Haven't done a trail run in about two months. Longest recent run was a half marathon distance done twice in the past weeks.
Prefuel - beet juice and an hammer gel anti fatigue. A croissant, banana muffins and chocolate croissant for breakfast from 7 eleven.
Strategy - 200 calories an hour. Keep heart rate around 160 till near end, then ignore heart rate and race till end.
What actually happened
Course went uphill right away which lead to a spike in heart rate. I had to walk for most of the uphill. I ate two gu gels the first hour keeping up with my calorie intake but forgot to eat anything the second hour. I ate a potato and half with a salt pill to make up for it in the third hour. The potato made me feel full at first but I felt super powered ten minutes later. Rest of the race I was pretty active in keeping calories up with gels and potatoes. It started raining and the course got muddy. It made for slippery conditions, reminding me of whiteface mountain trail race back in summer. Eventually the muddy conditions ended as I approached a different canyon.
At mile 13 my legs felt tired and I noticed that the heart rate monitor that was originally telling me to slow down was now telling me to speed up. Miles 13 to 15.5 were mentally tough but I got a boost from other runners encouragement who were running back from the turnout point. I felt better on the return. At mile 22 I ate a rice ball which was delicious. Eventually around mile 25 I wasn't able to will myself to go faster even though my heart rate was low. I started focusing on my breathing which got me back to work. Around mile 27 I fell into a trance mode where I felt no pain and felt like a warm blanket was on me as I ran hard. The trance broke up around mile 30 when I had to do a stream crossing with the water a few inches above my knees. The rest of the 2 miles to the end were a struggle. Overall pretty happy with my results.
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