I went in with pretty low expectations, based on my training... or lack thereof. And it turned out that it just wasn't my day to run much at all. I gave myself a 50% chance, at best, of getting to 50 miles. And a decent chance that 2-3 loops (10 miles each) would be enough. As it turns out, 2 was plenty. Physically, I could have gone farther. But I was feeling lousy all over and not having fun after the first loop. First loop however, was fun. Spent most of the first loop talking to other runners - some I knew from other races, one I did not. But that also meant I was running faster than I should have. Ooops. But by the end of the first loop, I knew things were not looking good for me. By a couple miles into loop 2, I was thinking that would be it.
It would have been nice to run farther. And I could have pushed it. But if I'm not having fun that early into a race, I'd much rather bag it and do something else that is fun. Like cook. Like cooking up dozens and dozens of grilled cheese sandwiches, quesadillas, hot dogs, burgers and whatever else we had on hand for the runners. Good times. So, I ran from 7am until a bit after 10am. I think by 11am I was in the kitchen cooking (ie. staking out my domain and taking over). I was in and out of the kitchen all afternoon and evening, trying to keep the runners fed & happy and control the volunteers. Easier said than done!
I caught a couple hours of sleep in the middle of the night, but between my cot not actually being all that comfortable and frozen feet, I gave up after about 2 hours of tossing and turning. Back to the kitchen... if only to stay warm and get coffee! Around 6am or so we started gearing up for breakfast. Working to keep the kitchen clean and cooking up a few pancakes as people finished and wanted food. Then around 9:30 the kitchen was in full swing preparing the brunch - pasta with meatballs, 6 pounds of bacon, 30+ pieces of french toast, 30+ eggs scrambled with sauteed veggies and cheese, fruit salad, muffins & bread, shrimp, garlic bread, bloody marys. It was awesome! It was a great way to wrap up the weekend.... too bad so many people had already left the fairgrounds to get started on the drive home.
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Return to Running
It's been a long while since I have written a post here... about 3.5 months. Those of you that are on Facebook probably have an idea of why: not a whole lot of running and racing going on. Hard to get motivated to blog about running when you're doing little to no running. Plus, there really wasn't anything to blog about, aside from "still battling injury.... ugh.... again". And although I can't say I am healed, things do seem to be going in the right direction.
Closing in on 1 year since the initial injury, which I never got a diagnosis for (anyone know how to read MRIs?). It's been kind of off-an-on since then. Feeling good, training, racing, then hurting again. Winter didn't help at all - cold and dark just sucked all my motivation away. On the up side, I did start up physical therapy again, this time at a different (and better) place. The PT place I went to over the summer, focused only on my left calf. Which seemed like a fine idea to me, but what do I know. Did 4+ weeks of that, ramped up the mileage, raced on trails and roads, then it started getting tight and a bit painful again. Argh.
So, found a new PT place - they were at a local trail race talking to runners, stretching/massaging post-race. Completely different approach. For one thing, rather than just addressing my calf in isolation, they gave me an evaluation to assess lower body strength on both sides, balance and mechanics. I learned some things that, while they did not surprise me, I was not aware of. Finding that my hamstrings were tight was to be expected. Finding that my hips were weak and allowing my legs/knees to rotate in, was surprising. But it explained why my knees sometimes hit eachother when I run. And finding that I have very weak ankles - both inversion and eversion - could explain why I roll them a lot.
Even better was that their approach was to address all the issues they found - working on core & lower body strength, as well as stretching. In fact, the first few weeks I don't think I was doing anything with my calves other than foam rolling & stretching. Sitting here, I'm realizing it's been over 3 months (wow!) since I started PT again. The good news is that re-evaluation shows I'm improving. And 1.5 weeks ago I ran a road 50k on very little training, did halfway decent and was out running again the next few days and feeling pretty good. I was feeling so good, during and after the race, that I was wondering if I could, somehow, possibly, run 100 miles at Ultra Fest 3 weeks later. Crazy thoughts. But I figured I would be good for 50 miles. Yay!
Of course, then I was stupid. I was lifting at the gym, having a good morning doing things like Curtis Ps and snatches, when I thought that I should try doing Good Mornings. I did 3, with not much weight, and felt that sharp pain in my lower back. CRAP!!! Not good!! Couldn't quite stand up straight and bending over to pick my stuff up off the floor increased the pain quite a bit. Not the first time I've had this and it won't be the last. So I knew I'd be out of commission for at least 3 days, shuffling around work at an angle, kind of like the Leaning Tower ofPisa... err... Jessi. And I had been on a great roll, running wise. Then 4 days of no running, including a weekend of gloriously sunny weather and temperatures climbing over 50F. Not fair!!!
But on the fifth day (2 days ago), I was able to get out and run. Not fast, not terribly far, and not entirely pain free. But I ran. And it was fabulous. Especially since the weather was still nice, so I was in shorts and a t-shirt, perhaps for the first time in 4 or 5 months. Spring is coming!! Now, Ultra Fest is looming 1.5 weeks away. Yikes!! While my back was injured, I knew there was no way I could run 100 miles. Of course, now that I was able to get out running again, there's still a teeny tiny voice in my head that says it's possible. Ok, it is possible, even when I haven't been training. But I don't want to shuffle, walk and stumble my way through and risk injury. I want to run and finish and not feel injured. Logically, that means I should do no more than 50 miles. Perhaps even just stick to 50k. But damn it, I still want to run and finish that 100 again.
10 days to figure out what I'm doing. 10 days to be careful not to do anything else stupid. 10 days to run, stretch, foam roll my butt off. 10 days to mentally prepare for whatever distance I choose to run. 10 days to plan and pack. 10 days to... crap... figure out what shoes I'm going to wear! Shoes! I need shoes! Here we go....
Looking past Ultra Fest, Umstead is 2 weeks later. Another 100 that I really want to finish. Last year I think it was 1 week after Ultra Fest, so obviously I didn't go. This year, I know I won't be able to run nearly as well as I would like to, but I'm still planning to go down. I've paid for it, I have a cabin, I might as well go and run at least 50 miles and see where I'm at physically and mentally. I feel bad having snagged a competitive entry, thinking I was getting past injury and would be in the shape I was last year. Just another monkey on my back. Even if I finish the 100, I still feel the need to go back and improve my time.
Hopefully I can make it to the start line and a finish line of some distance, at both races. More importantly, I'm hoping I can walk away from both races feeling uninjured.
Closing in on 1 year since the initial injury, which I never got a diagnosis for (anyone know how to read MRIs?). It's been kind of off-an-on since then. Feeling good, training, racing, then hurting again. Winter didn't help at all - cold and dark just sucked all my motivation away. On the up side, I did start up physical therapy again, this time at a different (and better) place. The PT place I went to over the summer, focused only on my left calf. Which seemed like a fine idea to me, but what do I know. Did 4+ weeks of that, ramped up the mileage, raced on trails and roads, then it started getting tight and a bit painful again. Argh.
So, found a new PT place - they were at a local trail race talking to runners, stretching/massaging post-race. Completely different approach. For one thing, rather than just addressing my calf in isolation, they gave me an evaluation to assess lower body strength on both sides, balance and mechanics. I learned some things that, while they did not surprise me, I was not aware of. Finding that my hamstrings were tight was to be expected. Finding that my hips were weak and allowing my legs/knees to rotate in, was surprising. But it explained why my knees sometimes hit eachother when I run. And finding that I have very weak ankles - both inversion and eversion - could explain why I roll them a lot.
Even better was that their approach was to address all the issues they found - working on core & lower body strength, as well as stretching. In fact, the first few weeks I don't think I was doing anything with my calves other than foam rolling & stretching. Sitting here, I'm realizing it's been over 3 months (wow!) since I started PT again. The good news is that re-evaluation shows I'm improving. And 1.5 weeks ago I ran a road 50k on very little training, did halfway decent and was out running again the next few days and feeling pretty good. I was feeling so good, during and after the race, that I was wondering if I could, somehow, possibly, run 100 miles at Ultra Fest 3 weeks later. Crazy thoughts. But I figured I would be good for 50 miles. Yay!
Of course, then I was stupid. I was lifting at the gym, having a good morning doing things like Curtis Ps and snatches, when I thought that I should try doing Good Mornings. I did 3, with not much weight, and felt that sharp pain in my lower back. CRAP!!! Not good!! Couldn't quite stand up straight and bending over to pick my stuff up off the floor increased the pain quite a bit. Not the first time I've had this and it won't be the last. So I knew I'd be out of commission for at least 3 days, shuffling around work at an angle, kind of like the Leaning Tower of
But on the fifth day (2 days ago), I was able to get out and run. Not fast, not terribly far, and not entirely pain free. But I ran. And it was fabulous. Especially since the weather was still nice, so I was in shorts and a t-shirt, perhaps for the first time in 4 or 5 months. Spring is coming!! Now, Ultra Fest is looming 1.5 weeks away. Yikes!! While my back was injured, I knew there was no way I could run 100 miles. Of course, now that I was able to get out running again, there's still a teeny tiny voice in my head that says it's possible. Ok, it is possible, even when I haven't been training. But I don't want to shuffle, walk and stumble my way through and risk injury. I want to run and finish and not feel injured. Logically, that means I should do no more than 50 miles. Perhaps even just stick to 50k. But damn it, I still want to run and finish that 100 again.
10 days to figure out what I'm doing. 10 days to be careful not to do anything else stupid. 10 days to run, stretch, foam roll my butt off. 10 days to mentally prepare for whatever distance I choose to run. 10 days to plan and pack. 10 days to... crap... figure out what shoes I'm going to wear! Shoes! I need shoes! Here we go....
Looking past Ultra Fest, Umstead is 2 weeks later. Another 100 that I really want to finish. Last year I think it was 1 week after Ultra Fest, so obviously I didn't go. This year, I know I won't be able to run nearly as well as I would like to, but I'm still planning to go down. I've paid for it, I have a cabin, I might as well go and run at least 50 miles and see where I'm at physically and mentally. I feel bad having snagged a competitive entry, thinking I was getting past injury and would be in the shape I was last year. Just another monkey on my back. Even if I finish the 100, I still feel the need to go back and improve my time.
