One of my most important races for the season this year was the Fire Cracker 50, and the USAC National Marathon Championship. It was important to me, the duration is very challenging, I want to see how far I can push myself in races, and difficultly of this race course is an excellent challenge. Beating my time over last year was also important. After last years race, I was tired and sore, but wasn’t sure if I pushed as hard as I could. This year, I had a goal of getting 4:30hr.
I almost beat me time. I was 6 min off getting my goal, with 4:36:14. Last year I was 4:52:12, so I was 14 minutes faster. I think I could have bet my time, since on the second lap I was starting to have some stomach trouble. I was feeling a bit sick to the stomach, and slowed the pace down for about 20 minutes. Once I started feeling better I picked up the pace.
I ended up in 12th place, 4 better places better then last year. Not far from top 10. I heard that there was 80 people in the Open 40-49 class, and 39 finished. 80 people is a pretty big class.