White Rock Classic 50K Race Report
Distance: 31.66 miles
Time: 5:16:07
Weather: 35 at the base of the mountain at the start, ~28 at the top of the mountain, 40 at the base at the finish, sporadically windy near the top
White Rock Mountain Lookout
Wow. What a tough run. I knew this was going to be a hilly race, but then I looked at the elevation chart:
White Rock Classic 50K Elevation Profile
Needless to say, this scared me a little bit. I did a 50K last July that I thought was hilly, but the hills in this one were even steeper. And while there weren't a lot of rolling little hills, there were long consistent hills, 2 miles or longer.
My plan going into the race was to power walk the steeper sections of the hills, jog the not-so-steep sections, ad hit the downhills hard. More or less, this worked well. It didn't get me the kind of time I wanted, but I was happy with it and my average was right at 10:00 pace, which is respectable enough for me.
I picked up Curt at 6:00 this morning, as he was going to do the 25K. We made the drive up uneventfully and waited for the start. The race started off fine, but with a long uphill. We kept it just over 11:00 pace, and then enjoyed some downhills. The next uphill started after mile 7, and it was just as tough, maybe steeper. The last uphill was to the top of White Rock Mountain (see pic above), where we turned around. I was running alone about the last 20 miles. I hit a rough patch about 22 miles, and again at 25 miles, which were the last two ascents. I felt like I was losing so much time, but really, I was doing exactly what I had planned to do. Those long continuous ascents really drained me. I felt much better on the downhills, and keeping it easy on the uphills allowed me to push the pace still on all the downs, even at the end of the race.
I practiced my 100-mile fueling plan of alternating gummies and a Clif bar, and that worked great. I didn't dreak enough water on the way out, but caught up on the way back.
And the best part is that I finished feeling fine, with the last three miles under 7:30 pace. I'll take it!
This was a great race, and one I'd recommend if you like running hills. But, be prepared for long ups and downs.