Race Recap - Revel Mt Charleston 2019

In case you missed it, the post covering most of our trip to Vegas can be found here:
http://www.runwhichway.com/2019/05/our-vegas-adventure.html


Revel Mount Charleston - April 27th, 2019



Click Image to visit website

We arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday evening so we would have plenty of time to visit the Expo on Friday.  On our travel day we put on over 30,000 steps between the airport and walking the Strip that evening.  I think this detail is important later.

Friday, April 26th

Even though we went to bed after 2am on Thursday, we got up by 7am on Friday.  This was planned because we wanted to get to bed very early since we had to get up around 1:00 am to be ready to catch our bus to the marathon start. We figured if we didn't get much sleep and got up early enough that getting some sleep the night before the race would be easier.  It was, but in retrospect it probably wasn't a good strategy.

Race Expo - UNLV Cox Pavillion

The Expo for Mt Charleston was a little bigger than the one for Revel Rockies which we did last year.  It was well organized, had several vendors and was held in a very spacious building.  The volunteers working the packet pick-up were helpful, friendly and efficient.

A few things worth noting about the Expo:

• There were quite a few vendors including Aftershokz, doTerra, Sprouts and several places to buy GU, electrolytes and gear.  We bought some salt tablets (since we forgot ours), a few GUs and a hat for me.
• There was an information booth with details about the race and you could get a wrist band for the beer garden after the race in case you didn't want to carry your ID.
• There were photo booths where you could hold up signs for fun pics (we didn't participate in it this year).
• They had a "tattoo station" with temporary tattoos
• The Expo was scheduled from 10:00 am until 8:00 pm which reduced the crowds significantly.
• Sprouts gave out free snacks (bananas and such).  I liked that they did this and I think it would have been a great idea for them to have food trucks on site.

Awesome Swag -

Good swag is fun to get!  We do quite a few events that give little to no swag so when we do a race that has plenty of goodies it makes my heart happy.  I'm not sure why this picture is sideways since I've tried rotating it a couple of times.

The GOODR sunglasses are my favorite swag and since Mitch doesn't care for how they fit I got two pairs.  We got to pick from blue and black frames and I now have both.  Revel is etched small on the lens.  I have to say that the bottle of probiotics is the most unusual thing I've ever got in a swag bag.
Note: The Trail Junkie sticker wasn't part of the swag.  I picked it up at the Nevada trail runners booth.

Course Preview -

After the Expo we drove out to preview the course as is our prerace tradition.  Revel Mt Charleston is a point to point course that starts at the Mt Charleston Lodge and runs downhill on a two-lane road for 21 miles before turning towards the city.  The views are pretty but we didn't get pictures.

When I say "downhill" I really mean it.  This race has over 5,000 feet of elevation loss.  There are a couple of small up hill sections but they are brief and not significant.  Many people complained about them but I didn't think the hills were nearly as rough as the one big hill in the middle of Revel Rockies.

Click Image to visit Revel Mt Charleston website

While we were out on the preview drive, we took a little side trip up another hill.  There are some great trails in the area so we went for a short excursion on the Robber's Roost Trail.  We didn't go far since we'd already put too many miles on our legs. 

We had dinner at the Draught House where I had beef stroganoff that was delightful.  After that we went back to our hotel and hit the sack by before 8:00 pm.

Saturday, April 27th - Marathon Day

We paid an extra $40 each to ride the bus from the Strip to the start line.  Our recollection from Revel Rockies was that the long ride on a school bus was uncomfortable and they had really nice buses for people that bought the premium ride.  It was convenient to drive a few blocks down the Strip to the hotel where the bus picked up rather than across town where the free buses were.  While they were more comfortable than a school bus, they weren't as "fancy" as the ones we saw in Denver last year. 

I was pretty irritated that we spent the money.  1.  They didn't even bother to check receipts to make sure riders had paid for the ticket.   2.  They used the same bus service for the free ride and we would have had the same kind of bus either way.  It was almost a complete waste of money.

