Well this was actually the course my coach wanted me to make my 100K debut on in 2011.They usually have an open race here each year, but this was the course that would serve as the course for the Worlds. It's supposed to be one of the flattest and fastest courses in the world and lots of records have been set there. The team DROVE a mini van from Daugavpils to the start. They figured it would not only save $, but then they could avoid the hassle of not being able to bring this and that on the plane. Last yr, security confiscated honey from one of our women that had brough it to have during the race! Honestly, we think he just wanted to help himself to some damn good quality honey! So the team left early Wednesday morning from Daugavpils. The plan was to pick me up in Dusseldorf early Thursday morning. Back in the spring, our manager and team captain Andris found me a dirt cheap flight on Air Berlin for about 200$ RT from Moscow. Ok - it was a total redeye w/ a 6:10am departure (means I had to leave the house at 3:15 to be to the airport by 4), but it was worth it. I knew I would never hold up on the long van ride after taking the overnight train from Moscow to Latvia. So I arrived in Dusseldorf on time about 8AM only to get a message that the team was stuck in traffic and it would be another 3 hours.....OK how to kill time.....I walked arond then got some munchies. The baked goods and sandwiches I would find along the way going and coming from Germany were yummy. So off I was for the fresh sandwiches on fresh bread and some wicked good fresh cookies. In Russia I am SOOOOO deprived of chocolate chip cookies! I was looking for good carbs and found them. After waiting not THREE but SIX hours,the team finally arrived. The problem really was traffic and too many slow 2 lane roads as it would take us another FIVE hours to get to Winschoten. The total trip from Daugavpils was 36 hours! No, I would have never held up.
It was cold and rainy too when I got in. We arrived in the evening and the organizers got u set for housing and dinner. Housing was nice this year. The women had a 2 bedroom townhouse and the men did also. I opted for the single bedroom w/ the less comfy triple bunk bed- I just slept on the bottom and the other 2 ladies took the room w/ the 2 twin beds. We even had a kitchen and a fridge! We were all tired from the road and went to bed.
On Friday I slept in then went to breakfast. After breakfast, I stopped back at the townhouse because I had to use the loo. Oh dear, for some reason, I had tummy issues until early afternoon that day. I had no idea what the culprit food was but there was definitely one. I went out for an easy 30 min run around noon ish and things felt good but I noticed it was getting quite warm and HUMID. I came back soaked from the humidity.
By evening time, things had cooled off to 18C for the opening ceremony and it was nice out but you could still tell it was humid.
Meghan Arbogast- very inspiring woman-much RESPECT to her and may she continue kicking ASS in her future races!
Race Day- I got up and had breakfast then we packed up the van and were off. The teams from Belarus, Russia,Latvia and Ukraine all decided to wear black ribbons in honor of the entire Russian hockey team that died in a plane crash just outside Yaroslavl on Sept. 7th during takeoff en route to play in Belarus. This was a terribly sad incident. We needed to get our tables set by the time they closed the course at 9AM. At 8:30 we arrived to set our table at the 5kmidway point on the 10K loop but the course was already closed!!!! Not good. We did make it to our maiin table near the start finish where we parked the van and set the table. I would be able to get my Vitargo only once on the loop and have to rely on getting water along the course. Cute little kids with sponges and water were everywhere so this helped. Gels and Vespa I left on the table. I took a couple gels with me just in case as well as my salts. If i get into trouble I cannot wait several K before I get salt especially on a hot day.
We were off at 10AM and it was already warm....too warm for me to wear my compression tights I prefer for the 100 to protect my quads. I went out easyeasyeasy not to push anything. it was very humid(I would come to later find out close to 100% humidity). I went out at 5.05-8/km pace and would park it there until past 60K. Each 10k loop came out in 51min and change.I was not pushing anything hard. I was also making sure to drink plenty in the first half as that is so important later on. Just past 50-I made a quick stop at the table to get more gels and felt a little light headed. After getting fluids I felt better and kept on same 5 min and change pace. After about 65, my legs were still good but the sun was out in full force and it was humid. I started getting really kight headed so I made an effort to grab more cold wet sponges along the way in addition to upping things from 1 salt per hour to two. Luckily, my tummy was ok and still taking calories. Just before 70K, happened to see a thermometer in the SHADE....it said 28C...well that explains why I am starting to feel really crummy. I knew it was boiling but had no idea it was THAT HOT! I later saw a South African guy passed out in front of me on the grass. Heck as early on as 30K people were slowing down and I was passing though deliberately NOT picking up the pace by any means given the conditions. I really didn't start getting iky lactate buildup in my legs til closer to 80k but I was really feeling the heat. At 80 I pitted for that quick 2 min massage to fix my quads and that helped.