Hopefully I can make it to the start line and a finish line of some distance, at both races. More importantly, I'm hoping I can walk away from both races feeling uninjured.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
NCR Trail Marathon
Things have been pretty much off-kilter since getting back from Italy. First there was Ghost Train Ultra, where I only did 75 miles instead of the planned 100 miles (for which I have not written a post). I ran hard & fast.... until I pretty much out-ran my stomach and felt absolutely awful. I probably could have continued at a much slower pace, but I also remembered how miserable I had felt for hours after Oil Creek and was not up to a repeat experience. So, I bagged it at 75, hung around a bit nibbling on some food after several Tums and some ginger ale and then took off. The next weekend was D&L Heritage Marathon. I did well there, definitely better than last year, but mentally wasn't psyched up for the race. I was hoping that having the following weekend off from racing would help. It didn't. So I wound up taking a DNS for Stone Mill 50. Not much point in driving a few hours South for a race that I wasn't psyched to run and would stand a good chance of taking a mental DNF.
Thanksgiving rolled around and I hadn't been doing a whole lot of training... and I still wasn't all that motivated. Partly due to colder weather making morning runs at 4am just really sucky. But I had NCR Trail Marathon on the calendar for Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I was carpooling out there with a friend. I still wasn't mentally in the game, but I figured I'd go anyways and see what happened. So, up a bit after 3am to grab breakfast and coffee before hitting the road with Dave for the 3+ hour drive to middle-of-nowhere Maryland. A couple stops along the way, but we made it with plenty of time to spare. Got a bus from parking to the start, picked up packets and got geared up to freeze my butt off for 3+ hours of running.
I had absolutely no expectations for the race, being as how I had not been doing much. I was hoping to beat my time from last year (3:07), but would take whatever I got. Kinda nice to not really feel any pressure. A quick warm up before the start and then we were off. Within a few hundred meters I had settled into a fast pace pretty near the front... maybe a dozen guys ahead of me. My focus was going to be on maintaining a fast, but sustainable pace, so I decided to not look at my watch. Not once for the entire race. Just run entirely by feel and try my best to keep my effort in check.
Having run this race before, I knew what to expect. Over a mile of road to start, mostly downhill or flat, then out to the turn-around along a rail trail going gradually uphill. On the way back it would be gradual downhill or flat for ~12 miles and the last mile or so would be on road with a hill right at mile 25. Good to know. Last year I hadn't paid attention to the gradual uphill on the way out and pushed too hard.
Before we turned onto the trail I pulled back the effort just a tiny bit and let a few more guys pass me. It was still early in the race and I was still running fast. We cruised along for several miles and a couple more guys slowly passed me. I hate that! I hate getting passed. And I know there have been times when I have semi-conciously picked up the pace a bit just to avoid getting passed. Bad idea. I've dug myself into a hole more than once by doing that. Makes a race much more enjoyable when you don't feel like death warmed over for the last 6+ miles.
So I let the guys pass me and tried to mentally distract myself from the boredom of the rail trail by trying to take in the scenery. As it turns out, I'm not that great at running in a straight line while looking at scenery. Perhaps because I don't normally do that in races. I may have run some races through spectacular areas, but if I'm truly racing, I really don't see anything other than the course, other runners and mile markers. That's it. It really hit home in this race that I don't take in the scenery when I race. I guess that should be no surprise, as I have run races that were loops and seen things on the 3rd and 4th loops that I had not seen before.
I bypassed pretty much all of the aid stations. The weather was downright chilly and although I had pulled in my pace a little bit, I still felt like I was running too fast to take in anything. Not to mention, my hands were frozen, partly numb and totally non-functional. Any attempt at grabbing and drinking water on the fly would almost certainly result in wet gloves, compounding my cold, numb, frozen finger situation. Ok, maybe they'll warm up later and I can have a drink?
I recognized a few sections from the previous year and remembered that around mile 9 was where I had realized I had been running too fast. That's a bad thing to have happen there - 9 miles is a lot to run too fast and still having 17 more to go is even worse. Getting to mile 20 and thinking you've gone to fast sucks, but at least you only have 10k left to finish. So I was happy to pass by 9 miles and then 10 miles feeling good. In fact, everything felt surprisingly good. My left calf, which had given me a few twinges before and during D&L Marathon felt normal. My hamstring and glutes, which frequently turn into overly tightened guitar strings in marathons, felt normal too. Sweeeeet!
Ok, so where's this turn around? Not that I'm getting tired, but just bored. I'm sure that farther back in the pack there are people running together, maybe chatting occasionally. Up at the front... it's really dull. Chances are, you are running alone. There may not even be another runner within sight. But even if there is, they're not talking. Everyone is so focused on maintaining their 6:54.7/mile pace that anything more than a "good job" is out of the question. Ok... there's the halfway mark. But still no turnaround. It's gotta be coming up soon... really soon.
Less than half a mile later, around a cone and finally headed "home". Yea!! There had been a guy that had passed me miles earlier and I had let him go. But after taking a gel at mile 10, I was feeling great and must have picked up the pace a tiny bit, as he was now less than 50 feet ahead. Well, I'm into the second half, feeling good and I know I've got about 12 miles of flat and downhill. Let's rock this! I kicked up the pace, passed him and kept on trucking. I had no idea how long I'd be able to sustain that pace for, but it felt great. Definitely fast, but great to stretch out the legs.
The miles slowly clicked by and I passed a few more runners. 16.... 17....18.... Had my second gel at 18 miles and my only sip of water at 19 miles. And yes, my gloves did get wet, as predicted. They were still cold and numb. Heck, even wrestling a gel out of my pocket was a task that took at least a quarter mile. Opening the gel? Another quarter mile. Getting all of the gel out of the damn packet? At least a half mile. On the up side, it makes for some distraction.
By 18 miles though, I was definitely feeling the fast pace. Could I keep it up? Or was I going to hit a wall in the next couple miles? And would I be seriously regretting drinking almost no fluids? Could I make it to the finish with just those few sips of water? 20 miles. Ok, only 10k to go. I really wanted to look at my watch. I've never run a race that long without looking at my watch. There had been a time clock at the halfway point that read 1:30:2? when I passed. So I had initially given up on attempting sub-3 and was hoping for ~3:05. However, since I felt like I was hauling ass on the way back, there was a little voice in the back of my head telling me that maybe I could negative split the race and go sub-3. Still, I had that hill at mile 25 and some gradual climbing the last mile to the finish. I remembered hating that section last year.
22 miles. Just over 4 to go. Ok, if I'm running around 7:00/mile, than that's.... less than half an hour. Can I make sub-3? Crap, I can't look at my watch. Ok. Let's just assume there's still a chance and try to hang on to this pace as long as I can. Mentally, the miles seemed to be getting longer and longer. Counting down the final miles of a marathon is a lot like watching a pot of water boil. If you do it, time seems to stretch on forever. If you don't, life is good and time moves at it's normal pace. But there I was, counting down those last few miles. 23. So HUNGRY!!! OMG... I want FOOD!!! Where is the next mile?!?! I know it's not long after the 24 mile mark that we turn off the trail.
Ok, enjoy the scenery. Don't focus on the trail. Take in the lovely, naked, monotone trees. Hmmm... this isn't working. Crap. Ok, just run. Mile 24. And then... road. Less than 2 miles to go. The worst 2 miles, but still, I'm almost done. I've been steadily gaining on a guy in a red jacket that I had been running with the first few miles of the race before letting him run off ahead. He's far enough off and still running strong enough that I probably can't catch him, but I'm still gonna try. We finally make the right turn and head up the hill at mile 25. UGH! Yep, it still sucks. A lot. But I'm happy to (slowly) run all the way up. There's a clock at the 25 mile mark, halfway up the hill. 2:51:59 when I pass by. Sub-3 is not going to happen. No way I'm running the last 1.2 miles, with climbing to come, in 8 minutes or less.
That hill pretty much finished off my legs. I really wanted to walk. Or sit. Or stop. Or do pretty much anything other than keep hauling ass up that damn road. But run I did. And it was that gradual uphill that doesn't look steep enough to walk, but just seems to drain the energy right out of you. Or maybe that was because I was less than a mile from the finish. I can still see the red jacket ahead, but it's not getting any closer. Not going to catch him. Oh well.
3:01:02
About 6 minutes faster than last year and a much better executed race that last year or D&L Marathon. Wound up 1st Female and 11th overall. I think the top 1 or 2 guys must have dropped on the way back, as the top time was 2:50:xx. Seriously???
Thanksgiving rolled around and I hadn't been doing a whole lot of training... and I still wasn't all that motivated. Partly due to colder weather making morning runs at 4am just really sucky. But I had NCR Trail Marathon on the calendar for Saturday after Thanksgiving, and I was carpooling out there with a friend. I still wasn't mentally in the game, but I figured I'd go anyways and see what happened. So, up a bit after 3am to grab breakfast and coffee before hitting the road with Dave for the 3+ hour drive to middle-of-nowhere Maryland. A couple stops along the way, but we made it with plenty of time to spare. Got a bus from parking to the start, picked up packets and got geared up to freeze my butt off for 3+ hours of running.
I had absolutely no expectations for the race, being as how I had not been doing much. I was hoping to beat my time from last year (3:07), but would take whatever I got. Kinda nice to not really feel any pressure. A quick warm up before the start and then we were off. Within a few hundred meters I had settled into a fast pace pretty near the front... maybe a dozen guys ahead of me. My focus was going to be on maintaining a fast, but sustainable pace, so I decided to not look at my watch. Not once for the entire race. Just run entirely by feel and try my best to keep my effort in check.
Having run this race before, I knew what to expect. Over a mile of road to start, mostly downhill or flat, then out to the turn-around along a rail trail going gradually uphill. On the way back it would be gradual downhill or flat for ~12 miles and the last mile or so would be on road with a hill right at mile 25. Good to know. Last year I hadn't paid attention to the gradual uphill on the way out and pushed too hard.