At the marathon start, Mt Charleston Lodge was kind enough to open their dining room so runners could stay warm and sold coffee and hot chocolate.  We pulled up a small spot on the floor and waiting for the start.  Unfortunately, they love dropping runners off an hour or more before the start, which I'm sure is so everyone gets a chance to use the porta-potties.  Mitch recognized John Fegyveresi - a Barkley Marathons finisher from 2012 (we've seen the documentary a few times).  He wasn't 100% sure so we didn't go say hello, but later looked him up to verify that he was in the race results.

My Run -

To get a Boston Qualifier I would have needed to run 8:22 minutes/mile for the full duration of the race.  I knew going in that I wasn't going to get it.  I just wasn't running that fast in my training.  But I had some secondary goals I was shooting for - a 4 hour marathon (9:07 min/mile) seemed attainable.

Immediately I had trouble with getting my legs to turn over with any speed even going downhill though keeping a pace around 8:45 was sustainable and I did so comfortably as soon as I got over the first hill which came within the first half mile.  The temps were in the 50's - comfortable running weather.  That was short lived.  The temps were in the low 80's by the time I was done.  I really don't mind heat, but it does slow your pace especially when you don't get time to train in it.

Aid stations were set up every two miles.  They all had water and PowerAde and the latter stations also had GUs and/or fruit.  Two of the aid stations were out of cups by the time I got to them and I was about mid-pack. The volunteers did a good job improvising and I was thankful I decided to wear my hydration vest.

I hit the proverbial wall at mile 12 - SO. EARLY.  I was still maintaining a 10'ish minute/mile pace and hoped to get past the bonk in time to still pull off a 4 hour time but things only got worse.  My pace got progressively slower, I had to take more walk breaks and it hurt to lift my legs to run.  By my final mile my pace was in the 14s and I finished in 4:41:38.  It was slower than Revel Rockies last year and no where near any of my goals.  I don't think the impact of this hit me until days later.  I was very tired but thrilled to be done and excited to have another marathon in the books so at least I enjoyed the afterglow a bit (even though I don't look like it in this picture).

The finish line at this race was hands-down better than Rockies and they even kept all of the vendors and booths up through the end of the race.  Rockies was starting to dismantle well before the last runners came in and I think that is bad business when you advertise a certain course time.

The food at the finish was pizza and by the time I was there, it wasn't worth eating.  It is the same thing they served at Rockies and you would think that they would figure out by now that pizza doesn't keep well.  They also had snow cones for sale and the beer garden served a variety of Lagunitas.  I wasn't walking well so I relaxed in the shade of their tent and enjoy my beer before heading to get my drop bag where I kept the sunscreen.

Then I headed over to the finish line and watched Mitch run in.  He did awesome and it was dang hot by the end of his day.

Overall, Revel Mt Charleston was a great event.  Well organized for the most part (not counting lack of cups at 2 aid stations) and the course was one of my favorites as far as road marathons go.  The Revel races are put on by a company called Brooksee, LLC and their races are designed to be fast.  Mt Charleston is currently their fastest course and I agree that the elevation loss was a perfect grade to have been right for me to get a great time had my day gone better.

I know several "runner errors" that sabotaged my efforts for this run -

• I did too many miles of my training through the winter on my treadmill which was old and the paces weren't accurate.  It also meant I wasn't getting nearly enough downhill miles to prepare for the beating my body would take on this course.
• My sleep strategy leading up to race day was poorly executed.
• I put on roughly 50K steps (that's almost a marathon) in the two days preceding the race so my legs were tired going in.

Unavoidable elements that also influenced my day include the hot temperatures and airplane travel that was required to get there as well as work stress & travel that disrupted my training schedule in the final weeks.

I've never been as beat up physically after a marathon as I was after this one.  The first couple of days after I had to be very cautious while walking because my quad would just give out causing my leg to buckle at random times.  It took about 5 days before I could move around without pain.

