Texas 4000 2018 ride report.
I think this might be the first time I've done the Texas 4000 ride! Maybe. Not sure. Can't remember. I think it used to be elsewhere, but this year it was in Lampasas. Karen was out of town doing swimrun with Trista, and CC was in Houston, so I asked Matt to come out with me and do the 50 miler, and he consented. I told Karen I could try to add mileage on at the end or something, but she said instead I'd do the 50 miler and a 4 mile run off the bike. Sounded innocent enough.
The ride was.. mostly good. Much less wind than we had at Real Ale. Fewer hills than at Real Ale, though there were definitely hills (more rollers than the steep or really long hills at RA). But the main difference in the negative direction was the terrible roads for the Texas 4000. There were basically two sections of maybe 5 miles each (maybe) that weren't terrible, demoralizing chipseal, and the rest was just awful. Hard on the hands, hard on the average pace, hard on the motivation. I told Matt those Texas 4000 kids are gonna be riding this thinking "What have I gotten myself into?!" Hopefully they don't have 4000 miles of chipseal.
Otherwise it was pretty good. Great for the first 30 miles. Matt and I rode and chatted and had fun. Then Matt's back seized up, and between that and his hands being in pain from not being able to ever be aero because of his back, and those roads being terrible, he really suffered. I stayed with him for a while, but then pulled ahead of him at some point. I knew he was suffering, and probably didn't really want company to witness that, plus I still had to run off the bike (and it was HOT and sunny already), so I just rode in by myself.
I transitioned relatively quickly to the run, and then took off on the route I'd mapped out ahead of time. 2 miles out, 2 miles back. No problem.
The first mile was not really a problem. A little stop and start, because it went through historic downtown Lampasas, and I was crossing some biggish cross streets. Then a turn onto 6th street, where I'd spend the rest of the Out. Things went okay until I crossed the highway, and then there was a giant hill in front of me. I considered turning down a side street, but I KNEW this route would get me my distance, and I didn't know where the other streets went, so up I went. About halfway. Then I stopped my watch and stepped into someone's shaded yard and just tried to breathe. I considered turning around and going back. I felt BAD. The heat was just terrible, and trying to run up a steep hill in it was making me light headed. And I really had to pee. But finally I decided I'd try to do the whole 4 miles. So I started my watch again, but walked. At least I was making forward progress.
Well, I'll try not to draw this out TOO much. There were two more hills after that, each worse than the last. I really should have turned on the elevation feature when I mapped it out. I had good intentions, but I ended up walking part of each hill. Each direction, since I had to run back up those hills on the way back (it wasn't uphill on the way out, downhill back, each hill was a hump). Two more times during the run (so 3 total) I came to a complete stop in a yard where there was shade, and just talked myself through it. I was MISERABLE. And had to pee so bad I almost wet myself at one point.
When I finally got done with the hilly part and got back downtown, I decided to stop at a portapotty on the sidewalk. I knew it would be gross and hot, but I thought maybe it would make me more comfortable. I ran up, stopped my watch, set down my bottle on the ground, walked in, closed the door, tried to lock the door, and it was so hot, so smelly, so terrible, that I kinda wobbled a little as I tried to even get the door locked. I knew this was a bad idea, so I stepped back out, picked up my bottle, and started running again. (I now realize even after I got back to the car, I never peed; not until we got back to Austin.)
There were no more hills, but I was just dead at this point. I considered walking on this flat part. I did make my final full stop during this flat section. Just to be in the shade for a second. And to tell myself that I was proud of myself for doing the full 4. And that I was almost done. Then I made myself start walking rather than stopping. Just for a few seconds before I started running again. I wanted to be able to keep walking if I'm ever in a race feeling so miserable, not just stop. Walking at least makes forward progress.
I finally made it back to the car, and had to run slightly past to get to 4 (you bet your ass I was getting my full 4 after all that). Then I walked to the shade in the yard we were parked in front of, and just sat there breathing while Matt came out to make sure I was okay. And told me it was 97 degrees.
So yeah. I did my 50+4 (actually 48+4, but I wasn't willing to circle the neighborhood to get 2 more miles). And it was terrible. And I'm proud of myself.