Before we turned onto the trail I pulled back the effort just a tiny bit and let a few more guys pass me. It was still early in the race and I was still running fast. We cruised along for several miles and a couple more guys slowly passed me. I hate that! I hate getting passed. And I know there have been times when I have semi-conciously picked up the pace a bit just to avoid getting passed. Bad idea. I've dug myself into a hole more than once by doing that. Makes a race much more enjoyable when you don't feel like death warmed over for the last 6+ miles.
So I let the guys pass me and tried to mentally distract myself from the boredom of the rail trail by trying to take in the scenery. As it turns out, I'm not that great at running in a straight line while looking at scenery. Perhaps because I don't normally do that in races. I may have run some races through spectacular areas, but if I'm truly racing, I really don't see anything other than the course, other runners and mile markers. That's it. It really hit home in this race that I don't take in the scenery when I race. I guess that should be no surprise, as I have run races that were loops and seen things on the 3rd and 4th loops that I had not seen before.
I bypassed pretty much all of the aid stations. The weather was downright chilly and although I had pulled in my pace a little bit, I still felt like I was running too fast to take in anything. Not to mention, my hands were frozen, partly numb and totally non-functional. Any attempt at grabbing and drinking water on the fly would almost certainly result in wet gloves, compounding my cold, numb, frozen finger situation. Ok, maybe they'll warm up later and I can have a drink?
I recognized a few sections from the previous year and remembered that around mile 9 was where I had realized I had been running too fast. That's a bad thing to have happen there - 9 miles is a lot to run too fast and still having 17 more to go is even worse. Getting to mile 20 and thinking you've gone to fast sucks, but at least you only have 10k left to finish. So I was happy to pass by 9 miles and then 10 miles feeling good. In fact, everything felt surprisingly good. My left calf, which had given me a few twinges before and during D&L Marathon felt normal. My hamstring and glutes, which frequently turn into overly tightened guitar strings in marathons, felt normal too. Sweeeeet!
Ok, so where's this turn around? Not that I'm getting tired, but just bored. I'm sure that farther back in the pack there are people running together, maybe chatting occasionally. Up at the front... it's really dull. Chances are, you are running alone. There may not even be another runner within sight. But even if there is, they're not talking. Everyone is so focused on maintaining their 6:54.7/mile pace that anything more than a "good job" is out of the question. Ok... there's the halfway mark. But still no turnaround. It's gotta be coming up soon... really soon.
Less than half a mile later, around a cone and finally headed "home". Yea!! There had been a guy that had passed me miles earlier and I had let him go. But after taking a gel at mile 10, I was feeling great and must have picked up the pace a tiny bit, as he was now less than 50 feet ahead. Well, I'm into the second half, feeling good and I know I've got about 12 miles of flat and downhill. Let's rock this! I kicked up the pace, passed him and kept on trucking. I had no idea how long I'd be able to sustain that pace for, but it felt great. Definitely fast, but great to stretch out the legs.
The miles slowly clicked by and I passed a few more runners. 16.... 17....18.... Had my second gel at 18 miles and my only sip of water at 19 miles. And yes, my gloves did get wet, as predicted. They were still cold and numb. Heck, even wrestling a gel out of my pocket was a task that took at least a quarter mile. Opening the gel? Another quarter mile. Getting all of the gel out of the damn packet? At least a half mile. On the up side, it makes for some distraction.
By 18 miles though, I was definitely feeling the fast pace. Could I keep it up? Or was I going to hit a wall in the next couple miles? And would I be seriously regretting drinking almost no fluids? Could I make it to the finish with just those few sips of water? 20 miles. Ok, only 10k to go. I really wanted to look at my watch. I've never run a race that long without looking at my watch. There had been a time clock at the halfway point that read 1:30:2? when I passed. So I had initially given up on attempting sub-3 and was hoping for ~3:05. However, since I felt like I was hauling ass on the way back, there was a little voice in the back of my head telling me that maybe I could negative split the race and go sub-3. Still, I had that hill at mile 25 and some gradual climbing the last mile to the finish. I remembered hating that section last year.
22 miles. Just over 4 to go. Ok, if I'm running around 7:00/mile, than that's.... less than half an hour. Can I make sub-3? Crap, I can't look at my watch. Ok. Let's just assume there's still a chance and try to hang on to this pace as long as I can. Mentally, the miles seemed to be getting longer and longer. Counting down the final miles of a marathon is a lot like watching a pot of water boil. If you do it, time seems to stretch on forever. If you don't, life is good and time moves at it's normal pace. But there I was, counting down those last few miles. 23. So HUNGRY!!! OMG... I want FOOD!!! Where is the next mile?!?! I know it's not long after the 24 mile mark that we turn off the trail.
Ok, enjoy the scenery. Don't focus on the trail. Take in the lovely, naked, monotone trees. Hmmm... this isn't working. Crap. Ok, just run. Mile 24. And then... road. Less than 2 miles to go. The worst 2 miles, but still, I'm almost done. I've been steadily gaining on a guy in a red jacket that I had been running with the first few miles of the race before letting him run off ahead. He's far enough off and still running strong enough that I probably can't catch him, but I'm still gonna try. We finally make the right turn and head up the hill at mile 25. UGH! Yep, it still sucks. A lot. But I'm happy to (slowly) run all the way up. There's a clock at the 25 mile mark, halfway up the hill. 2:51:59 when I pass by. Sub-3 is not going to happen. No way I'm running the last 1.2 miles, with climbing to come, in 8 minutes or less.
That hill pretty much finished off my legs. I really wanted to walk. Or sit. Or stop. Or do pretty much anything other than keep hauling ass up that damn road. But run I did. And it was that gradual uphill that doesn't look steep enough to walk, but just seems to drain the energy right out of you. Or maybe that was because I was less than a mile from the finish. I can still see the red jacket ahead, but it's not getting any closer. Not going to catch him. Oh well.
3:01:02
About 6 minutes faster than last year and a much better executed race that last year or D&L Marathon. Wound up 1st Female and 11th overall. I think the top 1 or 2 guys must have dropped on the way back, as the top time was 2:50:xx. Seriously???
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
IAU 50k World Tropy
6 weeks ago, as I was getting ready to fly to New Orleans for the RRCA Coaching Education course, I got a very intriguing email. It was inviting me to a 50k "World Trophy" race in Italy. Lodging paid for plus a travel grant. At first glance I thought it was spam. Seemed too good to be true. Someone wants to pay for me to fly to Italy to run in a race? Really??? Seriously?? But I looked into it and decided it wasn't spam or a joke. Wow! COOL!! The only downside? The race fell on the weekend between my 2 fall 100 mile races. Far from ideal. Sure, I could run 50k that weekend, but it wouldn't be my best performance. And in fact it could turn out to be a rather slow and painful experience. Plus I really didn't know where my speed was at, as I had not raced a flat marathon or 50k since March. But it was pretty much a free trip to Italy and sounded like a unique opportunity. I was in.
Oh great. I should probably do some speedwork to prep for this. I hate speedwork! Yea... that didn't really happen. I might've gotten in 2 tempo runs. But really not much. I just continued with my running lots of miles type of training and hoped for the best.
Suddenly it was mid October. Oil Creek 100 came and went. Then, as usual, my legs, ankles and feet were quite swollen for days and I was walking a bit stiffly. I had not even fully unpacked before I needed to pack up again. So Tues I packed and Wed after work I was off to the airport, legs still a bit swollen. Travel went uneventfully. On the flight from Newark to Geneva, I was sitting next to another runner. I was reading "Running on Empty" (Marshall Ulrich) and he was reading "The Long Run"(Matt Long). So we chatted a bit off and on during the flight. He showed me some pics from a race he had recently done in a very mountainous area of France and I showed him the latest copy of Ultra Running magazine, as he was starting to try or think about ultras. Got to Geneva, made the connection to Nice and got a train to Italy. On the train, someone sits nearby and asks if I'm headed to Vallecrosia. Why yes I am... but how does he know?? It's a pretty small town. He was the guy from the IAU (International Association of Ultrarunning) that had sent me the email 5 weeks earlier, inviting me to the race!
After ~16 hours of travel, I arrived at the ummmm... accomodations for the race. Think hostel type of accomodations, but private bathrooms. I think it was associated with a church. The room was cold and the bed was hard, but it was free lodging. And they served up breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not that it was by any means great food, but again, free. Lunch, nap and then I headed out for a ~9 mile run to see the course, explore the area a bit and try to reduce the swelling in my legs/ankles. All the travel and lack of activity had made it worse again, although the legs felt decent. At dinner, I met up with a bunch of other runners, many of whom had arrived the previous 2 days. Took an early night as I was exhausted and planned to get up early to run.
Friday, up and out by 6:30 for a ~13 mile run. Sun was starting to rise as I was headed back, but the heavy cloud cover prevented me from seeing what should have been a gorgeous sunrise. Oh well. Had breakfast, talked with the athletes, and went out for a couple hours walking around, exploring, but not finding anything to buy. Lunch, more relaxing, over to the pre-race meeting and later the "opening ceremony" and "flag parade", most of which I couldn't understand as most of it was done in Italian. I understand we are in Italy, but there were no invited athletes from Italy! Afterwards I went out for dinner with 2 other US athletes and the entourage of family that had traveled with them. The dinner menu at our accomodations called for carrots, chickpea soup and cold veal with tuna sauce. We wound up at a place right by where the race start would be, 1 block from our lodging. Had some steamed veggies and delicious mushroom risotto. Another early night, even though the race was not starting until 10am.
Saturday I was up a little before 7am. By demand from athletes, breakfast would be served starting at 7am, rather than the usual 8:30am. I arrived about 7:10 and I think everyone else was already there! A whole bunch of type A road marathoners, obviously. Sheesh!! Yea, it's the World Trophy race, but there's no cash prize. And race conditions were predicted not to be good for setting a PR. I guess I have a slightly different approach and perspective than most, especially when compared to road runners. I didn't need to do much to get ready, so I lingered there, drinking coffee and talking to a gal from Australia. I was the last to leave and still had plenty of time to dilly dally before walking the block to the start.