As some time has passed and I've had time to digest the unfolding of my goal race for the year it has been a hard reality to come to terms with.  I trained for this one event for 32 weeks.  I followed a plan specific to helping me hit the paces I needed for a Boston Qualifier and though toward the end I felt my speed was still lacking, I knew I was closer to getting there.  I was faithful to the plan with some exceptions due to illness and made some modifications for work travel but even if you count those times, I did 26 weeks exactly as prescribed.  I ran 6 days a week and during the peak of training was putting in over 60 miles/week.  I ran in the dark.  I ran in the cold.  I did long miles on a treadmill.  All of it with just this one goal in mind.  For over a half of a year I ran, ate, slept and breathed running with the hopes of getting a time to qualify for Boston and in the end I came up short.  Way short.  I didn't even hit a time that made me feel like it was attainable and I'm having a difficult time being okay with it.

I know I need to go back to the drawing board.  I need to reassess and determine what I can do to improve. There won't be a next time without a back-up plan, that much I know.  I've done 6 months of training and put all my eggs in one basket this season and I don't have a secondary race planned to see if I would do better given different circumstances or a better day.  I'll walk away from all that training empty-handed this year and that's a mistake I won't make again.

So here's to learning from it all and using those lessons in the future.  Now I get to move on to trails and crazy distances in the mountains with my husband.  At least these blog posts will get infinitely more interesting and have prettier pictures.

While I really don't love race pictures and Revel's were no exception, here are a couple from Mt Charleston because you can see the beautiful views that I didn't take the time to get shots of during the race.

Today we are putting our application in for the Bridger Ridge Run lottery.  Wish us luck!

I Missed A Week of Training

I started coming down with a chest cold on Tuesday.  If you've never heard it before, let me reiterate the common rule for running when sick:  Above the neck, run.  Below the neck, rest.

I'm not going to lie.  I've never followed this because I've almost always been in the middle of a streak during cold/flu season.  I would get out and run at least a mile regardless of where the cold had settled in.  Before last year when we bought the treadmill, I usually went outside and ran regardless of temp.  This is the first time I've taken days off for chest congestion because I'm not in a running streak.

I'm beginning to think that I was doing it right all along.  This chest cold has settled in deeper and worse than anything I've had in the last several years.  Maybe getting out and working the lungs helped to work it out.  I'm not sure, but I'm prepared to go back to my old way of thinking.

I didn't run Tuesday through Friday.  That makes for a pretty cranky Angie.  I did get my LBC (Lean Body Challenge for those of you that haven't been following) workouts done every day, though they were done carefully and easy.  I was still sore the next day so I must have got something out of them.  I ran on the treadmill yesterday.  My plan called for 17 miles so I figured I would just get on and see how far I could go. 

We have a new running set up.  Mitch found a killer deal on a 55" smart TV at Sam's Club and since we'd been looking at that same TV when it wasn't on sale he bought it.  This TV now sits on a mock fireplace ledge in front of the treadmill.

I recently discovered TreadmillTV on YouTube and used the Roku on the new TV to stream a trail run in Singapore for my run yesterday.

(Excuse my mess!)   I think I like this set up better than using Zwift, though I could do both at the same time if I want since Zwift is done on the computer (which is set up to my left).  I tend to just watch the numbers on Zwift rather than the world I'm running in.  The TreadmillTV feed has the numbers of the person that's filming which are not relevant to me.  The trail I watched was really pretty and I didn't think about time too much.

Speaking of treadmills, we have been looking at buying a new one.  The one we have now is an older Proform.  I'm not exactly sure how old, but I think ancient.  I'm pretty sure the speed is way off, it gets squeaky, the incline doesn't work right and it doesn't have any cool functions.  It was a steal at $120 when we bought it off the Facebook marketplace, but I really want a new one.

I think we've decided on this one from Bowflex.  It has great reviews, connects with Zwift (or so I've heard).  The two things holding us back right now:  there is quite a bit of show at the back door that leads to where it would go - it comes in one box that weighs 300 pounds so the closer we can get it delivered to its destination the better.  And then we have to put it together, which apparently takes 2 people about 2 hours.  This doesn't sound like fun at all! 

My training has been disrupted by this cold but I'm still working on my Coaching certification.  My coworker found out that I was studying anatomy and was awesome enough to bring me her college text book so I can look up visual references (I learn much better this way).  PS. I love that there is a triathlete on the cover.

