2010 Rucky Chucky 50k March 20 Foresthill, CA

I finished 4th overall at the Rucky Chucky 50k in Foresthill, CA. My time was 5 hrs 1 min. This is a pretty tough race. It started off not so good for me. I was up near the front and after about a mile or so my right shoe started to come untied, even though I had double knotted it, and my heart rate monitor strap was a little loose slipping down. I stopped, tightened my monitor strap, and double knotted my shoe again. I took off and about half a mile later my shoe came untied again! This time I did a triple knot and tucked the lace underneath the lower part of the laces. My laces still felt a little crusty and inflexible from Way Too Cool 50k the Saturday before. At this point many people had already passed me and the leaders were a good 3-4 minutes in front of me so I knew I would have to make up some ground.

I took off again and it seemed like I was still feeling the effects of the race (WTC 50k) the weekend before as I felt a little drained of energy. I felt like that for the first 8 miles, but then after that I kicked into another gear and started to feel a lot better. At this point I started catching more people and moving back up in ranks. When we got down to the turn around at the river I was in 6th place. The climb out of the canyon was pretty tough. I caught the fifth place guy with about 8 miles left and passed him. With three miles left I turned a corner to walk up a very steep hill and I saw the 4th place guy. By this point we were both hurting and the usual thought of "why the heck am I doing this" was running through my mind. I laugh cause when we saw each other we both knew it was going to be a race to the end, but I felt like we were moving as slow as snails trying to climb out the rest of the canyon. My plan was to just keep him in sight so I could out kick him the last 3/4 mile once we got back to the pavement in town. I kept him in sight all the way to the last mile until I turned a corner and he wasn't there anymore. I was very confused. Either he took a wrong turn somewhere or he really picked up the pace. I finished strong and did not see him at the finish. Five minutes passed and he finally finished. He took a wrong turn. This race is stayed basic again for my nutrition needs. I ran with two Camelbak handheld water bottles, and ate my Clif Shot Bloks and Shot Gels, and an occasional salt tab.

I am happy with my 4th overall finish and 1st age group (if they would have had a 20-29 division). It was a warm day, and a great training run with some very good hills. The next couple of weeks I will fit in at least 30 miles on the Saturday mornings to get ready for the American River 50 Mile run on April 10, 2010!