Speedgoat 50k

The classic pre-Chamonix test

In 2021, Speedgoat 50k was one of the longest, toughest races I’d done in my life up to that point. I went into it tapered and excited. My first 100k, CCC, was going to be a month later and I thought Speedgoat would be the perfect test before the race. My time was 5:52, I got 9th, and it was awesome. CCC that year also went well for where I was at the time, so it was confirmed that Speedgoat is, indeed, good prep.

Mike actually might have been the one who took this pic way back in 2021. I was so stoked that it was looking like I might be top-10 that day.

2022 rolled around and I was doing CCC again. That meant I had to do Speedgoat again because that’s what had worked well to get me ready the year before. I was a little fitter than the previous year but the problem was that this time, I knew how hard CCC was going to be and I was scared to make myself hurt too bad at Speedgoat because I wanted to be able to save my hurting for CCC. So when things got tough an hour or two into Speedgoat, I backed off the gas and just got it done. My time was 5:51, I got 9th, and it was alright. CCC that year also went well for where I was at the time, so it was reconfirmed that Speedgoat is, indeed, good prep.

Questioning my decision to race that day in 2022.

Fast forward a few years and along came 2026 and I’m signed up for another race out in Chamonix in a month. That meant that, since I didn’t have any conflicts, I needed to do Speedgoat. After a year of not racing much and really gradually working my way back into fitness, it was about more than just a solid training stimulus and hard effort on mountainous terrain. It was also about pinning on a bib for something I wanted to do well at, dealing with some of the typical pre-race jitters again, and shaking off the cobwebs so that UTMB wouldn’t be a total shock.

Finally getting into a rhythm on some flowy singletrack. Credit: Mike McMonagle

I think training has been going well lately but it’s really hard to actually know. The style of training that I’ve found worked well in previous long races tends to leave me feeling fairly exhausted during a large portion of the couple months leading up to the goal race. That means I’ve got to just trust the process is working and that the taper will work its magic and the pop will come back into my legs at some point near race day, but before that I’m lost in a bit of a tired fog of questionable confidence. Apparently it also means that even if I give it a solid effort, the sport is mature enough that several people will be a lot more ready for Speedgoat than I was. My time was 5:35, I got 4th, and it was decent.

If I remember right this was right after I told Mike my legs were already cooked and it would be an interesting day. Credit: Mike McMonagle

As I watched the springy legs of Mason, Anthony, and Cam disappear within the first mile of uphill at the beginning of the race, I realized there was no way I’d be able to hang. I thought maybe at least one of them would blow up and I’d sneak onto the podium, but slowly moving from 8th to 4th over the next 30 miles really felt like all I could ask for given how I felt. That’s alright. No matter how it goes, it’s worth doing. After all, maybe Speedgoat is the secret sauce that makes Chamonix magic happen.

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