7 laps at antelope backyard ultra

Javelina 2025

🥇Napa Lapa 3 hour

Sunset & Cider 🥈

12th OA and 3rd AG at Berkeley 35k

OK, race report time.

Chip time: 6:32 and change (haven't checked yet)

Goal for the race was to keep it easy. Half succeeded at that - more to come 😅

Start was at 7:30. First couple miles I managed to keep easy. I remembered from 2 years ago that those early miles felt hard, and felt similarly today.

Those early miles are what I call "douche" grade. Flat enough to run, steep enough to get your HR shooting up. 

First aid station at mile 4. Had some water, banana and off I went.

Then came a nice downhill, let it slide, and the biggest hill of the day was next. Tried keeping it easy, but that was hard. The next downhill was nice, and hit 10 miles in under 2 hours, and then the 11 mile aid station.

Filled up both my soft flasks, which were empty by this point.

This is where the race started being less fun. I felt great, absolutely great, but more douche grade, and the sun came out in full force. Needed to watch my HR, had to take more walking breaks than I wanted - but tried to keep it easy.

There was about 7 miles to the next aid station. I ran out of "planned" fluids, and glad I carried an extra 500ml.

Filled up again on electrolytes and filled my backup with water. 

From here to next aid station it was 5 miles. I still felt great, but couldn't run with a low enough HR. Started using my water flask to hose myself down. Water on the neck and head. It helped cool me down a bit.

Here is where the race really started to become dull for me. My legs wanted to run faster, my head told the legs to keep it easy. But at the same time, that same head made continuous math excersizes about finish times. 6:00 seemed possible early on, but not anymore. "6:30 maybe? No, keep it easy. But dude, 6:30 would be great and you kept it easy all day. No, we're keeping it easy."

Anyway, hit another aid station at around mile 23. They were almost out of electrolytes, but I managed to get 1 flask and another with water

I knew that this next section was gonna be the hardest. Again, debate in the head. "It's only 8 more miles, push. No, need to be fresh for Tahoe. Dude. You got this, 8 miles and you can get 6:30. Nah man, I wanna just do easy."

Well, anyway, easy wasn't possible anymore due to the heat. It was really hot in the sun. And then came the hill I was dreading since the start. Climbing on loose sand. I remembered it from 2 years ago. And it hurt as much as I remembered. 
Stopped here for a minute to give another runner a bit of my spare water. And then went off, debating how hard to go.

Final aid station came, filled up on fluids and just went. 6:30 seemed possible, and one 3.5 miles. Come on legs, you wanted to go all day, now go.

And they couldn't go hard enough. Pushed a bit, but they couldn't climb while running after 45k. Downhill were great. I could really send it and it seemed possible. But to much uphill left, and couldn't get the 6:30.

So I did what the head wanted to do and slowed down. Easy trot, 1.5km to go and 6:30 wasn't achievable. And then, all of a sudden with 500m to go, I see some sort of angel walking to the finish. That angel, was Kelly Peeters!!! 
I couldn't believe it. Perfect finish, even better than 6:30! We just ran it in together, in 6:32. 

After the finish, I felt I pushed too hard in the final 5k. Shouldn't have done that. I also learnt that for Tahoe, I'll have to run even slower. I felt like I could do another 10k today. But what about elevation? What about the climbing? Glad I did this run, because it taught me I need to learn to run even slower. And not listen to the legs.

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Nills Franssens

Golden state 50k

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