By 85 though I was really getting sick from the heat. I caught up to an Italian woman also not having fun with the heat. We ran together til about 94 then she dropped back:-(. It's easier to run with company. She did finish though. At 92 I knew I was in trouble- I had GOOSEBUMPS all over my body! Yeah that's a classic sign of heatstroke if anything else is. I picked up the last loop a little just really wanting to get the job done. I finished in 9:34 -losing close to an HOUR in the 2nd half from the heat sickness.Damn- that's so not like me. I typically run even and or sometimes neg split in races much like I did in the 50 back in July. I t was still 26 when I finished early evening too. I would have to call this one EPIC FAIL of grand proportions. I was 25th in the Euros 42nd in the Worlds. When I finished, Andris told me the other 2 women had dropped out ine at 30 the other at 60. Nadezhda dropped out at 60-she was very capable of going for a WR in the 75-79 category, but it just wasn't her day. I really hoped she would do it. Only 2 of out men finished but Gunars had a major PR despite the heat and ran 8:08! I got reports that Ellie Greenwood dropped out in tears at 90-that's really sad as she won last yr and is one of the leading women in the world. Although only 7 men went sub 7, Marina Bychkova won in 7:20 and beat most of the MEN! Meghan Arborgast continues to be very inspiring finishing in a new WR time for 50+in 7:51! Major RESPECT there!
at90k
Yes, I've been asked to do this again in Italy next April, but I'm not sure about it because Italy in APRIL =HOT. PLus, I don't want to be down half the season recovering. I'll have to see just how long it takes me to recover this time. Last year I took a good 6 weeks to feel human again and get some speed moving. I know like they say, sh!t happens and there are things you can't control like the weather, but the bottom line is that I put all my eggs into one basket this year and sacrificed performances at all other distances this yr save for the 50k in order to prepare for this race. Along the way, by late summer I knew I was in damn good marathon shape-probably good enough to take a crack at my PR. Now, I will never know and being that I turn 37 at the end of the year, what really are my chances of getting into that kind of shape again? I even started getting visits from a long lost friend named Speed over the summer during workouts then Speed made his presence known a week before the 100 in the form of that 18.49 5Ksplit in the 6K. Damn I thought, I'm in shape to crack a high 38 in the 10 now but I won't because there is nowhere to do it and after the 100 I'll be toast. Speed hasn't paid me visits like he has this summer in several years and I'd figured he'd long forgotten me. My endurance is good and my body has always done well with a combination of high volume complemented by shorter intervals so as not to neglect that nice friend called Speed. For example, I perform better given say 12x1000m intervals or 16x800m as opposed to repeat 5k intervals. The shorter stuff is no less in volume but the pace is faster so I can't get monotonusly slow as I sometimes can w/ looong intervals. For some reason this is what my body proocesses and this is the kind of thing I did years ago in Alaska and even during my heyday when I had PRs in everything in the mile to the 50k. I'd go long then a few days later throw in shorter faster intervals to keep speed from bottoming out. Sometimes they were on hills sometimes on the track. I don;t know but my current marathon PR happened doing just that. High volume, long runs,but complemented by high quality sometimes darn intense interval sessions. Need to figure out something for next year though because this will go down as the year I got in damn good shape and have zip to show for it because I put all my eggs into one basket.
It was cold and rainy too when I got in. We arrived in the evening and the organizers got u set for housing and dinner. Housing was nice this year. The women had a 2 bedroom townhouse and the men did also. I opted for the single bedroom w/ the less comfy triple bunk bed- I just slept on the bottom and the other 2 ladies took the room w/ the 2 twin beds. We even had a kitchen and a fridge! We were all tired from the road and went to bed.
On Friday I slept in then went to breakfast. After breakfast, I stopped back at the townhouse because I had to use the loo. Oh dear, for some reason, I had tummy issues until early afternoon that day. I had no idea what the culprit food was but there was definitely one. I went out for an easy 30 min run around noon ish and things felt good but I noticed it was getting quite warm and HUMID. I came back soaked from the humidity.
By evening time, things had cooled off to 18C for the opening ceremony and it was nice out but you could still tell it was humid.
Race Day- I got up and had breakfast then we packed up the van and were off. The teams from Belarus, Russia,Latvia and Ukraine all decided to wear black ribbons in honor of the entire Russian hockey team that died in a plane crash just outside Yaroslavl on Sept. 7th during takeoff en route to play in Belarus. This was a terribly sad incident. We needed to get our tables set by the time they closed the course at 9AM. At 8:30 we arrived to set our table at the 5kmidway point on the 10K loop but the course was already closed!!!! Not good. We did make it to our maiin table near the start finish where we parked the van and set the table. I would be able to get my Vitargo only once on the loop and have to rely on getting water along the course. Cute little kids with sponges and water were everywhere so this helped. Gels and Vespa I left on the table. I took a couple gels with me just in case as well as my salts. If i get into trouble I cannot wait several K before I get salt especially on a hot day.
