Monday, June 06, 2005

Gold River to Tahsis 64K B.C.Canada.

So I did it again, reeled them all in to win for the second time, in a time of 5:51:50.
Very small field this year, 330 tops.
Yikes, a few years back they topped 1200.
4 am Start....
The weather was very good, only about 40 mins. of darkness, Andy and the crew were superb, I handed off my jacket and light to him at the 20K mark, and at the Halfway, he handed me my GO juice.
I was 6/7th by eight o'clock and was keeping a steady pace, (Jackal pace) 5:50ish per K, not that I was checking or anything.
Passed 4th. place when he dissapeared into the "potty".( that happens quite a lot with the hungry runners!)
I was running pretty lean as I normally do on anything under 80K. Food is nice the day before, but not essential for me.
By Head Bay Hill I was told that I was in second place with 20K to go.
I saw the Rev.Kev Ebby on the hill, half way up. He was walking so , rather than yelp, I broke into a walk, cracked a gel and chugged my juice, took a picture of the Three sisters waterfall, looked back, then started my bid for first! took it, as Kev took a leg rubbing sit down at checkpoint 9.
He waved me through and the race was mine!
15K to go and at that point I couldn't see anyone behind.
On the last leg I looked back and saw a dot 800 metres back with two K to go, so I kicked it up a notch just to disharted him a little.
Had I not looked back, I might have slowed back and been caught napping.
The moral of the story, don't look back in the short stuff, you might trip! In a tactical race you need to know where everyone is and you don't want them to see you walking!
1st.,2nd.,and third came in within 10 minutes, a close finish for an Ultramarathon.