Pre-race and start line
Race morning started super early for me (waking up around 2:45 am) so that I could do all my pre-race prep such as taking my Maurten drink mix, eating breakfast, having coffee and obligatory bathroom visits. For this race I took a Maurten 320 drink mix, ate 2 slices of my sourdough toast with peanut butter and honey and drank both water and my normal black coffee. As the race is point-to-point, rather than trying to catch a bus from the downtown finish area my wife was kind enough to wake up and drop me off closer to the race start. They had shuttles around the start area that you could take (similar to when I did this race 10 years ago). Upon exiting the shuttle, a man had set up a little table with various Gu gels, water, bananas that were complimentary so I snagged a Gu to complement what I had already brought (5 Maurten 100, 3 Gu Salted Watermelon with caffeine, 500 ml water and 500ml nuun). Luckily the course also had water and nuun at their aid stations. The starting area consisted for 4 different corrals based on time. In the back of the starting area is where they had a HUGE line of portapotties (of course the starting area is on a hill and where I was dropped off was at the bottom of the hill so I had to hike up to the portapotty area). This race boasts the highest ratio of portapotties to runners (1 portapotty for every 30 runners). The lines were still longer than I remembered from 10 years ago – though there were fewer runners then. My friend had taken a bus from the finish area and wasn’t carrying his phone so we didn’t meet up until just prior to the race when I found him in his corral (he was lined up with the 3 hour people and I was going to start with the 4:30 folks further back). Race morning turned out to be great weather – clear skies and relatively warm for this time of year around the low 50s F. I would have preferred more in the mid-40s F but I will take it over the last time I did the race where it was 24F at the start and 32F at the end. After a short delay, we were off.
Early miles
The race is an overall net downhill race but it is definitely not an “all downhill” race as that title suggests. There are actually quite a bit of hills through the first half of the race. We started on a downhill which means you have to consciously think not to go out too fast. Overall I was feeling pretty good though right after starting I knew I had to urinate. I watched a few people run off to the trees on the side of the course and briefly thought about it too but decided to keep pushing and see if I could use a portapotty (as long as there weren’t a lot of people waiting). I did a pretty good job keeping my pace in check those first 3 miles and managed to stop at a portapotty around the 2.5 mile mark without too much of a delay. My race plan was to follow my run-walk strategy that I had been employing during my long run training (for this cycle I settled on 5 min run – 45 second walk), which I followed pretty closely through the entire 26.2 miles. These early miles consisted of running through some more rural type communities with spread out houses that had land and farmstock (horses, pigs, etc). Spectators were scattered along with some bands and people playing music. Much of the course is running in a straight line with a few big turns spread out through the race. At the 6 mile mark we made a hard left on Fair Oaks Blvd which we would stay on until it turned into J street until we reached the mid-town Sacramento area. This race goes through ~5 cities (along with a few different neighborhoods of Sacramento proper). I passed the 6 mile mark in just over an hour which is around where I had planned. From mile 6-12 there were a fair number of hills and downhills as I ran through surburban neighborhoods.
As I came to around mile 10 we ran through the Old Fair Oaks village which has quaint shops. Lots of good spectator support through here but once you pass through I hit the toughest hill of the race. I elected to walk parts of the bigger hills (even though it didn’t fit into my normal run-walk scheduling).
The couple miles leading up to the halfway point also contained some long slow uphills and slight downhill sections. The 13.1 area also was a wider street with businesses along both sides of the road. I reached the half marathon distance at 2:21:08 which was a little slower than I was aiming for (2:15-2:20). My legs were definitely feeling it more at this point than during my normal long runs (I suspect due to all uphill and downhill sections – most of my training was flat with some uphills and not much downhill training – my quads would pay for this later in the race). Between 13 and 14 you make another big left turn and here is where there are a lot of spectators as well. Miles 14 through about 16 is running through typical urban/suburban California streets with businesses and then neighbhorhoods of houses. At the 17 mile area one of my coworkers was there which was a nice little pick me up. This is where I needed to start telling myself to maintain my run-walk. I face another set of rolling hills through the next few miles though these streets also had some beautiful trees.