My course materials do not include any videos or great visuals.  I started out trying to memorize flashcards that I made but I have a hard time making myself pick them up in the middle of the week, so learning that way was slow.  Then I discovered that there are tons of YouTube videos on any subject, particularly college subjects.  I found some great mini-lectures on the skeletal system and I remember so much more than using the flash cards.

Click the picture for a link to the youtube channel

 



I'm hoping to get back to my full training schedule starting on Tuesday.  I may get on the treadmill and get a couple of miles or so, but today's workout is supposed to be speed which will get my lungs too worked up.  Monday is rest day, but I will get my LBC workout done.

Here's what my week looked like:

Sunday - LBC Legs (drop sets... those are killer) and hill sprints on my treadmill - sort of
Monday - Rest Day
Tuesday - LBC Shoulders which was thankfully short and easy because this is when the cold hit.  I slept almost all day.
Wednesday - LBC Back/Biceps - I made it to work and this might have been the day I felt best all week once the cold settled in.
Thursday - LBC Legs - I cut out a couple of the moves because they were too much cardio so it was short.  I went to work but coughed all day and felt pretty cruddy by the time I got home.  Thankfully Mitch and I had Valentines Day dinner over the weekend before.
Friday - LBC Chest & Triceps - I stayed home from work to spare my coworkers the awful sounds I was making but worked from home.  I had some periods where I felt pretty good and did my workout over my lunch.  Feeling cruddy set back in later.
Saturday - 5 miles on the treadmill.  I thought I might run farther but took a break at 5 miles and when the painful coughing set in I called it a day.

See you Thursday with a throwback race recap.  I'm planning to post about the Beaverhead 55K, which is one of the hardest things I have ever done.  In case you missed the Revel Rockies recap, you can find it here.  Or if you want to spend some time reading my race recap of the firs time I did the Rut 50K, you can check it out here.

What type of learner are you? Do you get more from books, videos, hands on?  I prefer hands on, but that's hard to get with anatomy.

Have you been sick this year? This might be the third time for me this season, which is unusual.  It's been a rough winter!

My Next Big Idea - But He Might Need Convincing

If you've been following my blog for at least the last month, you know that we have a fairly full race calendar for 2019.  Even since the last update Mitch added a small trail run at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park in April.  That brings us to 6 races plus the potential for one more in August if we get picked in the lottery for the Bridger Ridge Run.  In this schedule I have 2 main goals:  get a Boston Qualifier and finish The Rut.  All the rest are just for fun.

What I really want now is to do a 100 miler.

Yeah, pretty much.  I lost it quite a while ago when I decided to sign up for the 2016 Rut 50K as my very first ultra.  The journey from then until now has been full of beautiful adventures, working through fears and many miles of pure joy (and a few miles of pure Hell.... let's just be real).

One might say that I could take the time to build up and do a 50 miler and/or a 100K since my longest ultra to date has been 55K.  But that's not really my style.  I like to just rip the Band-Aid off, I guess.

I've been pondering this idea for quite some time, which means I've been devouring YouTube videos, books and articles.  The hundred miler I would like to do is the Javelina Jundred in Arizona.  100 miles in the desert in October.  Still hot that time of year in Arizona, which is a little bit of a deterrent but what draws me to this race over others that I've researched is the party atmosphere and the minimal elevation gain (compared to anything closer to me).

Aravaipa Running Website - Javelina Jundred (click Image)

Mitch already knows I want to do a hundred miler but yesterday I tossed out the idea that I wanted to do this race... this year.

I might have gotten the side-eye over that idea.

We have a lot of racing this year.  It might make more sense to  wait and do it in 2020.  But that is almost 2 years away.

