Having run a few marathons this spring, I thought I
was in good enough shape to tackle a 24-hour track race scheduled for the end
of May outside of Philadelphia, in Sharon Hill.
That reasoning proved to not be exactly accurate but I digress.
The
Dawn to Dusk to Dawn 50K, 12 hour and 24 hour track race was resurrected this
year after a several year hiatus. Previously,
the race was run on the Academy Park High School cinder track…. Fast forward
and the track has been replaced with a rubberized track and that is what we ran
on.
Co-race
directors Bill Schultz and Josh Irvan did a super job of organizing the
event. Due to three events going on
simultaneously, we started the races with over 30 people on the track. I was wondering how congested the track would
become but there wasn’t ever an issue and things ran smoothly.
I
started out the day with high ambitions.
Looking at the 55-59 American age group records, I though a number of
them were within reach if I had a decent race.
When the race began, I ran a little faster than I wanted – about 9:15
minute miles -- since it was cooler and the temperatures were predicted to get
warm. After an hour, I settled into a
9:30 minute mile pace for the next couple hours before dropping down to 9:45s,
etc. Well, not having run in any warm weather
for about six months, I soon started melting under the sunny skies, no shade
and temps in the high 70s. I had a
bandanna with a pouch for ice that went around on my neck and tried to cram ice under
my hat. I pressed on but I was not
loving it!
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| The race is starting to heat up in more ways than one! |
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| Yes, it's still WARM! |
Early
in the race I knew this was not going to be my goal race. By the 6-hour mark, I was already behind the
mile schedule I was aiming for. It is
always tough when you realize you’re not going to have a great day to keep
going. At the 12-hour mark I contemplated
quitting. Since I’ve quit the last few ultras
I’ve run, I willed myself to keep going, even though I was barely running at
that point. Through the night, I mostly
shuffled and walked. The heat of the day
quickly turned to downright cold. Of
course, if I’d been running, it was probably perfect weather! Once I hit the 100 mile mark, with about 1 ½ hours
to go, I called it a day. The race had a
concession hut where I went to warm up and wait for the end of the race.
Congrats
to John Cash, overall winner, and Keith Straw, 2nd place. And thanks to Bill
and Josh for a fantastic event. This is
definitely a race to add to your calendar for 2015. I will be back but promise to be better
trained!!
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| 24-hour finishers |
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| Cool trophies |
