I’m only giving a report on this one because I gave you one from the practice last week. It isn’t the most exciting report… in fact, it will probably read a heck of a lot like the one from last Monday.
Kinda like the run. It felt incredibly familiar.
I’ll start off by saying that we started from the ocean side and ran inland 7ish miles before we turned around and went back to the ocean.
I hadn’t looked at the time the run started, but I thought we would get out around 8:00. (Did I mention we kind of did this one on the fly?) So I set my basal rate for that start time.
We started at 9:00. Ooops.
I was very glad to know, this time, just what I had ahead of me. I mean that I was glad to know when it came to my eating and insulin… not that my mind was happy to take my body up and down those hills again! I knew my first three miles had only climbs… and stairs. The stairs were very steep and tall; I wished I was taller so my hips wouldn’t hurt with the angles.
Oh well. Not the first time I’ve wished I were taller!
I think I started in the 170s with my BG. I can’t recall, since I was purposefully NOT thinking about what it was going to be like out on the trail and that meant I kind of tuned out some stuff. I know we got to the second aid station before I realized I should probably eat something, and check. I was 105 at that point, which should tell you (again!) how steep that climb was.
I had 25 grams of gu and kept on trekking. My next check was 108, maybe a half hour after the first stop. I ate something at the rest of the aid stops along the course: a few pretzels, some gummy bears, more pretzels, etc. I didn’t want to grab too much, as I don’t generally eat anything other than gu when I run. So I played it safe. I think I was 150 by the end of the four hours we were out there.
(Speaking of playing it safe, my friend didn’t have her trail-running shoes on and I swear she stubbed a toe on every third rock and nearly tripped three hundred times. I was so scared she was going to fly off the trail and head down the side of the mountain. I am SO GLAD she remained vertical most of the time, and didn’t have any lasting injuries.)
We were fairly smart about the whole thing, this time around. We decided we weren’t going to try to run up any of the 4,500 feet of trails. We hiked/walked uphill and ran the few feet of flat and few hundred feet of downhills.
We beat last week’s time by 15 minutes.
The part I liked the best, and my friend agreed, was that although we didn’t go very fast (530 people finished before we did… and about 30 people finished after we crossed the line) we still did it, with smiles on our faces. Some people run that thing all the time since they live nearby, and some train and plan for months to complete the course.
We found out about it about three weeks before we ran it on Saturday.
And that is what we are so happy about: we knew we could do it. We never doubted ourselves. I had the knowledge about my running and my insulin and food requirements and I just took care of what needed taking care of. We kept going the whole time, we worked hard, and we had fun out there together.
Why else would anyone want to do the Double Dipsea?
Hi! Your post reminded me of what I was thinking this morning in the pool: People often only see and appreciate your effort on the day of the event but for the participant, the most important part, the part we are all glad for, are the thousands and thousands of miles of training before the big day.
So many small details get worked out so that the whole of training might be seen as one bumbling mess of effort . . . if it weren’t for the fact that you’re paying attention, taking notes, learning.
That experience is so important for preparation and confidence. So, thanks for making it educational AND fun, Amy!