My run splits were 9:06, 10:05, 10:40, 9:57. So yeah. Started out okay. Then slowly fell apart. Then sorta pulled it back together. I hope to never need to use the memory of that experience during a race with similar weather.
The ride was.. mostly good. Much less wind than we had at Real Ale. Fewer hills than at Real Ale, though there were definitely hills (more rollers than the steep or really long hills at RA). But the main difference in the negative direction was the terrible roads for the Texas 4000. There were basically two sections of maybe 5 miles each (maybe) that weren't terrible, demoralizing chipseal, and the rest was just awful. Hard on the hands, hard on the average pace, hard on the motivation. I told Matt those Texas 4000 kids are gonna be riding this thinking "What have I gotten myself into?!" Hopefully they don't have 4000 miles of chipseal.
Otherwise it was pretty good. Great for the first 30 miles. Matt and I rode and chatted and had fun. Then Matt's back seized up, and between that and his hands being in pain from not being able to ever be aero because of his back, and those roads being terrible, he really suffered. I stayed with him for a while, but then pulled ahead of him at some point. I knew he was suffering, and probably didn't really want company to witness that, plus I still had to run off the bike (and it was HOT and sunny already), so I just rode in by myself.
I transitioned relatively quickly to the run, and then took off on the route I'd mapped out ahead of time. 2 miles out, 2 miles back. No problem.
The first mile was not really a problem. A little stop and start, because it went through historic downtown Lampasas, and I was crossing some biggish cross streets. Then a turn onto 6th street, where I'd spend the rest of the Out. Things went okay until I crossed the highway, and then there was a giant hill in front of me. I considered turning down a side street, but I KNEW this route would get me my distance, and I didn't know where the other streets went, so up I went. About halfway. Then I stopped my watch and stepped into someone's shaded yard and just tried to breathe. I considered turning around and going back. I felt BAD. The heat was just terrible, and trying to run up a steep hill in it was making me light headed. And I really had to pee. But finally I decided I'd try to do the whole 4 miles. So I started my watch again, but walked. At least I was making forward progress.
Well, I'll try not to draw this out TOO much. There were two more hills after that, each worse than the last. I really should have turned on the elevation feature when I mapped it out. I had good intentions, but I ended up walking part of each hill. Each direction, since I had to run back up those hills on the way back (it wasn't uphill on the way out, downhill back, each hill was a hump). Two more times during the run (so 3 total) I came to a complete stop in a yard where there was shade, and just talked myself through it. I was MISERABLE. And had to pee so bad I almost wet myself at one point.
When I finally got done with the hilly part and got back downtown, I decided to stop at a portapotty on the sidewalk. I knew it would be gross and hot, but I thought maybe it would make me more comfortable. I ran up, stopped my watch, set down my bottle on the ground, walked in, closed the door, tried to lock the door, and it was so hot, so smelly, so terrible, that I kinda wobbled a little as I tried to even get the door locked. I knew this was a bad idea, so I stepped back out, picked up my bottle, and started running again. (I now realize even after I got back to the car, I never peed; not until we got back to Austin.)
There were no more hills, but I was just dead at this point. I considered walking on this flat part. I did make my final full stop during this flat section. Just to be in the shade for a second. And to tell myself that I was proud of myself for doing the full 4. And that I was almost done. Then I made myself start walking rather than stopping. Just for a few seconds before I started running again. I wanted to be able to keep walking if I'm ever in a race feeling so miserable, not just stop. Walking at least makes forward progress.
I finally made it back to the car, and had to run slightly past to get to 4 (you bet your ass I was getting my full 4 after all that). Then I walked to the shade in the yard we were parked in front of, and just sat there breathing while Matt came out to make sure I was okay. And told me it was 97 degrees.
So yeah. I did my 50+4 (actually 48+4, but I wasn't willing to circle the neighborhood to get 2 more miles). And it was terrible. And I'm proud of myself.
My run splits were 9:06, 10:05, 10:40, 9:57. So yeah. Started out okay. Then slowly fell apart. Then sorta pulled it back together. I hope to never need to use the memory of that experience during a race with similar weather.