2007 Hellgate Race Report [Quick Version]
December 11, 2007 by Bryon Powell · 5 Comments
While I’ll have more to say later, I did, in fact, drop out of Saturday’s Hellgate 100k. By 10 miles in I was feeling very weak and despite pounding Clifshot for the next couple hours, my energy never came back. I called it quits at aid station 4. I had no real reason to drop other than I was tired. My legs were fine, I hadn’t turned an ankle, no kicked rocks – just tired. Pretty weak, huh?
In retrospect, there are a few things that may have played into me feeling so poorly. First, there’s that little matter of running hard (even if not “racing”) three 50 milers in 15 days just three weeks prior. Also, I worked all day Friday before the 12:01 a.m. Saturday start. This was a mistake. I had a somewhat stressful and extremely busy day in the office on Friday and I didn’t remember how much that can take out of me physically. I won’t make that mistake again… at least until I forget the lesson again.
I’ll hope to expand this post in the next couple days. However, work continues to be crazy – I was in the office for 9 hours on Sunday and almost 13 yesterday. With the need to get runs in, that doesn’t leave much time for anything else.
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Bryon Powell is the Editor-in-Chief of iRunFar.com, which he founded five years ago. Also the author of Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and a contributing editor at Trail Runner magazine, he's quickly approaching 10 years as an ultrarunner and 20 years as a trail runner. These days he calls Park City, Utah and its trails home.
All posts by Bryon Powell
You know, sometimes been tired is a very legitimate reason to quit. And without ever quitting you’ll never know what “real” you are.
I guess so, it’s just not easy to accept stopping for anything other than an acute injury. Then again, five of my six lifetime DNFs were for reasons other than injury. Actually, my most frequent reason by far is that I just didn’t want to run any more!
I feel a little better about dropping after my run last night. About 5k into my 6.5 mile run commute home I just had to stop and walk for a couple 100 meters. Again, I had no energy…. and it’s not like I had anything to gain by stopping to walk, as I certain wanted to be home.
Hmmmmm, me thinks you’re over-trained and over-raced. Stop running. Take 2-3 weeks off – no running at all. This is a great time of year to do that. Your body needs a break from running. Listen to it. Eat. Sleep. Lay around on the couch. Get fat. Hang out with Lindsay. You’ll be ready to run again at the end of the month.
It was fun hanging out with you guys on the way to, at, and leaving Hell. Perhaps I’ll be there again in a couple months and we can run (or karaoke??).
Not weak at all. Wise. I am proud of those wo know when to run another day and given your 50 milers this year it is no surprise you were weary.
Sean,
I can’t see myself not running for the next couple weeks … however, I’m leaning towards not doing any long runs in the near future. I’ll keep it short and simple.