It was total disorganization at the start. They were just getting started setting up an hour before the race, nobody seemed to have pins for the bibs and it seemed unlikely it would start on time. Oh well. Turned out we only started a few minutes late. Once they lined up all the runners - supposedly 28 invited athletes and ~40 in the Italian National Championship - there were a few brief words and without any warning, the starting gun was fired. So much for the countdown! I took off and tried to settle into a pace that would get me a good time and place, but not be too fast. I felt like I was doing a good job of it. Came around the first 6.25km loop in ~26:40 and pretty much the same for loop 2. Legs felt surprisingly good and so did my energy. Best I had felt since racing the previous weekend, so that was a big plus. And I was feeling better than I had expected. Probably eating a good meal the night before had helped, plus a good breakfast.
Kept on cruising, trying to hold a steady pace. Slowed a bit for loop 3, but I was still on track for ~3:35. But the weather was already heating up and I wasn't drinking enough. And the wind seemed to have picked up a little bit near, so we had a stronger headwind headed out to the far turnaround in Bordighera. Loop 4... oh yeah, that wind is definitely picking up. A lot. And the sun was out in full force and heating things up. That was the downside of a race starting at 10am. My pace definitely started slowing and that loop was over 28 minutes. From there, things just continued to go downhill.
Wind continued to pick up, so that it was easily 30-35mph headwind headed out, temps topped out at over 75F and everyone was slowing down. I could feel my hamstrings & glutes starting to tighten up and tire out from the pounding on the hard, flat course. Dropping out was a very appealing prospect. But really? I just did a 100 mile trail race and I'm thinking about dropping from a 50k road race that will take a fraction of the time? Really? Oh, suck it up! Loop 4 I had taken one of the 2 gels I had brought and at the end of loop 5 I stopped at the aid station to get some food to fuel me. Except there was none. The race organizers had told us at the meeting the day before, there would be water, cola, juice, sports drink, fruit, biscuits, chocolate and museli at the aid station. Wrong. There was water, cola and some other beverages. No food. Got some cola and kept plugging away.
Loop 6 I was really suffering and starting to hate that damn headwind. The 6.25km loops seemed really really long, even though it was less than 4 miles. I still wanted to drop. I was not having fun. The course was boring. I had gone out too hard and was struggling. Legs & hips were aching. Boy, trail races are a heck of a lot more enjoyable than this. Why do I do this? Why am I signed up for some marathons? WHY???
Loop 7 I took my last gel. And I started cursing at the wind under my breath. It was seriously starting to piss me off. Especially when I looked at my watch and saw I was running ~8:45/mile. Ugh! I had started out at ~6:50/mile and been hoping to average 7:00/mile. Since I had gone out for the 7th of 8 loops, I was determined to finish (though being done with the whole running thing was very appealing), but now I was just hoping to be able to finish in under 4 hours. I was physically and mentally fried. Even heading out for loop 8 I was still wanting to drop, but with one lap to go I wasn't going to. Tempting, but no. Not happening. I didn't fly out to Italy to run 4 miles short of 50k and drop.
But the wind was still strong and my pace was now slower than 9:00/mile headed out. At the far turnaround for the final time, I counted 17 kite boarders and 14 windsurfers in the water, as well at dozens more on the rocky beach. Not much wave action out there, but the wind was plenty strong for the kite boarders to get 10 feet off the water. Yea, it's really windy out today. Go figure, race day just happens to be the worst weather of my time out there. Around the cones and back towards Vallecrosia, less than 2 miles left. Thank god. I'm SO ready to be done with this sucky race. I think I was able to pick up the pace a little bit in the last 2 miles, just knowing that I would be done soon. And in the final 1/4 km I passed the guy from France, who had gone out much too hard and was shuffling along.
Wound up finishing in 3:56-something for 6th F. I didn't care. I was done. I had gone out there knowing that I wouldn't be top 3, that I would not be running my best race, but hoping to have a good time. It was a decent finishing time, but I did not have a good time out there. Anyways, at the finish, nobody there with medals - I guess the race director had wandered off. And I couldn't for the life of me find any water. Seriously? I just ran for almost 4 hours and no water??? WTF??? Good thing I had a gear bag there with some water in it from that morning. Sat down a little bit. Then changed into my sandals and went to stand thigh deep in the sea.
Apparently a runner from Norway felt that the water was too cold. Wuss. Felt fantastic to me. I would have stayed in longer, but the waves from the wind were really pushing me around and I didn't quite feel like getting fully soaked.
After a shower, a light lunch and wandering around some more on foot, I met up with some of the other runners and we went for some beers before heading over to the awards/closing ceremony. Zzzzzzzzzzz. It took way too long, again was mostly in Italian and the awards for the Italian Championship.... I've no idea... it was mostly the same people going up again and again for different awards. I couldn't figure it out. But it dragged on while my stomach was rumbling. I'd only had fruit and salad for lunch, as the rest of the food did not appeal to me. Afterwards, a group of us headed back to the same restaurant as the night before for pizzas and more beer. Beer!!! Thank god for beer!
All in all, it was a good trip and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go. The race.... eh, at least everyone had to deal with the same conditions. Could have been better, but I'm sure it also could have been worse. Now I know.... nothing in Italy starts on time... and don't count on there being any support on the race course. Oh yeah, I hate wind. Hate it.
Oh great. I should probably do some speedwork to prep for this. I hate speedwork! Yea... that didn't really happen. I might've gotten in 2 tempo runs. But really not much. I just continued with my running lots of miles type of training and hoped for the best.
Suddenly it was mid October. Oil Creek 100 came and went. Then, as usual, my legs, ankles and feet were quite swollen for days and I was walking a bit stiffly. I had not even fully unpacked before I needed to pack up again. So Tues I packed and Wed after work I was off to the airport, legs still a bit swollen. Travel went uneventfully. On the flight from Newark to Geneva, I was sitting next to another runner. I was reading "Running on Empty" (Marshall Ulrich) and he was reading "The Long Run"(Matt Long). So we chatted a bit off and on during the flight. He showed me some pics from a race he had recently done in a very mountainous area of France and I showed him the latest copy of Ultra Running magazine, as he was starting to try or think about ultras. Got to Geneva, made the connection to Nice and got a train to Italy. On the train, someone sits nearby and asks if I'm headed to Vallecrosia. Why yes I am... but how does he know?? It's a pretty small town. He was the guy from the IAU (International Association of Ultrarunning) that had sent me the email 5 weeks earlier, inviting me to the race!
After ~16 hours of travel, I arrived at the ummmm... accomodations for the race. Think hostel type of accomodations, but private bathrooms. I think it was associated with a church. The room was cold and the bed was hard, but it was free lodging. And they served up breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not that it was by any means great food, but again, free. Lunch, nap and then I headed out for a ~9 mile run to see the course, explore the area a bit and try to reduce the swelling in my legs/ankles. All the travel and lack of activity had made it worse again, although the legs felt decent. At dinner, I met up with a bunch of other runners, many of whom had arrived the previous 2 days. Took an early night as I was exhausted and planned to get up early to run.
Friday, up and out by 6:30 for a ~13 mile run. Sun was starting to rise as I was headed back, but the heavy cloud cover prevented me from seeing what should have been a gorgeous sunrise. Oh well. Had breakfast, talked with the athletes, and went out for a couple hours walking around, exploring, but not finding anything to buy. Lunch, more relaxing, over to the pre-race meeting and later the "opening ceremony" and "flag parade", most of which I couldn't understand as most of it was done in Italian. I understand we are in Italy, but there were no invited athletes from Italy! Afterwards I went out for dinner with 2 other US athletes and the entourage of family that had traveled with them. The dinner menu at our accomodations called for carrots, chickpea soup and cold veal with tuna sauce. We wound up at a place right by where the race start would be, 1 block from our lodging. Had some steamed veggies and delicious mushroom risotto. Another early night, even though the race was not starting until 10am.
Saturday I was up a little before 7am. By demand from athletes, breakfast would be served starting at 7am, rather than the usual 8:30am. I arrived about 7:10 and I think everyone else was already there! A whole bunch of type A road marathoners, obviously. Sheesh!! Yea, it's the World Trophy race, but there's no cash prize. And race conditions were predicted not to be good for setting a PR. I guess I have a slightly different approach and perspective than most, especially when compared to road runners. I didn't need to do much to get ready, so I lingered there, drinking coffee and talking to a gal from Australia. I was the last to leave and still had plenty of time to dilly dally before walking the block to the start.
It was total disorganization at the start. They were just getting started setting up an hour before the race, nobody seemed to have pins for the bibs and it seemed unlikely it would start on time. Oh well. Turned out we only started a few minutes late. Once they lined up all the runners - supposedly 28 invited athletes and ~40 in the Italian National Championship - there were a few brief words and without any warning, the starting gun was fired. So much for the countdown! I took off and tried to settle into a pace that would get me a good time and place, but not be too fast. I felt like I was doing a good job of it. Came around the first 6.25km loop in ~26:40 and pretty much the same for loop 2. Legs felt surprisingly good and so did my energy. Best I had felt since racing the previous weekend, so that was a big plus. And I was feeling better than I had expected. Probably eating a good meal the night before had helped, plus a good breakfast.
Kept on cruising, trying to hold a steady pace. Slowed a bit for loop 3, but I was still on track for ~3:35. But the weather was already heating up and I wasn't drinking enough. And the wind seemed to have picked up a little bit near, so we had a stronger headwind headed out to the far turnaround in Bordighera. Loop 4... oh yeah, that wind is definitely picking up. A lot. And the sun was out in full force and heating things up. That was the downside of a race starting at 10am. My pace definitely started slowing and that loop was over 28 minutes. From there, things just continued to go downhill.
Wind continued to pick up, so that it was easily 30-35mph headwind headed out, temps topped out at over 75F and everyone was slowing down. I could feel my hamstrings & glutes starting to tighten up and tire out from the pounding on the hard, flat course. Dropping out was a very appealing prospect. But really? I just did a 100 mile trail race and I'm thinking about dropping from a 50k road race that will take a fraction of the time? Really? Oh, suck it up! Loop 4 I had taken one of the 2 gels I had brought and at the end of loop 5 I stopped at the aid station to get some food to fuel me. Except there was none. The race organizers had told us at the meeting the day before, there would be water, cola, juice, sports drink, fruit, biscuits, chocolate and museli at the aid station. Wrong. There was water, cola and some other beverages. No food. Got some cola and kept plugging away.
