2011 Pineland Farms 50 Miler - Race Report (Part I - My Pineland History)

I have been trying to come up with some clever play on "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" since, clockwise, it was my worst time ever (11:17:59), but the experience was the best.  Before I get to the actual race, I'll give my history at Pineland.  I've run every year it's been held.  The first two years, 2006 and 2007, I ran the 50K.  They didn't have the 50 mile option and I'd never done an ultra before anyway.  Both years I feel I did well, working through ITB pain from 20 and 25 miles respectively with times of 5:55:04 and 5:43:09.

When the 2008 Pineland offered the 50 miler, I eagerly chose that option, but DNFed around mile 28 with IT band pain.  I couldn't wrap my head around enduring that much pain for that long.  I took my number off and pinned it to the bulletin board in the kitchen.  It would not come down until I competed the 50.  I had basically used my same training plan for the 50k (which was nothing more than my old marathon plan but adding 4 miles to the longest run) with some added miles.  I'm not sure I asked or if Emma volunteered, but, at any rate, for the 2009 50, I used Emma's training schedule.  It was a lot different than what I had been doing.  It was still 16 weeks long, but had three build weeks before a back down and it backed up the long run with a 10 or 12 miler instead of an easy 3.  That year I finished in 10:55:52.  Yay!!!!!  I still had ITB issues, but later in the race and I'm pretty sure the new training schedule prepared me better to handle discomfort.

Though I'd told Rick I would be cured of ultra's after completing the 50 (he knew better : ), I felt that the 10 hour mark was within my grasp.  I just needed to be able to run without the ITB acting up or at least showing up later.  I felt that Emma's plan needed no tweaking and stuck with it for the 2010 event.  The training went well.  The race was a disaster in many ways, but I toughed it out and finished in 11:15:08.  I couldn't even be disappointed because I felt too proud of myself for not quitting, but it definitely had me saying "next year".

For my 2011 training, I stuck with the same training schedule, but upped the difficulty of most of the runs.   Bradbury single-track became my main training ground, with runs in our soggy, boggy fields thrown in for good measure.  I felt ready.  I didn't even keep it under wraps that my goal was 10 hours.  OK, I did give a B goal of 10:30 and an "at-least-finish-not-broken" C goal, but I knew I had a 10-hour, 50 mile run in me.