Well done Sarah, sounds like a great race with all those positives.
I think the ‘comparison game’ is an interesting one. You may have been nowhere near the standard of the exceptional Lindsay Allison, but I’d bet there are loads of runners out there wishing they could run as far and as fast as Sarah Lavender Smith.
I am a very (very!) average runner but sometimes get people saying they couldn’t run as well as me, at which point I wave at the people 10 times faster than I am while reminding whoever I’m talking to that they are 10 times faster than someone else!
(Ps.. my coach, nutritionist, dietician, etc is me, however I feel when I wake up! This may partly explain the very average runner bit!! 😂)
Great news about that great race! I'm going to start listening to the podcast and will get the book, re: nutrition. Just signed up for a 60km in late July that will most certainly be a challenge--assuming I even make the first cut-off!
Thank you! And good for you for the 60K on the horizon. Chasing cutoffs is stressful, so it's good to mentally prepare to manage that stress and uncertainty. Try not to do "ultra math," which is making calculations mid-race (which often are wrong in our jumbled fatigued brain mid-ultra) and feeling discouraged and deciding to drop out if you calculate your current pace won't make the next aid station cutoff. Keep going no matter what, even if the sweepers are on your tail. I know so many runners who were close to cutoffs mid-race and then revived. It's not over 'til it's over!
Well done Sarah, sounds like a great race with all those positives.
I think the ‘comparison game’ is an interesting one. You may have been nowhere near the standard of the exceptional Lindsay Allison, but I’d bet there are loads of runners out there wishing they could run as far and as fast as Sarah Lavender Smith.
I am a very (very!) average runner but sometimes get people saying they couldn’t run as well as me, at which point I wave at the people 10 times faster than I am while reminding whoever I’m talking to that they are 10 times faster than someone else!
(Ps.. my coach, nutritionist, dietician, etc is me, however I feel when I wake up! This may partly explain the very average runner bit!! 😂)
Good attitude, and you're right, it's all relative!
I hiked in Canyonlands NP last May. No running though. Support team is key. Great info.
Great news about that great race! I'm going to start listening to the podcast and will get the book, re: nutrition. Just signed up for a 60km in late July that will most certainly be a challenge--assuming I even make the first cut-off!
Thank you! And good for you for the 60K on the horizon. Chasing cutoffs is stressful, so it's good to mentally prepare to manage that stress and uncertainty. Try not to do "ultra math," which is making calculations mid-race (which often are wrong in our jumbled fatigued brain mid-ultra) and feeling discouraged and deciding to drop out if you calculate your current pace won't make the next aid station cutoff. Keep going no matter what, even if the sweepers are on your tail. I know so many runners who were close to cutoffs mid-race and then revived. It's not over 'til it's over!