Loop 6 I was really suffering and starting to hate that damn headwind. The 6.25km loops seemed really really long, even though it was less than 4 miles. I still wanted to drop. I was not having fun. The course was boring. I had gone out too hard and was struggling. Legs & hips were aching. Boy, trail races are a heck of a lot more enjoyable than this. Why do I do this? Why am I signed up for some marathons? WHY???
Loop 7 I took my last gel. And I started cursing at the wind under my breath. It was seriously starting to piss me off. Especially when I looked at my watch and saw I was running ~8:45/mile. Ugh! I had started out at ~6:50/mile and been hoping to average 7:00/mile. Since I had gone out for the 7th of 8 loops, I was determined to finish (though being done with the whole running thing was very appealing), but now I was just hoping to be able to finish in under 4 hours. I was physically and mentally fried. Even heading out for loop 8 I was still wanting to drop, but with one lap to go I wasn't going to. Tempting, but no. Not happening. I didn't fly out to Italy to run 4 miles short of 50k and drop.
But the wind was still strong and my pace was now slower than 9:00/mile headed out. At the far turnaround for the final time, I counted 17 kite boarders and 14 windsurfers in the water, as well at dozens more on the rocky beach. Not much wave action out there, but the wind was plenty strong for the kite boarders to get 10 feet off the water. Yea, it's really windy out today. Go figure, race day just happens to be the worst weather of my time out there. Around the cones and back towards Vallecrosia, less than 2 miles left. Thank god. I'm SO ready to be done with this sucky race. I think I was able to pick up the pace a little bit in the last 2 miles, just knowing that I would be done soon. And in the final 1/4 km I passed the guy from France, who had gone out much too hard and was shuffling along.
Wound up finishing in 3:56-something for 6th F. I didn't care. I was done. I had gone out there knowing that I wouldn't be top 3, that I would not be running my best race, but hoping to have a good time. It was a decent finishing time, but I did not have a good time out there. Anyways, at the finish, nobody there with medals - I guess the race director had wandered off. And I couldn't for the life of me find any water. Seriously? I just ran for almost 4 hours and no water??? WTF??? Good thing I had a gear bag there with some water in it from that morning. Sat down a little bit. Then changed into my sandals and went to stand thigh deep in the sea.
Apparently a runner from Norway felt that the water was too cold. Wuss. Felt fantastic to me. I would have stayed in longer, but the waves from the wind were really pushing me around and I didn't quite feel like getting fully soaked.
After a shower, a light lunch and wandering around some more on foot, I met up with some of the other runners and we went for some beers before heading over to the awards/closing ceremony. Zzzzzzzzzzz. It took way too long, again was mostly in Italian and the awards for the Italian Championship.... I've no idea... it was mostly the same people going up again and again for different awards. I couldn't figure it out. But it dragged on while my stomach was rumbling. I'd only had fruit and salad for lunch, as the rest of the food did not appeal to me. Afterwards, a group of us headed back to the same restaurant as the night before for pizzas and more beer. Beer!!! Thank god for beer!
All in all, it was a good trip and I'm glad I had the opportunity to go. The race.... eh, at least everyone had to deal with the same conditions. Could have been better, but I'm sure it also could have been worse. Now I know.... nothing in Italy starts on time... and don't count on there being any support on the race course. Oh yeah, I hate wind. Hate it.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Oil Creek 100
I wound up playing hooky on Friday, so i could get all packed up and ready for the race (and I mentally needed a day off work). It was a leisurely day - sleeping in until 7am, downtown for coffee, a short gym workout and making sure all my gear was organized into plastics bags and drop bags. Then went a picked up a bunch of sushi for dinner and grabbed a quick lunch at home. Dave showed up a bit after noon and we headed over to Rick & Jenn's house, as we were catching a ride to the race with them. Not only was it nice to carpool, it was a nice change to not be driving. In fact, it felt very odd to be on a road trip and not be driving, as I'm generally traveling to races alone. We made pretty good time and wound up getting to Titusville around 6:30pm.
First order of business for me was to grab some floor space in the school gym for sleeping. I thought I had found a good spot - one with an outlet nearby to charge my phone. But it was by the restroom and lights were pouring out all night long. Oh well. Checked in, got my bib and shirt, a random prize, then grabbed a table for dinner. Yum! Sushi, some fresh produce I brought, homemade cookies I brought and a piece of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (OMG!). Hung around a bit more before heading off to make final race preparations and get some sleep.
Morning rolled around much too soon. And as predicted, there was no need for me to set an alarm. In a gym with 40+ other runners, I figured I'd be up around 3:30am. Sure enough, someone had an alarm set (loudly) for 3:30am. Fine by me. Would give me plenty of time to eat, get coffee and get ready for the race. I was feeling ready for the race, excited, a bit nervous... and not at all enthusiastic about it being so friggin' cold at the start. ~25F. Brrrrrr!! Good thing they did all the pre-race activities in the school and only walked us outside a couple minutes before the start.
I really didn't have a detailed plan. I was thinking 24-26 hours was a reasonable finish, based on what the women's course record was. So, about 7 hours per 50k loop and 2 hours for the final short loop would be 23 hours, add on a bit for slowing down at night. Other than that, I had 2 headlamps - one for the start and one for Saturday night - and food in my drop bags at the mid-point and end of the loop. Plan would be, go out at an easy & sustainable pace and hold that for as long as possible. With almost 18,000' of climbing, I expected it to be a LONG day with a good bit of hiking. Definitely not a good course for going out too hard.
We started out with over a mile of pavement, mostly flat, until we hit the single track and hills. Not being a strong climber, I was content to go easy and let a lot of people get ahead of me so I would not be pushing to hard at the beginning. It worked out well as speed control, but then I wound up getting stuck behind people who were tip-toeing whenever there were any rocks, mud or roots. Really??? Took most of the 7 miles out to the first aid station to find a clear stretch for running. Things were going well: I was running easy, not too cold and not stumbling in the dark. Around 10 miles we hit a ridge with a great view of the coming sunrise, glowing orange on the horizon between the trees. So nice to see daylight approaching! I wasn't going slow, but I knew my pace would pick up when it got light out as I would be able to see the trail better. Closing in on aid station 2, the temperatures seemed to be dropping and my Raynaud's kicked in causing all my fingers to go painfully numb. Ugh!
Rolled into aid station 2, dropped my headlamp in my bag and grabbed some PB&J for the climb right after. Time check: 2:45 into the race. I had thought the aid station was halfway into the loop, so I was concerned that I might be going too fast. 5:30 for a 50k loop? Eeeek. But everything felt good. Up the climb and some nice rolling, wide trails up on the top. Fingers managed to get all thawed out - 10+ minutes of stabbing pain - and then a mile later went numb again. Oh joy! Less than an hour later I started seeing interesting signs on trees and figured I was coming into aid station 3. Dang, that was fast!! Hmmm, I wonder how long the last stretch is? But then a few more miles after passing the "aid station" I was seeing signs indicating I was at "20-ish miles" and then "22-ish miles". Huh. Eventually hit a dirt road and headed into what actually was aid station 3. The previous one was simply an extra water stop, manned by the local Boy Scouts.
Over the timing mat there and straight back out onto the trail. I had seen another NJ runner I knew just ahead of me, leaving the aid station as I was heading in. It was slightly concerning because I know he is a pretty fast runner. Was I going too fast? Would I crash and burn later? Not to worry, there was a nice long climb to hike up. But I was catching up on the downhills and eventually passed him when he stepped off the trail. I figured he'd catch up and pass me within a few miles. Didn't happen. Hit some more really runnable trail and made good time the last few miles out to the road. At the road, the course runs a 1 mile loop around Drake Wells (museum?) before hitting the bike path back to the middle school (race HQ). I was beyond toasty at that point and knew I would want to drop the long sleeve shirt I was wearing, as well as the mid-weight gloves and beanie. But I had also started to get a bit competitive and didn't want to waste time at aid stations. Probably looked a bit ridiculous, but managed to get the long sleeve shirt off from under the short sleeve, while running and carrying my pack.
I tried to make my stop at aid station 4 (middle school) a quick one. A volunteer had my drop bag pulled out for me, which was awesome. Ditched my cold weather gear and threw some lighter weight stuff in my pack, loaded up on food and took off again. A few spectators on the road commented to me about what a quick stop it was. Well, duh! It doesn't benefit you to waste time in an aid station. If you can do something while moving forward, then don't do that in an aid station. Grab food and at least walk while eating! Was headed out for loop 2 with 5:53 on the race clock. Definitely faster than I had been planning on or expecting. As much as I had told myself I wasn't going to think about time until I had finished 2 loops, I couldn't stop myself. If I could do the second loop in about the same time, maybe a bit slower, I would be headed out for loop 3 by 5pm (12:00 race time). If I slowed down a bunch and did the last loop in say... 7.5 hours and then the baby loop in 1.5 hours... that would be... 21 hours? Really? Dang!
Took off and from the start felt like I was running the second loop faster than the first. After aid station 1 I ran with a guy from Canada for a few miles. He remembered me from Sulphur Springs this year - he had been trying to convince me to go back out and not DNF (when I re-injured my calf). Although he said his stomach was queasy, we were running a really strong pace and at times I was struggling to keep up on the climbs. Eventually it must have caught up to him and I pushed on ahead to aid station 2 alone. It was nice to have a few miles of company though. Rolled in to the aid station and grabbed food for my pack and the climb out. Checked the time again. Whoa... 17 min faster than the previous loop! Too fast?? I hope not! Told myself I needed to pull it in a little bit, as I wasn't quite halfway and didn't want to crash & burn.
