Arc Thoughts

Well the Arc of Attrition is in the past now but I still look back at my notes to see what could’ve been better. No big mistakes really. A few things in hindsight I could’ve done better. 

I should’ve gone out a bit slower, that could’ve helped out later in the race, but you never know. Common theme in all these races really. It’s easy to get wound up in the excitement! 

I need to trust myself and be more confident in my skills. I end up running with someone usually because it is way more fun than being alone and it’s beneficial for navigation purposes. During the Arc I ran the night with a guy, and although really nice company, I feel I was held back a bit. He took longer than I liked at checkpoints and I felt like I may have been able to run a bit faster without him. You never know though. 

My watch died at 78 miles. Why? Because I had the navigation function on for the entire time. I should’ve saved it until later in the race. Looking back the route finding wasn’t that bad and I was around people for much of the first 1/3 of the race. No need to use the nav function. Easy to say now I guess considering I’ve ran the course. Before there were a lot of course nav concerns thrown around. 

I got cold at night. If you’re cold put more clothes on. It’s simple. It’s unlikely you’re going to run faster just to warm up. This one bothered me. Very stupid mistake. I had crew with tons of extra stuff, I carried extra stuff, I just didn’t use any of it! 

My knee issue at the end. I’m trying to figure out what and how this happened. It’s not a mental thing, ie I’m not just tired and sore, it was an actually injury. The last two or three miles I had an intense pain on the medial side of my right knee. Likely caused from power hiking and steep stairs. It’s likely hip instability referring to the knee. Not sure what I needed, maybe more steep down hill running and power hiking are likely a remedy, things I do infrequently and would both help with prevention. This is the ultimate fear, an injury that stops your race. 

So overall minor things. Of course when you’re excited or exhausted you’ll make mistakes but it always helps me to look back, write them down, and improve in future events. Or in a future Arc of Attrition, yes, I signed up for it in 2023! I didn’t want it to fill and regret not entering! 

I’m about a week or so out from officially beginning training for UTMB. I guess more on that soon.