50K race report

The John Evans National 50K racewalk gets its name from the late John Evans. Here's his obituary, from the racewalking yahoo group:

John Evans died Wednesday (June 1, 2005) in Titusville, Florida at the age of
85. John established Houston's race walking community, the oldest continuous race
walking program in the southern United States, in 1975 with the first of over
100 meets he would direct. A national-class race walker before serving in the
Army in World War II, John didn't return to competition until he began distance
running in Houston in the late 1960's. Upon the urging of other local runners,
he began conducting race walk events and giving free instruction to anyone
interested. John himself set numerous national age records before retiring from
competition in the 1990's. He served ten years as local committee chair for race
walking in the Amateur Athletic Union and the subsequent governing body, The
Athletics Congress.

Race morning dawned partly cloudy, warm and humid at about 60F (15C). It was a bit foggy here and there on the drive to the park where the race was held. I was privileged to have my friend Maryann (that I'd only known on Facebook up until now) meet me at the airport Friday and also drive me to and from the race and everywhere else I needed to go on Saturday (notably, dinner!). She was amazing, keeping me calm with her lively personality and her infectious enthusiasm for the race.

It was still dark when we arrived at the race site at 6:30 am. I set out my nutrition on the designated table: 6 gels, zipfizz, water, and small bottles to drink zipfizz, water, and gatorade (supplied by the race) out of. I find it tricky to drink out of cups and the bottles are better. What a luxury to have a loop course where I don't have to carry my own bottles, and where there are incredible volunteers (Conrad & Karen from Portland were wonderful - Karen is a 50K National Champion from 2009, so she totally gets it!) to help you with your aid.

After I set out my nutrition, I warmed up. Yeah, I don't usually do that before a marathon, but this was a judged walk and my coach said a 500m-1km warm-up was a good idea to get the neuromuscular system firing on all cylinders. You certainly do NOT want to get a red card right out of the gate in a 50k race! I did a short 4-minute warm-up at a 6:17/km pace and felt that was enough. I was as ready as I was going to be. After one last pre-race pit stop (no lines! how nice!), it was time to get going.

The race started a little late (10 min?) as they were setting out the timing mat, etc. There were 6 of us doing the 50K. Men: Omar Nash from Ohio and Bruce (?last name?) from Houston. Women: me, Katie Grimes (Portland, OR), Darlene Backlund (Palm Springs, CA) and Sherry Watts (London, Ontario, Canada). There was also a 5K race (at 8 am) with quite a few walkers, including some young guys, and a 20K race (at 9 am) with a good number of walkers as well. But at the start the course was quiet, with just the footsteps of the 6 of us.

The gun went off, and Omar surged to the front (he wanted a sub-5hr race), with Katie, Bruce, and I right behind. Katie and I walked together for almost 20K, when she pulled in front of me a bit, as her watch insistently beeped every lap letting her know she was slightly behind her goal pace. I'm not sure what lap time she had it set for; probably about 7:22-7:25 per lap? For my part, I wanted to quickly settle in to a 7:29-7:30/lap pace (6:20/km) and hold that until the real race started at 35k. My coach says a 50K race starts at 35K, and he's definitely right about that one. Until then, you just try to walk smart (i.e. do NOT go out too fast!) and conserve as much energy as possible.

It was certainly nice to have company at the start, though Katie and I didn't chat too much to save energy. We did talk a little, chatting about Portland-to-Coast since we're on the same mixed masters (men & women over age 40) team for the race in August this year. We also commented about other stuff, like the cop sitting in his car on the course who was smoking (!) and wafting the carcinogens our way every lap. It was a closed loop and they could keep the traffic out at the other end, so I'm not sure why he was parked there to begin with?

I had expected that Katie would walk faster than me at the start, as that's what she usually does. It was good to have company, but it was also a bit awkward for settling into my pace, as the road was not super wide and I wanted to cut the tangents and didn't want to spend energy to pass her unnecessarily. For the most part, she was ahead of me in the beginning, though I did lead for a few laps. Still, it was hard to get settled in, and our pace was a little irregular, though by 15-20K we did settle in a bit more.

