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RTB leg #2

September 13, 2014 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: around 50?, dark

Comments:
12:30am-1:30am I think I did a very good job refueling after the first leg (and after this leg too). I had been fairly intimidated by this leg's profile on paper. I knew it had nearly 800 feet of rise and about 750 feet of dowhnhill. There would be a 400 foot climb and then a 300ft drop followed by a 300ft climb and a series of downhills after that for the final third of the 9.1 mile leg. I knew I'd already raced 8.6 miles nearly all out 6 hours earlier and that I'd be racing another 8.6 in six hours, so when I hit the first uphill, I relaxed and told myself I could just run the uphills at a strong "training pace." This appears to have been the key to my entire RTB experience. I stayed so relaxed and unfazed by the hills, that I didn't waste any energy fearing them and kept great form going up them. Every time I crested, I was able to re-accelerate knowing there'd be some downhills coming and that I was at peace with easing my effort at the next climb as needed.
I never lost much pace on the uphills, after all and I would gain valuable time on the long downhills (although my feet were throbbing and screaming with every step.) (I don't know what that was all about... I wore my Adidas trainers, for that matter! Couldn't even fall asleep in the next few hours because my feet hurt so badly! Could have really used an ice bath for them.) The 9.1 did feel long, I won't deny it, but I ran it well, talked to myself the whole way, focused on the psych notes from my seniors, the cheering from the young and old Goats (man... what it means to run for a team... even just for a night), and I finished in very high spirits knowing that my cardio was fine even if the legs were beat up and the feet were unhappy. The light cloud cover wasn't blocking great views of stars and the moon, although the northern lights were never seen as hoped. Very pleased with this leg, but, as always, curious as to how I was going to get the 41 year-old legs to move again in the dawn as I could only limp whenever I left the van in the next few hours.