2007 in review

Right now I'm at the library doing some serious reminiscing. Here's a little recap of '07 . . .
Best Race: McNaughton Park 50 Miler
Tie between Tecumseh and McNaughton, but I'm going to give it to McNaughton since I have another section for Tecumseh. I trained my ass off for McNaughton, putting in a couple 30-35 mile training runs and some back-to-back 20 milers. I really pushed my training harder than the year before. The race went great. I felt very strong throughout the first 30 miles and was able to stay strong for an 8:50 finish. The course was muddy as hell, making the downhills dangerous and the uphills miserable. I was in second the entire way after the first 10 mile loop and hung on to finish 17 minutes(I think) behind winner, Jared Milam and 50 minutes ahead of third place. It was incredible to run in such a good position for the entire race.

Biggest Surprise: Tecumseh Trail
At Tecumseh, everything went well. I started off hard and just kept moving. I knew the race was competitive and expected to finish around 3:40 and about in 20th place. As the race went on, I kept passing people and eventually moved up to 6th place and finished in 3:21. I never even thought I could have done that well so everytime they announced my position, a rush was sent through me. I also felt so strong throughout the entire race. It felt like I ran faster as the race went on. Awesome, absolutely awesome.

Best Experience: Kettle Moraine 100
Whew! That race was an absolute blast. I have such good memories of the race, UI could write pages and pages about it. The course was incredible and it was really something to run a full day. I had some incredible highs—I felt great over the first marathon portion and really got something in me from mile 65 – 81. And the lows—crossing the marsh and the hills in the heat of the day(miles 40-55) and crashing hardcore over the last 15 miles were pretty brutal. It was a full emotional experience and although I fell short of my goal, I crossed the finish line quite happy. Of course, as soon as my head touched the seat of our van, I fell deep asleep.

Best Worse Race: Ice Age Trail 50
I am still not quite sure what I thought I was doing, but I really put together a bad strategy for this race. First off, I ran McNaughton 50 4 weeks prior to this run. That, in itself was not bad, but I never gave myself time for adequate recovery. 2 weeks after the run, I ran a 15 miler, followed by a 10 miler the next day. I was pretty beat from the 15-miler and the 10 miler gave me hell. I did not fully recover from those runs, as my legs were still sore going into the race.

Also, the week before the race was finals week @ ISU and I had to make sure that I had fun with everyone before we all left for break. I got pretty wasted the Friday and Saturday one week before the race and felt the effects pretty strong. I had this one huge project that I stressed out about up until Thursday night before the race, working on it until 10 pm. I finished it and got a good grade on it, but screwed up my sleep schedule considerably and often did not go to bed until 4 in the morning. On top of that, once the project was over (Thurs b4 the race), I went out, got really wasted, and did not get back until 3 in the morning. I had to wake up four hours later to catch a train into the city, from where I would take a train into Arlington Heights, where Michael Davenport would pick me up and drive me to the race. Needless to say, by the time that I arrived at the race, I was exhausted.

The morning of, I felt exhausted (another 4 hours of sleep the night before), and it seriously took me 20 miles to warm up. My legs were so stiff and sore (lack of sleep is my best guess)! I felt good from miles 20-30 or 35, and then started to feel the effects of the distance once I reached this point. Nevertheless, I finished in 8:18—a Ice Age Trail 50 PR. Not bad considering I had the race of my life the year before and finished 9 minutes slower.

Biggest Disappointment: IM Wisconsin
OK, so I only really had 2 ½ months to prepare for this race. More like 2 since I needed a little bit of time to recover from Kettle. Still, I trained hard for this race. I really pushed myself on the bike and got a few solid runs in to help the cause. Swimming was a little slow, but I felt that I was really working hard in this area.

The swim was pretty miserable, but turned out alright as I came up a minute ahead of my goal time. The bike was an absolute blast. I finished in 6 hours, 29 minutes, and 30 seconds—30 seconds ahead of my goal time!! That’s .1% off my goal time. Doesn’t get much closer than that.

The run was where things got ugly. I had never been in better running shape, but I didn’t hydrate properly on the bike and this really came back to bite me. I expected to feel great on the run so when I started out feeling bad, I knew something was wrong. Ending up in an ambulance 11 miles into the run capped the whole race off. My first DNF made this run my biggest disappointment.

2007 Races

McNaughton Park 50 Miler 8:49
RSO 5K 17:59—1st place!
Ice Age Trail 50 Miler 8:18
Kettle Moraine 100 Miler 23:19
Racine Half Ironman 5:25
Ironman Wisconsin: DNF
Farmdale Trail 33 miler: 4:59
Naperville Turkey Trot: 17:49
Tecumseh Trail Marathon: 3:21