As with all the Tejas Trails Capt’n Karl’s races this year, I have 2 goals for the Capt’n Karl’s Colorado Bend 60k: 1. Finish in under 8 hours; 2. Beat my time last year. The Colorado Bend race turned out to be more challenging than expected. I missed both goals; I finished in 08:48:34 (37 seconds slower than last year). I finished 10th overall, 8th Male, and 3rd in my division.
It was a hard race and super technical. The temperature was 100 degrees when we started and it was seriously affecting me. I was sweating so much, that an hour before the race another racer asked if I had already been running. While I was doing my best to hydrate and stay cool before the race, I ended up feeling overheated within a mile of starting. Which resulted in a slower pace right off the bat and feeling crummy throughout the entire race.
In the end, I hit just about every aid station to refill by bladder with water and ice. I also had a hard time eating gels/blocks. By mile 15, I could only eat 2 of my 3 blocks without gagging. After that, every time I tried to eat one I had to spit it out because it was making me gag. Hopefully I will be able to eat blocks again, if not I will need to find a new way to fuel during my races.