I slowed a little bit, but still ran a lot of the rolling terrain out to and through the Boy Scout water stop. And that's where things went downhill for the first time. I didn't stop to get water. Anywhere. Somewhere around 50 miles, with about 2 miles or so until aid station 3, I ran out of water. Not only that, I realized I hadn't been drinking enough. It had taken me 50 miles (~9.5 hours) to go through 2 liters of water. Nowhere near enough!! Ugh!! I was dying. There was a good bit of climbing still to get to aid station 3 and being dehydrated and out of water didn't help at all. Legs were feeling ok, but the rest of me, not so good. And the rest of that segment seemed to get even longer.
Aid station 3 was like an oasis. Filled my pack with water, drank some soda and grabbed some grilled cheese for the climb. Mmmmm.... melty, gooey, cheesy! I love grilled cheese. I never make it at home. I don't buy much bread - certainly not squishy, worthless white bread - or processed cheese food, but in a race.... it's GOOD! It's not sweet, it's not in a wrapper, it's warm, salty, gooey and a little crunchy. Can't get enough of it. It was a slow climb from aid station 3, as I was feeling lousy and trying to suck down as much water as my stomach could handle. I kept expecting other runners to catch up to and pass me. Though the only people I saw were 50k runners that I was passing. It took a while, but after 3-4 miles, things finally started to pick back up for me.
The dehydration was causing me to overheat, but my energy was returning and I could push the pace again. Ran pretty much all the rolling terrain the last 4+ miles of the loop back to the school. Got my drop bag and again filled my pack with food and water. Tucked my arm warmers in the waistband of my tights, thinking the temperature would drop and I would cool down and put my headlamp in the pack. More grilled cheese and soda and I was headed out for loop 3 with a bit more than 11.5 hours on the clock. Yikes!
I felt like I was doing better with hydration, but I was still roasting. It couldn't have been any warmer than 60F, but it felt closer to 80F to me. No matter what, I could not cool down! Hit the first set of climbs and felt pretty strong for being over 60 miles into a race. So I ran pretty much all the uphills on the way to the first aid station. Passed another fast runner in the 100 mile that I knew. Uh-oh. Unless he's having a really tough go, I'm either going to have a fantastic race or a very spectacular crash & burn! Well, it's probably too late to fix that. I guess time will tell. Onwards and upwards. I felt a bit like I was racing the setting sun. How far could I get before I needed to pull out my headlamp. Certainly I could get past the first aid station, but I didn't think I'd make the second one before dark.
I was very glad to be seeing certain parts of the trail for the last time. Don't get me wrong. It's a great course and overall it wasn't as tough as I was expecting, but I can't say I enjoyed those switchbacks up from aid station 1. They just kept going and going and going! Hit the top for the final time just before 6pm (12:58 race time). Yay!! It's all downhill from here! Ok, not really, but at least I was that much closer to the finish. I was steadily picking off more 100k runners as I went, maybe a few of the 100 milers as well. Hard to tell. Stopped at the unmanned water drop between aid stations 1 and 2 to refill my pack again. Decided I might as well put my headlamp on too while I had my pack open. I was also sorely tempted by the lone container of candy corn on the table. No other food, just candy corn. It's a Halloween weakness of mine. And I was feeling tempted even though I was also feeling sick of sweets. Better not risk feeling sick.
Another mile and I turned on my light. It gradually got dark and by the time I was a mile from aid station 2, it was completely dark out around the trail. I was loving my new headlamp - much brighter than the one I had worn in the morning. Turned onto a dirt road to head for the aid station and passed 2 guys running without lights. I guess they were going slower than they had planned? I thought about sticking with them to offer light, but realized we were less than half a mile from the aid station on dirt and paved roads. More food at the aid station and back out onto the trails. It was completely dark out, about 75+ miles into the race and I was still moving well. I was seeing more and more runners out - mostly 100k runners - and all of them as I was passing them. After about 20 miles into the race, I didn't get passed by a single runner.
Around the same area where I had run out of water on the previous loop, I caught up to the lead woman and 2 guys she was running with. They were all running a strong pace and I held on for about a mile. Until I had a complete meltdown. My stomach hadn't been feeling 100% all day, combined with feeling overheated for hours and I was just mentally fried. I so wanted to be done with the race. I didn't even want to think about having to head out for another 7.7 mile loop. It was still ~12 miles to get back to the middle school/race HQ, plus nearly 8 miles. Shoot me!! I didn't want to run or walk even. I wanted to curl up on the side of the trail. Sure, my legs were tired, but otherwise my legs and feet were fine. But I was exhausted from pace I had been pushing and the mental effort required to maintain that pace, despite how I had been feeling.
I wanted to quit, but I knew there was no way I was actually going to let myself quit when I got back to race HQ. I couldn't quit with less than 8 miles to go. Not happening. But it sounded appealing. I didn't care about finishing time or place anymore. There was no way I could catch back up to the lead woman. And even if I shuffled in, I would probably still manage a sub-22 hour finish for the shiny gold buckle. And I was so freaking pissed off that for over 40 miles I'd had people telling me "she's just ahead, you can catch her". WTF? What does "just ahead" mean to these people? 3 miles?!? It took 40 miles to catch up to her... that's NOT JUST AHEAD people! Maybe I hadn't been eating enough. I was cranky and tired. There had been a little bit of drizzle in the past hour, but now it actually started to rain a little bit and it was fantastic. Wonderful! The little bit of rain helped to cool me off a bit more and gradually I started running again, picking up the pace, bit by bit, until I was once again hauling ass up the trail the last 4 miles back to the school. I had probably lost at least 15 minutes shuffling and stumbling along the trail, but at least I was moving well again. Mentally I still was not in a great place though (as Rick found out when he greeted me coming into aid station 4).
I knew I needed to refill my pack and get some food. I hadn't taken in any food and hardly any fluids since leaving aid station 3 and I didn't want to risk running on empty the last 8 miles. Nothing sounded appealing, especially anything sweet (I had tried a gel and almost tossed that along the trail). I got a cup of ramen noodles and started shuffling up the road, nibbling on them as I went until the bike path started climbing towards the trail. Then it was walk. Walk and eat. I was still having trouble pushing myself. I knew I still had a chance to make sub-20 hours, but only if I actually picked it up an ran. Easier said than done. Even the flatter sections were not easy to run at that point. Everything seemed to be taking far longer than it should have too. About 50 minutes to the turn off for the short "headed home" loop where it leaves the 50k loop.
I was now on new terrain. For a while it was pretty flat, running across the valley in the middle of the park, on wet grass with very few obstacles. But once we went over the "river", there was the hill from hell. I'm sure it had a sign at the bottom with the name, but I can't remember. From running past where the "headed home" loop re-joins the 50k loop, I knew that there would be a good bit of climbing. And I was secretly hoping it wasn't that much. It was. A lot of climbing. And then more. I couldn't see a damn thing in those woods other than the tiny reflective bits on the course markings. It would climb up 50-100 feet, turn, flat section, then up again. Over and over and over. For the love of god, where the hell is the top of this damn thing? I was back to the edge of having another mental breakdown. I was cursing the trail and the race. I didn't care about anything anymore. My pace was slowing. And time was running out.
It was infuriating to keep having to climb and not have any clue how much further. I would shine my light up, hoping to catch other reflective markers or see runners on a trail above, to give me some idea of where I was headed. Nothing. After what seemed like 8 ascents, I finally saw the signs and markers where we rejoined the 50k loop. Thank fucking god! 1.6 miles of trail (a really really long 1.6 miles, by the way) and then 1.25 miles on bike path to the school. It was 12:35am. If I could make the last ~3 miles in under 35 minutes, I would squeeze in under 20 hours. Once the trail flattened out a bit I started running for all I was worth. And running faster and harder than I wanted to. Time was ticking and I didn't dare look at my watch. Ok... I know there's an open stretch for power or gas lines, then it's not much farther to the switchback down to the road. Keep going. I could hear the soft bang of the engine at Drake Wells, like a homing beacon. Then the power lines. Then what seemed like eternity, but was probably less than half a mile and I was heading down to the road, around the port-o and up the bike path to the school. Still hauling ass. I checked my watch before the bike path. I had 16 min to make it back in under 20 hours. Piece of cake. It's flat. Or rather, it was flat the first 3 times. But now, small hills had mysteriously sprouted up along the bike path. WTF? I could've sworn it was flat! Now it looks and feels like it's almost all uphill! Argh! Off the bike path, a block or so of residential road and over the bridge to the school. "Home". Crossed the line in 19:56.
I was spent. Legs felt amazingly good. But the rest of me felt pretty much destroyed. I knew I should eat and drink to replenish what I had lost, but that held no appeal. I was able to get down some ginger ale before a shower and a little bit of hamburger bun after, but then spent a good half hour sitting in the bathroom unsure if I was going to hurl. Finally crawled onto my "bed" in the gym 2.5 hours after finishing, freezing, with aching hips and knees to try and sleep a bit.
First order of business for me was to grab some floor space in the school gym for sleeping. I thought I had found a good spot - one with an outlet nearby to charge my phone. But it was by the restroom and lights were pouring out all night long. Oh well. Checked in, got my bib and shirt, a random prize, then grabbed a table for dinner. Yum! Sushi, some fresh produce I brought, homemade cookies I brought and a piece of chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (OMG!). Hung around a bit more before heading off to make final race preparations and get some sleep.
Morning rolled around much too soon. And as predicted, there was no need for me to set an alarm. In a gym with 40+ other runners, I figured I'd be up around 3:30am. Sure enough, someone had an alarm set (loudly) for 3:30am. Fine by me. Would give me plenty of time to eat, get coffee and get ready for the race. I was feeling ready for the race, excited, a bit nervous... and not at all enthusiastic about it being so friggin' cold at the start. ~25F. Brrrrrr!! Good thing they did all the pre-race activities in the school and only walked us outside a couple minutes before the start.
I really didn't have a detailed plan. I was thinking 24-26 hours was a reasonable finish, based on what the women's course record was. So, about 7 hours per 50k loop and 2 hours for the final short loop would be 23 hours, add on a bit for slowing down at night. Other than that, I had 2 headlamps - one for the start and one for Saturday night - and food in my drop bags at the mid-point and end of the loop. Plan would be, go out at an easy & sustainable pace and hold that for as long as possible. With almost 18,000' of climbing, I expected it to be a LONG day with a good bit of hiking. Definitely not a good course for going out too hard.
