Background

I typically don’t do many races, but signed up for the Coastal Classic - my first race in a year. There were some things that worked well, and others that could have been improved. This isn’t meant to be a recount of the event, and instead notes for next time.

The Course and Result

It was a new course this year, so roughly the same distance, but more elevation; around 31km, with 1000m of elevation gain. I’ve done this route quite a few times, so was pretty familiar with the entire course. Great atmosphere, and a feeling of community.

What worked well

There were quite a few things that seemed to work well:

I was never out of breath or feeling like I couldn’t hold a conversation, even when going up some of the stairs. Garmin reported my Vo2Max as 53 when doing the race, so I guess that was sufficient.
My legs were never really particularly tired. Towards the end I supposed they were starting to get a little sore, but I never pondered slowing down because my legs were sore.
Nutrition was solid. I brought around 225g of carbs in my Gu refillable tube, plus around 750ml of Poweraid, but double strength.
My nutrition / water stops worked well. Garmin reported a difference of only 2 minutes between my moving time and elapsed time, which I supposed means I spent around 30 seconds at each stop. That seems about right.
The week leading up the race I slept generally very well, and two nights before I had an 89 Sleep Score. My Training Readiness was well on the way to being optimal.
Downhill sections and in particular the technical bits I was constantly passing people. The single track downhill I must have passed 25-50 people. I’m not actually certain why everyone was going so slowly; maybe the knew more than me!
I tried to take a lot of the pressure off for the race by not setting a goal time, and instead just aiming to have an average HR of 160 or higher.
Foot preparation: trimmed my toenails quite close, as usual.

What didn’t work so well

Similar to my previous two marathons, my stress levels climbed significantly the day before the race. While I think this time was better, and the increase could have been due to stress at work, it might also have been due to the race. It might might have also have been due to changing my diet: for both marathons and this race I tried to carb load, and I don’t think that is working well for me. Even outside of taper I notice that when I eat high carb meals my stress levels go off, and I specifically avoid eating carbs prior to bed because I think they make me feel anxious. This makes me sound like I’m low-carb, but I’m certainly not. Timing is everything?
The night before the race I had half a bowl of noodles, which I think was a mistake. I shouldn’t have. Because…
While I went to bed at 9:30am, and fell asleep promptly, at around 12:30am some noise woke me up, and I never got back to sleep. I suppose the stress or anxiety from the race and some things at work were too much, and I just couldn’t get back to sleep.
I felt decent at the start of the race - going up the hills it was a confidence booster to see others desperately out of breath, and I was doing fine.
Overall my equipment worked well, except for my shoes. The foam is great, and the tread was great, however, I think they were just 1/2 a size too small. I had a feeling this might be the case from just some shakeout runs, and even pre-taped my right ankle. Unfortunately, I needed to tape a little lower, and needed to tape my left ankle. And tape my left pinky toe. And probably elsewhere. Oh, and my toenails on each big toe were aching, which I haven’t felt since I had a pair of Superiors that were a little too small.
And my heart was uncooperative. My average HR for the race was 163bpm, but there were times in the beginning where my HR was surprisingly high for the speed I was going. Despite having a decent resting heart rate that week, two nights before and the night before it went up significantly.

Focus for next time

Although I do not have any races in mind, I’m sure I’ll do one at some point, so here

I desperately need to get my HR under control, yet I suspect that just means an increased amount of zone 2 / aerobic runs. It will hopefully be easier if I lived somewhere a bit flatter.
Experiment with other shoes. I’d like something with a wider toe box, and a decent foam, and I suppose something that actually fits me correctly!
I can sense that if this was a longer race I might not have the muscular endurance to make it, so I’d need to train that, too.
Potentially do more races, or race like situations, so my stress levels don’t increase.
Change my carb load technique, or potentially find better sources that don’t spike my stress levels the day before. In fact, I don’t think I’m satisfied with my tapering approach whatsoever. I typically feel pretty good around 3-7 days earlier, but a bit lethargic the day of the race.

Overall I’m proud of the challenges I overcame, even if disappointed in the result. Hopefully by tweaking a few things I can do better next time!