I had been telling myself that I would wait until the 20 mile mark before turning on my Aftershokz headphones for continued motivation. I was losing some steam so ended up turning them on around the 19 mile mark. They weren’t all too helpful initially because of the external music playing by bands and spectators but definitely helped in the last few miles of the race. The course from miles 18-22 overlap with my normal work commute so I was quite familiar with the area. Of course it feels a lot farther to run than to drive. There was another party at the 21 mile aid station since it was located at a big shopping center area. And then the final big hill was the J street bridge which I also walked up a good chunk of it.
After cresting the hill is when I started to really feel my quads. Those early uphill and downhill sections were now catching up to me. I actually could feel the soreness of my quads more when I was walking then “running” (used in parenthesis because it felt more like slogging). I pushed myself to continue running during those 5 minutes of my run-walk cycle. I continued this all the way through until the end with maybe a few extra walk sessions sprinkled in.
Miles 23-24 took us through the Fab-40s section along with some smaller businesses. The final stretch from 25 until the end goes through the midtown district of Sacramento which are historic homes and small businesses. The spectators were definitely out in full force from mile 24 on. I also started to have some intermittent sharp pains in my left foot during the last 3 or so miles. If I didn’t have the issues with my quads and left foot pain, I suspect I would have been able to keep up a better pace. I reached the 22 mile mark just before 4 hours which was around what I had been thinking in my mind. I had a goal of sub-5 hours, which would also be a PB for me. My “A” goal for the race had been around 4:30-4:40. I knew that with how my legs were that I wouldn’t be able to maintain the pace for that but I felt that I could still hit sub-5 (which was my “B” goal) as long as I could keep up with my jog-walk. My endurance was definitely there, it was just that my legs weren’t cooperating.
I hit mile 25 and just told myself to keep running even if it was at a slower pace and just get to the end. Just before getting to mile marker 26 I pictured in my mind getting a sub 4:50 but then realized that I was too far for that so I just told myself to finish strong. When I crossed the line at 4:51:59, I was proud of myself for pushing through and also quite happy to finally have broken the 5 hour mark.
We finish right in front of the state Capitol building. The finish area was nice – I was handing a bottle of water (the bottle is a resuable sport bottle that also has CIM finisher on it which I thought was neat) and then the surprise for the 40th anniversary of the race was two gifts for finishers (a backpack and a packable windbreaker finisher’s jacket). This was a nice surprise and extra perk. I also had a chicken burrito (from Baja Fresh) though it was quite dry but started my post-race refueling. I picked up my gear check though didn’t need the jacket as it was mid-60s at the finish. Then I made my way about 4 blocks to where my wife was waiting to pick me up.
Final thoughts
Overall I was happy with my training cycle, buildup to the race and nutrition. I think that my nutrition planning worked well though my hydration/electrolyte replacement strategy was a little off. Nutrition wise I ended up taking 3 (maybe 4) Maurten 100 gels, 2 Gu Salted watermelon gels, and 1 Roctane Salted Lime gels. I took Nuun and water at every aid station (maybe skipping nuun at a few). I had my possible GI disturbance in the middle of the race and I think it was because I took in too much nuun/water at a single aid station (subsequent aid stations I didn’t take in too much all at once and my stomach settled down). I did also take a Precision Nutrition salt capsule (250mg) with water towards the last few miles of the race because I didn’t know if my quad cramping was due to dehyration/electrolyte deficiency. After the race I realized that my skin was covered in salt and I suspect I didn’t take in enough electrolytes. Other things that I could have improved on would have been more strength training and also more practice on hills (especially downhill running). Since I came into this race with a goal time I was definitely more focused on pacing and timing splits than enjoying the surroundings (I have already run this race so at least I knew what the scenery was like – also it’s a local race so I tend to see a lot of this already). I did enjoy looking over at someone’s yard at one point and seeing a fat pig eating some food. The spectators/bands playing music also were a huge boost as I am always listening to music
My race execution in terms of pacing was spot on for the first 22 miles and I was extremely happy that I was able to keep running in those final miles (with the only hindrance being the cramping and foot pain). My previous races were disappointing in that I hit a total wall between 20-22 miles and would walk much of the last few miles. I do think the run-walk method paid off in the end giving me enough to continue to run the last couple of miles.
Race stats
Overall chip time: 4:51:59
Avg Pace: 11:09 min/mile
Shoes: Saucony Endorphin Pro 3
-StewsCat
StewsCat 