And in the famous words of Veruca Salt: 

So I might need your help convincing Mitch that 2019 is the year of the 100.  Just pop on over to the RunWhichWay facebook and leave a little comment and help me talk him in to it:
https://www.facebook.com/RunWhichWay/

Just a few highlight arguments for doing it this year:

• I'm already doing lots of miles training for the other races we are doing this year
• We both still have good jobs with adequate paid time off (I can make this one work... really)
• Carpe Diem!  Because you never know what tomorrow will bring 

If you can think of just a few more that might help. :-)

A quick recap of this week's training -

Monday - Rest Day
Tuesday - LBC Legs and 10 treadmill miles
Wednesday - LBC Back/Bis/Abs and 2 icy cold miles in -3 (more like -15 with the windchill)
Thursday - 10 treadmill miles that I broke up in to two runs: 5 in the morning, 5 after work
Friday - LBC Shoulders with Mitch and  15 miles in my neighborhood.  This was supposed to be Saturday but the weather was decent and Saturday was supposed to be sub-zero again.
Saturday - 5 miles with speed intervals on the treadmill.  Mitch ran 10 on the treadmill for his long run and we marked it on the calendar as the day he ran more miles than me.  Go Mitch!!
Sunday - I want to get 5 more miles today but I haven't decided when/where/how I will get that done yet.

Stay tuned... For the next couple of weeks I will put out a "Throw Back Thursday" post that will cover some of the highlight races from last year.

Pulling Out from the Funk

My job in real life is an Account Executive for a health claims administrator - or as my company likes to put it, an integrated healthcare management company.  It's a hard job... aka: stressful job.  Some weeks I'm working on my computer after hours at home and even when my laptop isn't open to the onslaught of emails, I'm probably thinking about a problem I need to tackle at work.

I've heard many runners talk about how running is their therapy.  I do agree with this in that the activity of running or any other exercise gives me a mental break.  I'm pretty good at putting the work out of my mind while I'm running or lifting.  But if I'm honest with myself, I know that a training schedule can add to my stress.  This time of year in particular, workload is heavy and trying to figure out when and how to get in the miles isn't easy.  Especially when I'd rather just go home, plop down on the couch, order a pizza and zone out on Facebook and Netflix.

In the last few weeks, I've been in a terrible funk as a result of the stress.  I've skipped a few training runs in a rebellious moment of weakness, only to feel guilty later when I've passed the ability to get out there and get it done.  It has been a circle difficult to break out of because the more stressed I feel, the less I want to run.  The more often I skip my run, the more stressed I am.  This all came to a big crescendo for me last week on Wednesday.  I found myself walking through the halls at work with my shoulders down and my head low.  I felt weepy, even though I'm not PMS'ing and I felt like a completely empty shell of myself.  I'm usually upbeat and can go with the ebb and flow of an ever-changing work environment with a positive attitude, or at least get through a bad attitude to myself and relatively quickly.

That evening, I decided I needed to fix me.

I called my good friend and asked her to have lunch with me the next day.  I worked with her for several years.  She was my walking buddy at work until she recently left the company.  Those daily walks were so good for my mental health.  Who knew?

As I was settling down for the evening, I poured myself a glass of wine.  But then, I dumped it out and opted for something a little better for me.

Thursday was another emotional day for me, but lunch with my friend helped me find perspective and to start thinking of positive ways to improve my situation.  Thanks, Mary!

On the way home I listened to a podcast I needed to hear.  Isn't it weird how that happens sometimes?

Click the image and look for "Daily Habits to Improve Health and Productivity for 2019" 

I took Chalene's words of advice and put them to work for me the next day.  When my alarm went off at 5:10 am, I got up without snoozing my alarm and got my workout in.  I've made every excuse to not get up in the mornings lately, so this was a step in the right direction!



I made a big decision on Friday too, but I will tell you more about that next time.  Suffice it to say that I recognize that I need to work towards something outside of just race goals and work goals.  I'm really excited.  This one decision has improved my outlook above and beyond anything else I could do for myself.  Stay tuned!  I promise I won't make you wait long to find out.

I'm signed up for the Lean Body Challenge which starts tomorrow.  I need something to motivate me to get to that race weight.  only 14 more weeks until Revel Mt. Charleston!  Last day to sign up is tomorrow, so if you're interested check out this link:  https://www.labrada.com/lbc

I'm back and I'm ready to hit the ground running to meet my goals and explore new things!  I hope you're ready to join me for the journey.

How do you pull yourself out of a running funk?

Who else is participating in a fitness challenge?