Around 20K, Katie moved ahead and I was enjoying my pace and comfortable with my 7:30 laps so I let her go. I was still feeling quite good at 20K, which was a relief, as I knew then that the early pace (slightly faster than what I had planned, though pretty close) had been all right. At 25K there was a little excitement, as I wondered if I'd hit American record time for W40-44; the race director was awesome and had the requisite 3 watches on us for all the 5K splits at 25K onward (except 45K, which is not a record distance). However, I was about a minute off the record, which was fine with me as I can get it some other time when I'm not racing to 50K! The 30K and 40K records are considerably faster than the 25K record, so then I was only shooting for the 50K record of 5:30:35, set in 1988 by Jeannie Bocci (who was ranked by the Ohio Racewalker as 3rd in the country at the 10K distance in her prime, in 1981).

By 30K I was feeling tired but not too bad. I figured I could keep the pace for a while longer. At this point, Katie was as much as 25-30 sec in front of me (I would time from where she was until I got to that point), but with 20K to go that is not much of a cushion so I wasn't too worried. I figured I'd wait for her to tire and pass her when I got a chance later in the race. Meanwhile, I focused on maintaining my pace and keeping even splits as much as I could.

At 35K, Katie still had a good lead on me, and everyone's legs were surely tiring. Mine were, but I had plenty to keep my splits at 7:30 or below, and knew there was another gear when I needed it. Every time we passed the aid stations and the race announcer (A.C. Jaime, a great guy!), he cheered us both on, and kept telling me not to let Katie go. I kind of chuckled inwardly, as I didn't mind her having a small lead at this point. Only 15K to go now!

With 10K to go, I knew it would soon be time to make a move if I was going to. I wanted to wait until I was sure I would have enough for a convincing pass and to finish the race strong enough to hold Katie off if possible, so I held on for a few more km. I reached 42.2km (the marathon distance) somewhere around 4:27, and I was pretty happy with that for the flat course with little shade and a hot day. I have neglected to mention the weather again, but it was partly sunny and warming up fast; by race end it was sunny and 75F. Each lap at the end, Conrad would hand me a cup full of ice-cold water and tell me to pour it over my head. The bracing cold felt amazing and somehow kept me cool enough to keep the pace. It was great!

Right about the time I got to 42km I felt it was time to put on the gas. I sped up, doing a 7:14 lap followed by a 7:19 lap, passing Katie as convincingly as I could. I got two cautions (but not red cards) from two different judges for lifting at this point! I heard her footsteps close behind for a while, then they faded a bit, and then mysteriously I couldn't hear them at all. The park loop was such that I could see across to where she was, and after I pulled off a 7:29 lap I could see that she was about half a loop (600m) behind me. I wondered what had happened (found out later she'd had to stop for the bathroom) but knew that with just 4.3 laps left I had a good shot at winning the race now. I could not keep the pace any more and slowed a bit, but held on for dear life with my HR soaring into the mid-160s by race end. Those last 4 laps were agonizingly difficult at 7:35, 7:39, 7:44, and 7:41. I gritted my teeth and was SO determined to hold on; you can see it in the pictures here. My sister-in-law showed up near race end and took a bunch of great photos, and Maryann also took all the wonderful early photos with my camera. Thanks to both of them for the amazing shots!

At the very end my legs were so tired that I was really worried about holding my form, and though I was tempted slightly to do the last bit fast, I didn't want to risk getting disqualified at this point! And I was so tired that I just wanted to be done...so I just held on, and finished the race in 5:16:20, setting a new American record. I actually was sobbing with joy at the finish for accomplishing my goal. I held on to a very nice guy named Bob Cella (spelling?) to keep from falling over as I walked it off and cheered Katie in to the finish.

Post-race there was some seriously good bbq, which I ate about 45 min afterward when I was finally hungry. I also got stung on the finger by a bee while just sitting there talking on the phone w/my husband; I'm somewhat sensitive to bee stings so a kind EMT gave me some Benadryl, and it was just fine. I didn't swell up too much, thankfully.

The awards were later, after Darlene and Sherry finished, and the plaque is amazing - it's beautiful and big - see the pictures.

Garmin connect data here.