We started out with over a mile of pavement, mostly flat, until we hit the single track and hills. Not being a strong climber, I was content to go easy and let a lot of people get ahead of me so I would not be pushing to hard at the beginning. It worked out well as speed control, but then I wound up getting stuck behind people who were tip-toeing whenever there were any rocks, mud or roots. Really??? Took most of the 7 miles out to the first aid station to find a clear stretch for running. Things were going well: I was running easy, not too cold and not stumbling in the dark. Around 10 miles we hit a ridge with a great view of the coming sunrise, glowing orange on the horizon between the trees. So nice to see daylight approaching! I wasn't going slow, but I knew my pace would pick up when it got light out as I would be able to see the trail better. Closing in on aid station 2, the temperatures seemed to be dropping and my Raynaud's kicked in causing all my fingers to go painfully numb. Ugh!
Rolled into aid station 2, dropped my headlamp in my bag and grabbed some PB&J for the climb right after. Time check: 2:45 into the race. I had thought the aid station was halfway into the loop, so I was concerned that I might be going too fast. 5:30 for a 50k loop? Eeeek. But everything felt good. Up the climb and some nice rolling, wide trails up on the top. Fingers managed to get all thawed out - 10+ minutes of stabbing pain - and then a mile later went numb again. Oh joy! Less than an hour later I started seeing interesting signs on trees and figured I was coming into aid station 3. Dang, that was fast!! Hmmm, I wonder how long the last stretch is? But then a few more miles after passing the "aid station" I was seeing signs indicating I was at "20-ish miles" and then "22-ish miles". Huh. Eventually hit a dirt road and headed into what actually was aid station 3. The previous one was simply an extra water stop, manned by the local Boy Scouts.
Over the timing mat there and straight back out onto the trail. I had seen another NJ runner I knew just ahead of me, leaving the aid station as I was heading in. It was slightly concerning because I know he is a pretty fast runner. Was I going too fast? Would I crash and burn later? Not to worry, there was a nice long climb to hike up. But I was catching up on the downhills and eventually passed him when he stepped off the trail. I figured he'd catch up and pass me within a few miles. Didn't happen. Hit some more really runnable trail and made good time the last few miles out to the road. At the road, the course runs a 1 mile loop around Drake Wells (museum?) before hitting the bike path back to the middle school (race HQ). I was beyond toasty at that point and knew I would want to drop the long sleeve shirt I was wearing, as well as the mid-weight gloves and beanie. But I had also started to get a bit competitive and didn't want to waste time at aid stations. Probably looked a bit ridiculous, but managed to get the long sleeve shirt off from under the short sleeve, while running and carrying my pack.
I tried to make my stop at aid station 4 (middle school) a quick one. A volunteer had my drop bag pulled out for me, which was awesome. Ditched my cold weather gear and threw some lighter weight stuff in my pack, loaded up on food and took off again. A few spectators on the road commented to me about what a quick stop it was. Well, duh! It doesn't benefit you to waste time in an aid station. If you can do something while moving forward, then don't do that in an aid station. Grab food and at least walk while eating! Was headed out for loop 2 with 5:53 on the race clock. Definitely faster than I had been planning on or expecting. As much as I had told myself I wasn't going to think about time until I had finished 2 loops, I couldn't stop myself. If I could do the second loop in about the same time, maybe a bit slower, I would be headed out for loop 3 by 5pm (12:00 race time). If I slowed down a bunch and did the last loop in say... 7.5 hours and then the baby loop in 1.5 hours... that would be... 21 hours? Really? Dang!
Took off and from the start felt like I was running the second loop faster than the first. After aid station 1 I ran with a guy from Canada for a few miles. He remembered me from Sulphur Springs this year - he had been trying to convince me to go back out and not DNF (when I re-injured my calf). Although he said his stomach was queasy, we were running a really strong pace and at times I was struggling to keep up on the climbs. Eventually it must have caught up to him and I pushed on ahead to aid station 2 alone. It was nice to have a few miles of company though. Rolled in to the aid station and grabbed food for my pack and the climb out. Checked the time again. Whoa... 17 min faster than the previous loop! Too fast?? I hope not! Told myself I needed to pull it in a little bit, as I wasn't quite halfway and didn't want to crash & burn.
I slowed a little bit, but still ran a lot of the rolling terrain out to and through the Boy Scout water stop. And that's where things went downhill for the first time. I didn't stop to get water. Anywhere. Somewhere around 50 miles, with about 2 miles or so until aid station 3, I ran out of water. Not only that, I realized I hadn't been drinking enough. It had taken me 50 miles (~9.5 hours) to go through 2 liters of water. Nowhere near enough!! Ugh!! I was dying. There was a good bit of climbing still to get to aid station 3 and being dehydrated and out of water didn't help at all. Legs were feeling ok, but the rest of me, not so good. And the rest of that segment seemed to get even longer.
Aid station 3 was like an oasis. Filled my pack with water, drank some soda and grabbed some grilled cheese for the climb. Mmmmm.... melty, gooey, cheesy! I love grilled cheese. I never make it at home. I don't buy much bread - certainly not squishy, worthless white bread - or processed cheese food, but in a race.... it's GOOD! It's not sweet, it's not in a wrapper, it's warm, salty, gooey and a little crunchy. Can't get enough of it. It was a slow climb from aid station 3, as I was feeling lousy and trying to suck down as much water as my stomach could handle. I kept expecting other runners to catch up to and pass me. Though the only people I saw were 50k runners that I was passing. It took a while, but after 3-4 miles, things finally started to pick back up for me.
The dehydration was causing me to overheat, but my energy was returning and I could push the pace again. Ran pretty much all the rolling terrain the last 4+ miles of the loop back to the school. Got my drop bag and again filled my pack with food and water. Tucked my arm warmers in the waistband of my tights, thinking the temperature would drop and I would cool down and put my headlamp in the pack. More grilled cheese and soda and I was headed out for loop 3 with a bit more than 11.5 hours on the clock. Yikes!
I felt like I was doing better with hydration, but I was still roasting. It couldn't have been any warmer than 60F, but it felt closer to 80F to me. No matter what, I could not cool down! Hit the first set of climbs and felt pretty strong for being over 60 miles into a race. So I ran pretty much all the uphills on the way to the first aid station. Passed another fast runner in the 100 mile that I knew. Uh-oh. Unless he's having a really tough go, I'm either going to have a fantastic race or a very spectacular crash & burn! Well, it's probably too late to fix that. I guess time will tell. Onwards and upwards. I felt a bit like I was racing the setting sun. How far could I get before I needed to pull out my headlamp. Certainly I could get past the first aid station, but I didn't think I'd make the second one before dark.
I was very glad to be seeing certain parts of the trail for the last time. Don't get me wrong. It's a great course and overall it wasn't as tough as I was expecting, but I can't say I enjoyed those switchbacks up from aid station 1. They just kept going and going and going! Hit the top for the final time just before 6pm (12:58 race time). Yay!! It's all downhill from here! Ok, not really, but at least I was that much closer to the finish. I was steadily picking off more 100k runners as I went, maybe a few of the 100 milers as well. Hard to tell. Stopped at the unmanned water drop between aid stations 1 and 2 to refill my pack again. Decided I might as well put my headlamp on too while I had my pack open. I was also sorely tempted by the lone container of candy corn on the table. No other food, just candy corn. It's a Halloween weakness of mine. And I was feeling tempted even though I was also feeling sick of sweets. Better not risk feeling sick.
Another mile and I turned on my light. It gradually got dark and by the time I was a mile from aid station 2, it was completely dark out around the trail. I was loving my new headlamp - much brighter than the one I had worn in the morning. Turned onto a dirt road to head for the aid station and passed 2 guys running without lights. I guess they were going slower than they had planned? I thought about sticking with them to offer light, but realized we were less than half a mile from the aid station on dirt and paved roads. More food at the aid station and back out onto the trails. It was completely dark out, about 75+ miles into the race and I was still moving well. I was seeing more and more runners out - mostly 100k runners - and all of them as I was passing them. After about 20 miles into the race, I didn't get passed by a single runner.
Around the same area where I had run out of water on the previous loop, I caught up to the lead woman and 2 guys she was running with. They were all running a strong pace and I held on for about a mile. Until I had a complete meltdown. My stomach hadn't been feeling 100% all day, combined with feeling overheated for hours and I was just mentally fried. I so wanted to be done with the race. I didn't even want to think about having to head out for another 7.7 mile loop. It was still ~12 miles to get back to the middle school/race HQ, plus nearly 8 miles. Shoot me!! I didn't want to run or walk even. I wanted to curl up on the side of the trail. Sure, my legs were tired, but otherwise my legs and feet were fine. But I was exhausted from pace I had been pushing and the mental effort required to maintain that pace, despite how I had been feeling.
I wanted to quit, but I knew there was no way I was actually going to let myself quit when I got back to race HQ. I couldn't quit with less than 8 miles to go. Not happening. But it sounded appealing. I didn't care about finishing time or place anymore. There was no way I could catch back up to the lead woman. And even if I shuffled in, I would probably still manage a sub-22 hour finish for the shiny gold buckle. And I was so freaking pissed off that for over 40 miles I'd had people telling me "she's just ahead, you can catch her". WTF? What does "just ahead" mean to these people? 3 miles?!? It took 40 miles to catch up to her... that's NOT JUST AHEAD people! Maybe I hadn't been eating enough. I was cranky and tired. There had been a little bit of drizzle in the past hour, but now it actually started to rain a little bit and it was fantastic. Wonderful! The little bit of rain helped to cool me off a bit more and gradually I started running again, picking up the pace, bit by bit, until I was once again hauling ass up the trail the last 4 miles back to the school. I had probably lost at least 15 minutes shuffling and stumbling along the trail, but at least I was moving well again. Mentally I still was not in a great place though (as Rick found out when he greeted me coming into aid station 4).
