"Perhaps the genius of ultrarunning is its supreme lack of utility. It makes no sense in a world of space ships and supercomputers to run vast distances on foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently not even the approval of peers. But as poets, apostles and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time, there is more to life than logic and common sense."
- David Blaikie

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Day 3 Jurassic Coast Challenge

Day 3: 5:46, 27.2 miles, 5th place overall for the 3 day challenge!

Overall Results
Pictures

The sun was out today and I got some beautiful pictures. They are truly worth 1000 words each... I'm knackered and should just leave it at that but I'll write a few words until I get to bottom of this lovely Lugger Ale I'm having.

Overall another Epic day. The coastline here is just amazing (when you can see) and pictures can't begin to do it justice. We got off to a later start today than I expected and the weather turned out to be a bit warmer than predicted. I overheated early on and hit a rough spell around mi 7. The 6th & 7th place guys got in front of me around this time, but I kept on the fluids and S! caps and managed to pull out of the death spiral just in time to reel them in. The last 9 miles I had to fly to catch up to those blokes. My Garmin showed 7 min miles for a few miles on a very crowded boardwalk through the town of Swanage. Some strange looks from the locals.

Beautiful views like this all day. I kept thinking, "Sheesus, I've got to run all the way down there?!" I'd rather just take pictures and walk a bit... (which I did).

The elevation was just crazy today. Hardest day of the 3 day challenge. Again, it's not the overall elevation change that's so impressive (check out today's elev profile below)... it's the grade. Oh, and the mud made for some very comical steep ascents and descents! I took many falls and ended up a muddy mess, but so was everyone else and it made for some light moments.


This year's JCC exceeded my expectations again despite the crazy weather. I made some great friends this weekend... including a couple who are now seriously considering Bighorn 100. I am very pleased to come away with 5th place given the level of competition and just the overall number of competitors (we started with somewhere around 130, but the crowd seemed to slim down some by day 3). Definitely my best performance in terms of the percentages.

Alright, my pint is empty and I've got an early flight back to the States. I'm going to be starring at this elevation profile for a few days. I'm feeling soreness in muscles I didn't know I had... fortunately I don't think there's anything of this grade at Bighorn 100.

1 comment:

George Linney (aka Monk) said...

Weez,
What a cool event. You are the man. See you out on the simple paths of Carolina. Monk