100 miles of Istria Race Report

sutrra

Something about the Training
16 weeks of traininig with 1000 kilometres, and 12.000 m of elevation used in the training.5 times a week,  in some weeks from 55k to 100k weekly base.Always tried to have a 2k of elevation gain in the week but  soemtimesdidnt managed to accomplish that. Was confident that it will be enought for the race, and the planed pace.Also was training some fast walking if sometimes in the race will lose the will to run or the body will not work properly

Something about the Race
100 miles of Istria is my dream to race since i started to run before 3 years, and one year from my first Marathon.
The route that i was running is the Green Route (67k accros the Istria penninsula) a beautifull little gem on the Mediteranian Sea.The race was first 46 k you get all the elevation of 2450m and then, then the rest is on the downhill or the flat parts.In the race is also the Red Route(100 miles) , Blue Route (108k), Green Route (67k) and Yellow Route(41k).
The race is going in some stunning parts , from rocky trails, steep climbs, steep descents,tehnical sections,open vistas, forested mountains also passing few rivers on the trail. And also passing in some old Medieval Castles on top of the hills, where most of the Aid Stations are which are very well set up, the Staff is very friendly and speaks fluently English. So a Good Vibe across all the Route.

Something about the Race itself..
Race started at 8.00 am with a little breaze and good portion of sun. Waas feeling very well ,  passed the first aid station with a good feeling (10,5k +670)and contiunued downhill to the next Aid station at the 15,7k...taked a sip of water and continued to the next aid station where i see that something wasnt alright...after passing the next hill wich was a long one on the downhill started to feel that my shoes was to tight and the tongu on the shoes is making my ankles hurt so the downhill section was very painfull because i needed to brake all the time and it wasnt helping that there is
10 more kilometres and 600 elevation to gain and lose same.on this time my pace was on a average 7 minutes per km, wich was one minute faster that i was planing to run, and my calorie intake was very low because i didnt eat nothing( the stuff that i had was all melted because the sun (training in Ireland at 5 celsius and with Snow, and run to 25 celsius in Croatia is not a same thing...one experiance more in that). At the Motovun Aid station(27,1k) was traying to stuff myself with some Food that i was able to eat and drinked some Cola to get the sugars going. Didnt do anything about the shoues and just continued to the next Aid Station which is a never ending climb where i taked some wooden stick from the side of the road and helped myself to get to the top, also stoped for 5 minutes on a rock to get some air, because my left part was hurting when i was breathing.Strange how if you forget your planed tactic and go with the flow, the thing just collape. in that point from the 83 place in the Second aid station , was coming in the 143 at the 4 Aid Station(35k).At this station was trying again to stuff myself with some food and more coke, and some salt to keep up with the Water intake.Asked the Medic to try to use some cold sprey for the ankle and changed the socks, and puted the old pair on top of the new to stop the furting from the tongue of the Shoe, wich was a good idea at the end.At this time of the race was feeling very hard to keep it straigh to decided to stop for 10 minutes , and be with the aid station and replenish the body and prepare miself for the last uphill and from there is the all the Downhill to the city of Umag. For the next 5k was all good and was feeling very well (it`s strange how in the Ultras your body is going from one side to another in 10 minutes). Then again it was that last uphill of Steep 450 metres of elevation gain (for the next race will need to try to train more and more on the Kippure to get some countinued uphill training and buy myself the Sticks and train with them)
After passing the next uphill with a very hard walk , on the next downhill to the the Aid Station at the 46,3 was all walking , because wasnt able to get myself going and started to enjoying in the nature and be happy that i am able to run a race like this and enjoy in the moment where i am.As a person who wasnt able to run before my 26 year to a guy who is running a Ultra marathon in some part of the Planet Earth that i love with all my heart.So to the next AS was 7,6k away was only walking a 9 minute pace, wich was good that i was training that because was very helpfull.And all that was downhill across a ground trail with some rocky parts where i managed to run about some 1000 metres.In the AS Buje on the 53.9k where was the last aid station before the end in the City of Umag and 12,8 km from the Finish.At this point was in the situation to finish the race at the Sub 10 hours.After getting outside of the Aid station was running for the first 2 k then decided to finish the race when i will finish it. It was a long walk of 10k, runned the last 500 metres to get some nice feeling at the Finish. At the end Finisher of the 100 miles of Istria (green route) with the time 10.21h, 187 from 361 finishers. Now prepare myself for the next Goal and try to learn from this experiance
It`s my first race report and not in my native language , so any advice on writing a better report is much appreciated. Thanks on reading.

wookiesleep

Sounds like a great race and experience, you can't beat Croatia. I'm sweating just thinking of the high temperature though.