The North Face Endurance Challenge

One of my professional conferences is always the second week of December in San Francisco. Conveniently, the North Face Endurance Challenge Trail races in San Francisco are held the weekend just before that.  I figured that since I was already heading out there, I might as well add one more race to my 2013 season.

I signed up for the marathon (the longest distance still open when I registered).  As has become my habit lately, I never really looked at the elevation profile.  Luckily, my coach did, and in the weeks leading up to the race, Meghan had me doing several long hill repeats.  The week before the race, I was feeling unmotivated to race - ice, snow, and strong winds had made some of my long runs feel less-than-inspiring, and I was just generally feeling tired.  Ross suggested that I just run the race, and not focus on racing the race.  That seemed like a decent alternative and thinking about that as an option helped me feel a bit more excited as I added extra running clothes to my suitcase.

The morning of the race, I ended up on one of the first shuttle-buses to the start.  Although I managed to stay fairly warm waiting for the start, my feet were numb by the time they lined us up at the starting line.

After a few little ups and downs, we started the first big climb of the day.  Normally on a climb this long and relative steepness, I'd start power-hiking.  However, I was able to run and still keep my heart rate under control.  Was this the benefit of living at 5400' and now racing at sea level?  I think I started feeling my feet about half-way up.  I found myself passing quite a few people, but since they'd started us in two waves, it was hard to tell what my place was.

So much for 'just running'.  I was feeling great and seemed to be near the front of the pack.  The competitor in me took over as I briefly entertained the thought that maybe I could place in my age group?  The first big downhill, I let myself go and really felt the benefit of the hill repeats (with a focus on running down at race pace) that I'd done in the weeks prior to the race.  Some more ups, some more downs, then back to the first hill around mile 9.  I was still feeling great - strong, and just really enjoying running.  I did eventually hit quad death - or close to it.  Should I have hung back a bit on the previous downhills?  But, happily, I was still able to keep up a fairly good pace - though I'll admit that the last 4 miles or so dragged on.

Given our staggered start and the overlap with the other races, I had no clue how I did compared to the others in my race.  However, I still finished happy with how I ran.  I felt like I'd run hard and run well the entire distance.  Since I left shortly after I finished to head out to Cool to visit Meghan; it wasn't until the next day that I saw on the website that I finished 2nd in my age group!  Time of 4:56:19, and 17th out of 84 women.

Other details:  I managed my calories well (eating two big mouthfuls of EFS every 45 minutes and drinking Gu Bru in my back and coke at the aid stations.  Shoes:  Montrail bajadas, though something lighter/more flexible would have been a better choice (maybe even road shoes?).  And as with the last few races, a big thank-you to Coach Meghan for her great advice and encouragement!