After being stuck 8 weeks in Taiwan waiting for Visa after their wedding, Matt and Vivian were back in US....just right on time for the Topo Trail Marathon. On time yes, but only 2 days before the race with a 24hrs trip and 13hrs jet lag.
Better being out there in the woods than unsuccessfully trying to sleep, so Matt signed up last minute the night before the 2019 Topo Trail Marathon.
As expected, short night and Matt woke up at 3am, plenty of time for breakfast and preparing the bottles and drink for the 42km ahead.
Beautiful sunny day with temperature around 8degC which allowed for short sleeve outfit and not too much worry about hydratation.
At 9am the 50 runners of the full marathon were set free 15min before the half marathon runners and 20min before the 10k group.
Matt and Billy took the lead of the pack, chitchatting getting into the pace on the paved part of the race. First turn left and first (and only) mistake, taking the first trail on the right which turned out to be the end of the loop :P
Back on the road, pushing a bit to take the lead again before hitting the right trail this time half a mile later.
Matt kept a comfortable pace accompanied by Billy and without noticing it they started to create a little gap...they will keep all along the race as no runners will catch them for the next 40k. On the last couple of miles the track was running closed to another part of the race and Matt and Billy could see runners from the 10km race pushing their way on the trail.
Finishing the first of the 4th laps together after 58min and some muddy and sometime overgrown fun trails, Matt slowed down after changing his hand bottle.
The decision was made to keep it easy and not following Billy who took the lead, first as the lack of sleep was really present and second to make sure to finish the race strong and trying to avoid to hit the wall. With all the 500+ runners already on the loop, the trails became more and more slippery and muddy. A bit of stomachache in this lap which was cleared after a quick stop outside the trail :P
Second lap finished and Matt was 2mins behind Billy feeling quite sleepy but with good legs. After grabbing a new bottle and starting a new lap, it was time to get a caffeine pillto shake the sleepiness out and getting ready for the second half of the race. Half an hour later, the caffeine kicked, the legs were still moving good and the stomachache was gone allowing to keep on the energy intake strategy.
Reaching miles 22, it was time for Matt to start pushing to finish on a strong note. Around mile 23 Matt saw Billy right ahead of him giving him motivation to keep pushing an try to catch up.
Few minutes after, Matt passed Billy that went down on the trail around mile 20 and had to slow down his way to the finish.The 2 last miles went good with still some energy left for Matt to create a little gap and finishing the 4th and last lap in 1st position just 3min ahead of Billy.
The race went pretty good, pace and energy intake where spot on and well adapted for the lack of sleep. Brian did a really good job changing the race loop last minute because of the rain and still hit pretty much an exact marathon distance.
A good way to finish the 2019 season which had been a bit rough for the TJ79 US members with injuries and life events keeping them to train and race together as much as they wanted....now it is time to recover and think about 2020. The rest of the year will be a mix of orienteering events and short trail races used as tempo run training.
SEE YOU ALL IN 2020 FOR NEW ADVENTURES!!!!!!
