American Canyon 25k (February 6, 2016)

American Canyon 25k

February 6, 2016

For the first race of the year, I did the American Canyon 25k.  The race went well and it was nice to get redemption after a DNF I got at the race in 2014.   Two years ago, it rained like crazy.  After slowly trudging through the mud and streams of water all over the trails, I turned around early and called it quits.  That year, it had hardly rained at all that winter so when the rain came, I wasn't used to running in rain.  This year, it rained nearly every weekend in January so I got lots of mud/rain running training.  But, on the day of the race this year, it was a sunny, beautiful day making for a great race!  

This race would be a first of a series of training races leading up to my A race, Canyons 100k, in May.  As a training race, it was a great training run for me.  I finished in 2:58:06 (and 4th in my age group).  I was really happy to have gotten under 3 hours.  I've been starting to feel some of my ol' pre-baby speed and strength starting to come back and definitely felt it during the race.  I felt like all the strength exercises and treadmill running I've been doing the past month was paying off.  I felt really strong out there.  

Three Favorite Moments:

1.  Running down to No Hands Bridge with Jackie and Heather.  We are pretty new friends through Ann's Running Circle so it was nice to get to know them a little better while we ran together.  I really enjoyed their company for the first few miles.

2.  Seeing my husband at the race too.  The past month, we've been doing most of our long runs together (we have a babysitter watch the baby) and that's been a lot of fun.  He did fairly well in this race. And, I had fun seeing him at various spots during the race. He had a few more challenges than me towards the end but he finished well.  And, I'll admit that it's kind of nice to have finished before him. ;-)











3. Hanging out at the finish seeing a number of other friends out at the race.  Even though it was a small race and not too many of the usual suspects were out, it was nice being out in the racing scene again. :)

Three Things I That Went Well:

1.  Paced myself really well.  I ran the first half in about 1:28-1:29.  And, I ran the second half in almost the exact same time.  I was a little surprised I was so even between the two halves.  I felt overall I put a good strong, consistently steady effort throughout the race.  

2.  My uphill running/hiking.  I felt great on all the up hills.  I ran a lot more than I expected to.  I didn't run all the hills but I also didn't just power hike them all either, which is what I was doing for some time.  It was nice to be able to run well on some of the not-too-steep hills. And, on the steeper hills, I felt like I was hiking faster up them than a month or so ago (all those treadmill inclines workouts helped).  The last few miles climbing back to ADO, I was able to really push it up the climb and passed a number of runners.  

3.  I was efficient at the aid stations.  I spent less than a minute overall at the aid stations.  I skipped the first one and hit up the 2nd and 3rd one.  I got it and out really quickly.  In the past, I have lost a lot of time at aid stations.  This time, I used my garmin lap button to time when I got in and out of the aid stations.  I think that was good in keeping me in check and not wasting time at the aid stations.  

Three Things I Need to Do Better:

1.   Running technical downhill.  My downhill running is one of my weaknesses.  I'm getting a little better at the smoother trails but if it's a bit more technical, rocky, I slow down to nearly a crawl.  I sometimes feel like some spots (like the section from Cool down to Highway 49 aid station), I go faster uphill than downhill.   

2.  Need to drink more water/electrolytes. I carried two 20 oz Ultimate Direction bottles of water and I barely drank half of that during the race.  I drank a bit more towards the end realizing I hadn't been drinking too much during the first half.  This didn't end up affecting my performance as I was only running 25k but I think if I had been going longer, it would have been.  After the race, I felt pretty dehydrated the rest of the day.  

3.  Pay attention to the trail.  I rolled my ankle (mildly) on a rock and nearly tripped another time because I was looking back and not looking at the trail.  I've had some bad ankle rolls and falls on the trails in the past so need to remember to pay attention better (especially if I start feeling tired).