food, clothing, shelter and exercise

The Hustle: Monday, July 29, 2019

 

Latigo, the climb,

Is a cyclist’s heaven

Until you’re on it.



The Harding Hustle 50k is not a destination race. It’s a race you either do as a training run for an upcoming ultra with heat and long climbs, or because you don’t know any better. In my case it was because of ego and on Saturday my ego again came out with mixed results.



Right off, I came in third overall in a time of 5:10. All things considered, a pretty satisfactory performance. It was however 10 minutes behind my goal time of breaking 5 hours. Also, the dude who came in second was 51 and broke my previous age group record (50-60) by 10 minutes. So my goal of having the best times between the ages of 50-70 were dashed half an hour before I finished the race.



I did break the previous best of a 60-70 year old by over an hour, which is something. I also defeated an old age group rival, Eric Clifton, who’s beat me in all of our previous encounters, by over an hour and fifteen minutes. Which is another monkey off my back. And it further suggests that the age group record at the Bull Dog 50k is something that should be conceivable if I train right and keep my head out the clouds.



I’d also like to think that I can still conceive of being competitive not just in my age group but as an overall competitor. I’m not fixated on winning as I realize there are many talented trail runners out there and there’s always a  strong likelihood of at least a few of them showing up at any race I’ve signed up for, but I’m hoping it’s not just wishful thinking that under the right circumstances I could sneak in an overall win again.



Soon I’ll have to stop basking in the limelight I’ve turned on myself and do a brief analysis of the smarts and dumbs I did at the Hustle. It was a challenge and an accomplishment. Any time I can keep my head in the game for over 5 hours is a win in my book.