Adventures in Onionism

I ran the Pirates Cove 50K yesterday. Here are my splits: 17K 1:56 24K 2:53 30K 3:24 37K 4:22 44K 5:28 50K 5:58 In other words, I was slow. At least I was consistent about it. (?) It was very cold and raining at the start line, and the forecast included a hazardous weather warning and called for hail, so I ended up way over-dressed and had to strip off several layers on the very first climb and shove them into my hydration pack. I realized what a mistake carrying that was, so I managed to drop it at aid stations so as to only carry it 20K total. I ended up running in tights, a long sleeve shirt, and lightly insulated Marmot windshirt most of the race. It never hailed, but it did rain on and off. I don't recall it being torrential for much of the time, but it was certainly wasn't dry for long either. I thought I was going decently fast, and I got into the first aid station after 6.6K with some fast people, but I clearly slowed down after that. I thought I was doing fine because ...

While I'm at it, let me say that Jonathan Franzen's Freedom was the best book I have read in quite a while. Turns of phrase that are beautiful and funny, plus scathing criticism of the sacred cows of contemporary suburbia. It's like Cat's Cradle with more realistic and meaningful human relations. I loved it, loved it, loved it.

I'm running the Pirates Cove 50K Saturday. I definitely didn't do optimal training--only 7 runs in the three weeks since my last race, with one 3:30 and a couple 2:00 runs, plus a few cross-training sessions. I wish it would stop raining, I lived closer to the hills, my truck had windshield wipers and power steering, and I could stick to a training schedule. We'll see if I can break 5:00. Given the previous plus the crummy weather expected, it's not super likely, but I'll go out fast to see if I've got it. Next week is spring break, so after a job interview in Washington DC, I might go to Washington state and run the Badger Mountain 100. I'm not in shape to run it fast, but I bet I could finish it. There's a new post on the invite-only blog.