We were off at 10AM and it was already warm....too warm for me to wear my compression tights I prefer for the 100 to protect my quads. I went out easyeasyeasy not to push anything. it was very humid(I would come to later find out close to 100% humidity). I went out at 5.05-8/km pace and would park it there until past 60K. Each 10k loop came out in 51min and change.I was not pushing anything hard. I was also making sure to drink plenty in the first half as that is so important later on. Just past 50-I made a quick stop at the table to get more gels and felt a little light headed. After getting fluids I felt better and kept on same 5 min and change pace. After about 65, my legs were still good but the sun was out in full force and it was humid. I started getting really kight headed so I made an effort to grab more cold wet sponges along the way in addition to upping things from 1 salt per hour to two. Luckily, my tummy was ok and still taking calories. Just before 70K, happened to see a thermometer in the SHADE....it said 28C...well that explains why I am starting to feel really crummy. I knew it was boiling but had no idea it was THAT HOT! I later saw a South African guy passed out in front of me on the grass. Heck as early on as 30K people were slowing down and I was passing though deliberately NOT picking up the pace by any means given the conditions. I really didn't start getting iky lactate buildup in my legs til closer to 80k but I was really feeling the heat. At 80 I pitted for that quick 2 min massage to fix my quads and that helped.
By 85 though I was really getting sick from the heat. I caught up to an Italian woman also not having fun with the heat. We ran together til about 94 then she dropped back:-(. It's easier to run with company. She did finish though. At 92 I knew I was in trouble- I had GOOSEBUMPS all over my body! Yeah that's a classic sign of heatstroke if anything else is. I picked up the last loop a little just really wanting to get the job done. I finished in 9:34 -losing close to an HOUR in the 2nd half from the heat sickness.Damn- that's so not like me. I typically run even and or sometimes neg split in races much like I did in the 50 back in July. I t was still 26 when I finished early evening too. I would have to call this one EPIC FAIL of grand proportions. I was 25th in the Euros 42nd in the Worlds. When I finished, Andris told me the other 2 women had dropped out ine at 30 the other at 60. Nadezhda dropped out at 60-she was very capable of going for a WR in the 75-79 category, but it just wasn't her day. I really hoped she would do it. Only 2 of out men finished but Gunars had a major PR despite the heat and ran 8:08! I got reports that Ellie Greenwood dropped out in tears at 90-that's really sad as she won last yr and is one of the leading women in the world. Although only 7 men went sub 7, Marina Bychkova won in 7:20 and beat most of the MEN! Meghan Arborgast continues to be very inspiring finishing in a new WR time for 50+in 7:51! Major RESPECT there!
at90k
Yes, I've been asked to do this again in Italy next April, but I'm not sure about it because Italy in APRIL =HOT. PLus, I don't want to be down half the season recovering. I'll have to see just how long it takes me to recover this time. Last year I took a good 6 weeks to feel human again and get some speed moving. I know like they say, sh!t happens and there are things you can't control like the weather, but the bottom line is that I put all my eggs into one basket this year and sacrificed performances at all other distances this yr save for the 50k in order to prepare for this race. Along the way, by late summer I knew I was in damn good marathon shape-probably good enough to take a crack at my PR. Now, I will never know and being that I turn 37 at the end of the year, what really are my chances of getting into that kind of shape again? I even started getting visits from a long lost friend named Speed over the summer during workouts then Speed made his presence known a week before the 100 in the form of that 18.49 5Ksplit in the 6K. Damn I thought, I'm in shape to crack a high 38 in the 10 now but I won't because there is nowhere to do it and after the 100 I'll be toast. Speed hasn't paid me visits like he has this summer in several years and I'd figured he'd long forgotten me. My endurance is good and my body has always done well with a combination of high volume complemented by shorter intervals so as not to neglect that nice friend called Speed. For example, I perform better given say 12x1000m intervals or 16x800m as opposed to repeat 5k intervals. The shorter stuff is no less in volume but the pace is faster so I can't get monotonusly slow as I sometimes can w/ looong intervals. For some reason this is what my body proocesses and this is the kind of thing I did years ago in Alaska and even during my heyday when I had PRs in everything in the mile to the 50k. I'd go long then a few days later throw in shorter faster intervals to keep speed from bottoming out. Sometimes they were on hills sometimes on the track. I don;t know but my current marathon PR happened doing just that. High volume, long runs,but complemented by high quality sometimes darn intense interval sessions. Need to figure out something for next year though because this will go down as the year I got in damn good shape and have zip to show for it because I put all my eggs into one basket.
