2/12/11 - Holiday Lake 50k++

This was my 6th running of Holiday Lake. Since my first finish there I've wanted to break the 5 hour mark. Holiday Lake is a 50k++ just north of Appomattox Virginia at the Holiday Lake 4H Center. The course is a loop configuration where you run a clockwise loop and then turnaround and repeat the loop in the counterclockwise directions. Since the most recent course change the loop mileage is right around 16.2 miles.

Here is my Holiday Lake 50k History:

• 2002 was my first year. I started running in August of 2001, ran my first race the Jingle Bell Run 5k in Roanoke, and signed up for my 2nd race; Holiday Lake. The weather and footing for my first race here was perfect and I ran a 5:23.
• The 2nd year was the year of the mud. There was mud everywhere. On the path out the trail and roads were getting messy and by the time we reached the turnaround the paths were 10-20 feet wide from people trying to get "good" footing. I think I ended with a 5:50 something. I don't think I've ever seen so much mud.
• The 3rd year I had the dreaded bowel issues. I think I ran into the woods 4 times to take care of business. Horton gives a best blood award and I thought I was a shoe in. A couple of times I had to dart into the woods I ended up getting cut from briers and locust trees. My blood was overshadowed by a guy that ran the race commando which caused him to rub the end of his junk off. I didn't look but the damage left a visible mark.
• Year 4 I ran an almost perfect race to beat the 5 hour mark but had one wooded pit stop that pushed me over the 5 hour edge. I ended up at 5:04:04.
• Year 5, last year, was the year of the snow. I was in my best running shape to date and should have been able to easily beat 5 hours. I had done a training race of 25k on 1/2 and a 50k on 1/16 which had me ready. When we showed up to Holiday Lake there was 4-8 inches of snow covering the entire course. Footing was poor through the entire course and that made the effort seem 100% harder. Finished in 5:37
• Year 6, I've spent much of the winter trying to run an average of 40 mile weeks and was feeling pretty good. I ran the 1/16/11 Swinging Bridge 35k as preparation and to get in some tough trail miles. I figures I had a best case scenario of 4:30 and worst case of 4:59:59. I was hoping to run the first half of the race at a 7:45-8:00 min/mile pace and then begin to slow on the 2nd half of the course. Everything went according to plan. The return loop to the finish had a couple of spots that seemed to go on forever but I was able to stick with the pace and stay cramp free. I finished in 4:33:16 for 16th place.

I hope to add my training schedule as a weekly post to the blog. I've neglected this format as a way to share how my training is set up. I feel like I've been successful in my training and racing on what I feel is low mileage and have been able to stay injury free. I started as a non runner looking to finish the races I entered, then moved on to wanting to do better than my previous race, and now my focus is on fine tuning my efforts so that I can work on being a top 10 contender.

My next scheduled race will be the 6hrs of Warrior Creek mountain bike race on 4/2/11. This will be my 3rd year racing on a duo team. I've got to get my biking legs under me in the next 6 weeks.