Frisco 50k: What's a race morning without a 2 a.m. wake up?

Leading up to the race, I talked with my pacing buddies Andrew and Colin quite a bit about pace goals.  None of us had any ultra experience (unless you count the 26.6 miles I ran at Bass Pro 2016 due to a course mishap), but we are all logical people, though in hindsight I think some of the logic we used may have been incorrect.  I have noticed that I slow down about 15 seconds/mile when I double the distance, e.g., my 10k pace is about 15 seconds/mile faster than my half pace, and my half pace is 15 seconds/mile faster than my marathon pace.  Based on that it seemed that adding 30 seconds/mile to my marathon pace (estimated at 6:15) was reasonable for 50k pace; I was giving 15 seconds/mile for the additional distance ("only" 5 miles more) and 15 seconds/mile for running on gravel instead of road.  Then after Des Linden set the 50k world best with a pace that was about 20 seconds/mile slower than her marathon pace, I felt confident that aiming to average 6:45 pace was the right thing to do, and Andrew and Colin agreed, though we forgot to consider that she was on the road for both.  I should pause here and give both of the guys a lot of kudos for letting me take the lead on things like this and for trusting me, when I didn't really deserve it!

I prepared for the race exactly like I would for a marathon, as far as decreasing mileage and increasing carbs in the days leading up to the event.  Since the race started 35 minutes from my home, the night before the race was spent in my own bed!  I got everything ready the night before, although based on the rainy forecast I was undecided on what to wear while racing.  I set my alarm for 3:30 a.m. in order to eat breakfast 2.5 hours before the 6:00 a.m. start, but I was wide awake with race excitement a few minutes after 2:00 a.m., and ended up getting out of bed at 2:55 a.m.

When your alarm is set for 3:30 &
you're up by 2:55...must be race day!

I ate a bowl of oatmeal with about half a Final Surge mocha gel in it (I'd taken the other half during my race the week before and I really aspire to not waste food!), elevated my legs, got dressed (initially in my Rabbit crop hop), communicated with my running buddies, looked at the weather (90% rain chance throughout the race), did some hip mobility work, and was ready to roll by the time the rest of my family began waking up.  My parents came to visit for the weekend, so there were 5 of us awake at my house by 4:20 a.m.!  We left the house at 4:50 a.m. to drive to the race.

Race day breakfast

I'd decided that my mantra for the first half of the race would be "Fear is a liar" (inspired by this song), and "I'm on fire" was my line for the second half.  I thought about these while riding to the race, but mostly I just felt really happy for the opportunity.  

When we arrived at the race site about 30 minutes before the gun, it felt weird not to run easy to warm up - even before marathons I do a 10 minute jog.  I walked around, peed a couple of times, did leg swings, and did a few light drills and dynamic stretches.  It had stopped raining, so I looked at the weather again and the rain chances during the race had dropped dramatically (20%)!  I then changed my top to the one I'd actually wanted to wear - I hadn't really wanted to wear a crop top, but had selected that earlier in the morning because it was the least material to get wet.

I received last minute hugs and encouragement from my family (except for Albani, who was trying to sleep in the car and kept "shhh"-ing us all).  It was still pretty dark out as we gathered at the starting line, which was very not crowded up front; apparently no one wants the front positions in a 50k or 50 mile start!  Since we were planning to start at around 7:00 pace, it all seemed very relaxed and unintimidating, and being a local race with people I knew, I had zero nerves.

The story continues here...