Capon Valley 50k 2013

Yesterday was the Capon Valley 50k. As Amanda and I were running we were trying to figure out how many years we've run this race. I didn't have the answer yesterday but thanks to ultrasignup, I have that info today. This was my ninth year running it, the first year I ran it was in 2004 with Megan and Josh. I dnf'ed in 2009, missed it entirely in 2010 and have now completed the race eight times. Of the ultras I've run, this is the one I've run the most often and I think it's because of the beautiful terrain and the fact that the volunteers and organizers of this race our outstanding. I expect to be back again!

Now about the race. Carolyn and I headed out the door at 4am to drive out for the 7am start. We picked up Amanda along the way. We made it by 6am in plenty of time to check in and get ourselves organized. In the week before the race it had rained a lot and we were expecting more during the race. As the race began there were heavy clouds overhead and mist and fog in the air. It felt really humid, temps were in the 60s.

It didn't take me long to realize my legs felt like lead and that today was going to be a struggle for me. We made it to the first AS at the Goleman barn and it was not long after that that Rupa and Carolyn were putting distance on Amanda and me. I knew I couldn't pick up the pace and keep up with those guys. Rupa had recently knocked off 5 minutes from her PR 10k time and was having a great year so far. Carolyn had run her first ultra at Greenway in March and had also been having a great training and racing year. Amanda had already knocked out her 3:36 at Boston and had done six 20 milers leading up to Boston so she could have taken off with those guys but decided to stay with me and get more time on her feet for Highlands Sky.

Amanda and I had a great day of catching up after not seeing much of each other for a couple months. We enjoyed the slog up the mountain from AS3 to AS4 as well as much shoe sucking, slippery mud along various parts of the course. It was not raining at the start but it did rain for about 2 hours in the first half of the race. It felt good to me and I was glad it kept temps down. Sometime after noon the skies started to clear, temps started to climb and the gnats came out. That sucked and I was wishing for a pop-up storm. We didn't get one but it did get a little overcast again and the bugs weren't as bad. Sometime around mile 25 or so the inside of my leg started to spasm on downhills which really sucked. I had to slowly hobble down the hills which meant I was losing time where I shouldn't be. We were able to pick it up in other places though and I was only 2 minutes behind last year's time as we hit the last AS at the Goleman barn at about mile 28.

But then I lost some serious time because we had two great downhills that I couldn't take advantage of as well as one really long climb. AND they changed the last segment of the course from last year which added about 0.5 to 0.75 to that last segment and the total race distance from last year. From AS6 to the finish last year it took me 32:40, this year it took 48:48. Finish time 2012 was 7:23:38, this year was 7:41:56. That is way slow and I was disappointed that it took so long! I'll get over it though and today I'm just happy I finished on a day my legs didn't feel great!

Congrats to Rupa and Carolyn for their kick-butt time of 7:02! You guys did awesome out there!

Hope we're all back next year for Capon Valley 2014!!  Here are a few pictures from the day.