Toby Guillette

So if you happened to read my last blog post, Orange Curtain 50K Preview, you would know that I approached the race as a “tune-up,” and the plan was to practice maintaining a conservative pace from start to finish blah, blah, blah… I lied.

I took a risk this weekend in the OC50K and ran sub 8-minute miles to start the 31-mile race. I’m not sure what came over me or what I was thinking. Maybe I was caught up in the energy from toeing the line with running greats like Akos Konya, Eric Clifton and Guillermo Medina. Or perhaps I actually thought I was going to be faster in the third marathon plus distance event I’ve raced in 28 days.

In the spirit of pushing my limits, I threw the hammer down as a test to see how far I could last. Since my pace varied from the fast start and tapered off to a slow finish, my average race pace of 8:37 was actually a little faster than my goal pace of 8:40. This translated to a 4:27 finish; good for 7th place overall and 2nd in my age group.

This is more than an hour and 15 minutes faster than my previous personal record for the distance, and I’m excited to have set this benchmark. I’m even more motivated knowing that I still have so much to learn.

John W. Holt Jr. said it best in his book, Celebrate Your Mistakes:

"If you're not making mistakes, you're not taking risks, and that means you're not going anywhere. The key is to make errors faster than the competition, so you have more chances to learn and win."

The next SoCal Ultra Series race on my calendar is the Leona Divide 50 Mile Run in late April. This means that in March, my focus will shift to increasing my weekly mileage and incorporate more trail running in an effort to simulate the rugged course. I have a couple fun trips planned next month too, so be sure to check back soon.

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