when you are giving every bit of your effort was great data to gather and expierence.
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| Last bit of the race still wet from the waste deep water crossings and tired from running in the sand. |
When I got to where I could see the clock I could see that I was close to running under 4 hours so I crushed the last half a mile to finish in 3:59. It's not my best but it was a really solid run. I was very happy with it; and I really enjoyed my time on the course.
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| coming in to the finish |
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| the winner - (really fast dude) |
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| getting my award for 2nd place |
I enjoyed the race almost as much as I enjoyed the 5 hours that followed. I ate some food, drank some cold soda, changed and waited for Crystal to finish. Then her and I sat at the back of the Subaru and cheered runners in, ate some food, drank some soda, had a great time catching it up and waited on Jenny to come in. Then the all 3 of us sat around chatting, laughing, eating drinking and cheering runners in. This lasted most of that Saturday. Until finally I had to get on the road to get home at a decent time to see Suzi.
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| post race vibes. - (I'm holding my own leg lol) |
I loved this weekend, these trails with my closest trail running friends is incredible. I've had a hard time coming back from it though. The first 2 days I was in a sort of typcial post trail running weekend funk. The next 3 days thought I haven't been able to run; and I miss the outdoors and the ultra vibe. I've gotten through the week but the constant in and out of the trail life and the work life is mentally exhausting asI get older. You'd think it'd get easier but its one of the few things in this lifestyle that actually gets harder each year. It is still always worth it tho; even if it is for a short time on the trails in the ultra community. Hope you all have been finding time outdoors and on trails in your daily lives. All my best and Happy Trails!!!
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| Phil, stanley & kenny |
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| workin it . |
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