The Leona Divide 50 (mile or km) is a great event with great support and on a great course. I highly recommend you get out there and experience it yourself. Keira and her staff/volunteers put on a top notch event.
This year there was the usual fun run (i did not make this due to work constraints and traffic) and pasta dinner the Friday before the race. Then they had a showing of Unbreakable outside after the pasta dinner. I did not stay for this as i have seen the movie before and was more interested in sleep. It is a great movie, well done and very fun to watch. If you get a chance, i also recommend you check it out.
onto the race: my full intent from the beginning was to have a strong run with no achilles issues, time wasn't of any concern. I woke up finished a shake which i'd mixed up the day before and had been sipping on throughout the night. Then drove from the cottonwood campground to the race start. I grabbed some more food (a couple muffins and some slices of some chocolate desert type bread and some orange juice). then went back and sat in my car until just before race start.
i lined up a little outside and towards the back. The course climbs about 800' over the first 3 miles, i managed to keep a steady effort up and ran the entire stretch with no issues. i could feel the high mileage i'd accumulated earlier this week and early in the run. fortunately this started to fade around 9 miles. There are some rollers and 2 aid stations through mile 16, then the real climbing and tests would start. i was cruising along comfortably through this section. I had some tenderness and could feel stress on my right achilles on off camber sections which forced a bit more pronation (ankle rolling inward) on my right ankle/foot then i like. It wasn't bad so i kept going nice and steady. In my usual poor planning i managed to neglect food and water for most of the first 8 miles, and only took in 7 - 10 sips from my nathan pack of water, a cup at the aid station and 1 or 2 gels through the 1st 16 miles.
At the 2nd aid station i grabbed several gels and some solid food . . . A COOKIE, actually several cookies and a banana and washed them down with a couple cups of water. The next 10.5 miles climb around 2500'. It was this section that i struggled with. I was still going strong through mile 20 before i ran into my first tough spot. Coming out of the 3rd aid station (~mile 20) things slowed a bit, despite the fact that it was flat for most of the way between aid stations 3 and 4, i couldn't muster much of a run and actually walked far more then i hoped i would. Time to start getting calories in, every 15 minutes at least 100 calories until things start to turn around or my stomach starts to protest.
Another 4 miles of climbing and then the course drops down to the 5th aid station. I continued to pass through the aid stations quickly (i don't think i spent more then a minute at any of the aid stations except the 5th and also the 8th), trying to remember to grab food and water. At the beginning of the descent to the 5th aid station I was caught by another runner and decided to hold onto his pace. we chatted a bit into the aid station (almost 3 miles with close to 1000' of down). we mused at how fun it was going to be to turn around and come back up. This interaction was the start of breaking out of my low spot, it's always nice to get a breath of fresh air around mile 29, even if you still have 21 miles left.
At the aid station i grabbed a bunch of fruit (strawberries, pineapple, mango, and some others which seem to have slipped my mind, some m&m's and of course A COOKIE). Refilled my nathan pack and started running back up the climb. i managed to run almost the entire thing, with 2 brief walks on the way up. some minor achilles tenderness but nothing compared to runs past, so i kept plugging along. At the top of the climb, i was happy to get into some shaded area and back on singletrack. I started to feel good and was moving along nicely (also helped by the fact that the course trends down through this section). I did have to stop for 1 stop through here to take "perform my necessaries". i hopped back on the trail and was running pretty well. no issues to note, continued putting calories in, though it was starting to become a conscious effort to take the gels and chomps.
The next 2 aid stations went fairly well, then i got to the section where i get to drop down to the road crossing, usually a favorite past time of mine, though today it would prove to be a slow descent. At the aid station i grabbed several orange slices and some banana pieces drank several cups of water and refilled my nathan pack 1 more time. getting ready for the long climb up which is mostly exposed. I managed to shuffle out of the aid station and did a fair bit of shuffling up the early stages of the climb. Somewhere around 1/2 way up the shuffling was reduced to walking. this was around mile 43 and would be my final low point.
i shuffled into the final aid station, sat down in a chair drank a couple cups of water sucked down a couple gels and started off on the final 3/4 mile climb up before the almost 3 mile drop to the finish line. the climb went by slowly. I attempted to shuffle up a couple times, but was greeted with a bit more tenderness in my right achilles then i cared for so opted to walk. at the top, i started shuffling again and proceeded to slowly increase my effort and let gravity take me into the finish.
I managed to muster a decent pace on the final descent and was able to cruise down and across the finish feeling descent. I grabbed a water and sat down in the shade briefly. Just need to be able to put together another 50 and i'm good for june.
I'd hoped my achilles would have held up better during the run, but have no complaints. I was able to run 8 miles the following day and come back with a pretty good showing on monday where i felt strong, no achilles issues.
I will continue along the current path and have another check in just over 1 week out in eastern san diego county. looking forward to it.
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