I knew I needed to refill my pack and get some food. I hadn't taken in any food and hardly any fluids since leaving aid station 3 and I didn't want to risk running on empty the last 8 miles. Nothing sounded appealing, especially anything sweet (I had tried a gel and almost tossed that along the trail). I got a cup of ramen noodles and started shuffling up the road, nibbling on them as I went until the bike path started climbing towards the trail. Then it was walk. Walk and eat. I was still having trouble pushing myself. I knew I still had a chance to make sub-20 hours, but only if I actually picked it up an ran. Easier said than done. Even the flatter sections were not easy to run at that point. Everything seemed to be taking far longer than it should have too. About 50 minutes to the turn off for the short "headed home" loop where it leaves the 50k loop.
I was now on new terrain. For a while it was pretty flat, running across the valley in the middle of the park, on wet grass with very few obstacles. But once we went over the "river", there was the hill from hell. I'm sure it had a sign at the bottom with the name, but I can't remember. From running past where the "headed home" loop re-joins the 50k loop, I knew that there would be a good bit of climbing. And I was secretly hoping it wasn't that much. It was. A lot of climbing. And then more. I couldn't see a damn thing in those woods other than the tiny reflective bits on the course markings. It would climb up 50-100 feet, turn, flat section, then up again. Over and over and over. For the love of god, where the hell is the top of this damn thing? I was back to the edge of having another mental breakdown. I was cursing the trail and the race. I didn't care about anything anymore. My pace was slowing. And time was running out.
It was infuriating to keep having to climb and not have any clue how much further. I would shine my light up, hoping to catch other reflective markers or see runners on a trail above, to give me some idea of where I was headed. Nothing. After what seemed like 8 ascents, I finally saw the signs and markers where we rejoined the 50k loop. Thank fucking god! 1.6 miles of trail (a really really long 1.6 miles, by the way) and then 1.25 miles on bike path to the school. It was 12:35am. If I could make the last ~3 miles in under 35 minutes, I would squeeze in under 20 hours. Once the trail flattened out a bit I started running for all I was worth. And running faster and harder than I wanted to. Time was ticking and I didn't dare look at my watch. Ok... I know there's an open stretch for power or gas lines, then it's not much farther to the switchback down to the road. Keep going. I could hear the soft bang of the engine at Drake Wells, like a homing beacon. Then the power lines. Then what seemed like eternity, but was probably less than half a mile and I was heading down to the road, around the port-o and up the bike path to the school. Still hauling ass. I checked my watch before the bike path. I had 16 min to make it back in under 20 hours. Piece of cake. It's flat. Or rather, it was flat the first 3 times. But now, small hills had mysteriously sprouted up along the bike path. WTF? I could've sworn it was flat! Now it looks and feels like it's almost all uphill! Argh! Off the bike path, a block or so of residential road and over the bridge to the school. "Home". Crossed the line in 19:56.
I was spent. Legs felt amazingly good. But the rest of me felt pretty much destroyed. I knew I should eat and drink to replenish what I had lost, but that held no appeal. I was able to get down some ginger ale before a shower and a little bit of hamburger bun after, but then spent a good half hour sitting in the bathroom unsure if I was going to hurl. Finally crawled onto my "bed" in the gym 2.5 hours after finishing, freezing, with aching hips and knees to try and sleep a bit.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Mountain Madness 50k
Mountain Madness is one of those races I have a love-hate
relationship with. It’s a tough course,
a lot of rocks, a few good climbs, but it’s a great time of year to be running
and many of the local runners come out to test themselves against the course
and each other. I’ve run the race every
year since it started in 2009 and each year has been a very different
experience for me. The first year I was
caught completely off guard by how tough it was. I mean, it’s New Jersey, how tough could it
be? In 2010 I was very undertrained and
paid dearly for it, running significantly slower than the first year. Finally in 2011 I got my act together, trained
on the course and had a good run. Those
first 3 years, the course was pretty much the same – running a 7.5+ mile loop
of primarily fire roads before heading out on a ~24 mile loop of hillier and
more technical single track.
However 2012 would be different for everyone as the course
would not only cover a slightly different route, it would be run in
reverse. Oh great, now that I finally
was able to navigate my way around without getting lost, the course changed! Back to training on the course so I would
know what to expect on race day – both in terms of where the toughest sections
would be as well as knowing the turns.
Race day rolled around and I was feeling ready to take on
the course, but not necessarily ready to race
it. I had raced a hilly 50 miler the
previous weekend and since I didn’t expect to be recovered enough to race
again, I continued training right up to race day (including an easy 10 miles on
roads that morning). Weather was perfect
for running. Rain from the previous 2
days had pretty much cleared out and it was not supposed to get above
mid-60s. After socializing before the
race and then a quick pre-race speech by co-RD Rick McNulty, the pack was off.
I quickly settled into a running, not racing, pace. I wasn’t racing. Really, I wasn’t! And going uphill, as the course does in the
first few miles, is not my strength. So
I watched all the front runners attack the first few hills while I held back
and power hiked up them, saving my legs for the bigger climbs after mile
16. The first few miles passed by
relatively quickly and I went straight by the first aid station and cruised
along at a steady effort to the second aid station. I had taken the lead in the women’s race
before the first aid station, but I could hear the second place woman behind me
every now and then, so I wasted no time and ran straight through.
Within a half mile I caught up to a group of fast guys that
I did not expect to see on the course.
We were doing a good bit of downhill running and I was still feeling
great 10+ miles in, so I squeezed past them when the course allowed it. A mile or so later the terrain changed and we
were running some smaller climbs. I hate
getting passed, so having a couple fast guys on my tail pushed me to go hard on
the uphills. Harder than my legs wanted
me to. By the time we got to aid station
3, I was wondering if I had pushed the pace too hard, too early. Could I sustain this effort for another 17
miles or so?
A quick hello to the volunteers I knew, a few pieces of
candy corn and back to the trail.
Leaving AS #3, the course runs downhill on a service road before picking
up singletrack again. Right at the
bottom were a couple lost and confused runners – they had missed a turn,
bypassing the aid station (oops!). I
gave them some directions – and wondered how they hadn’t seen all the bright
orange streamers – and took off again.
Quick stops at the aid stations had allowed me to put some time on the
guys behind me and now I was gaining on another runner ahead. The few miles to the next aid station was
where I really picked up the effort. The
route for the 50k had re-joined the 25k route, so there were plenty of
“rabbits” to be chased down. I ran hard
up and down the rolling hills, over the rocks and caught up to another group of
guys I had not expected to see, many of whom had passed me earlier in the
race. The last mile or so into aid
station 4 I was very glad I had done some training on the course, as a
non-runner had gone out and pulled down all the orange streamers! I knew the course followed the orange blazed
trail we had been running along, but I figured many others would likely miss a
crucial turn.
Are we there yet? I
had pushed the pace a bit too hard chasing down other runners and passing the
guys heading to AS #4. Bad timing for
that, as a quarter mile out of the aid station is the biggest, toughest climb
on the course. Too late to change
that. I ran in, threw back some Coke,
grabbed some PB&J for the climb and mentally prepared for the climbs ahead. I was pretty sure I had put some distance
between myself and second place over the last 10 miles, but there was no way to
know for sure.
As much as I don’t like climbing, this slope is rocky enough
that I actually preferred going up this year than down it the previous
years. Somehow I made it up the climb
feeling much better than I had in training, but a glance back told me it wasn’t
fast enough. At least one of the guys I
had passed had gained significant ground on me.
Go time! Despite the wet leaves
& rocks, I hammered the downhill stretch that followed, passing several
more 25k runners and took off up the next section of gradual climbs mixed with
flat stretches. There were more and more
25k runners on the course, obviously I was making my way through the middle of
the pack. I was definitely feeling the
effort from a hard pace, but I really did not want to slow down.
Man, where is that next aid station? This is taking forever!! The next aid station would be the
start/finish, before we headed out to run the bike loop. Although it would mean I still had more than
7 miles left to run, it was the easiest 7 miles of the course – thank god! I must have zoned out for a while, as it was
while running a flat, smooth, wide stretch that I tripped and went sliding over
dirt and gravel, effectively trying to make mincemeat out of my right knee. Go figure.
I had run through several rock gardens with no problem, but ate it on an
easy stretch.
Another couple miles and I was running along the edge of the
lake to the start/finish area. Yea! Home stretch!
Another quick aid stop and back out along the lake, giving me a chance
to see if there was anyone close behind me.
Just one guy who had passed me after my fall – and then apparently he
had missed a turn and taken a scenic detour.
But there was still about 7.5 miles to go. And although the terrain was easier, it
seemed like the toughest section. I had
no issue hiking the steeper climbs earlier in the race. They were real hills and everyone would be
hiking up them. But now I was on long
stretches of those insidious gentle climbs.
The kind that just sucks the energy out of you, slows your pace
drastically, but doesn’t look anywhere near steep enough to warrant walking.
Mentally, I was trying not to count down the miles or look
at my watch. Or look behind me. I knew I was on track to beat my time from
the previous year, but I could also tell I was slowing down a bit. I’ve only gone 3 miles?!? Focus!
One foot in front of the other and don’t look at your watch! Ok, ok… look at all the pretty trees. Just a couple more miles, just a couple more. Hit the final half mile and kicked it into
high gear.
 |
| Coming into the finish |
As I was coming off the trail onto the fire road around the
lake, a well meaning runner or volunteer asked, “50k?”
“Yes.”
“Ok, you’re going to stay left to the aid station, then head
back out this way for a smaller loop –“
“No! I’m
finishing!” No more, please!
 |
| Top men & women in the 50k getting cash prizes from Mountain Peak Fitness |
[All photos taken by Joe Azze of Mountain Peak Fitness]
Monday, October 1, 2012
September in Review
September was the first full month of really solid training since March. It's been a very long road back. Two 3 week breaks from running, a 4 week stint of physical therapy and at least a month of building back up the mileage. It's been very frustrating having to limit my running and still not being sure if things were on the right track. But it seems like it is now. Huzzah!!
The first 2-3 weeks of August I was still in physical therapy. PT three times per week, for a hour, and not starting off running less than 10 miles at a time. Then gradually increasing... to 12... then 15 miles. Then they kicked me out. Which would seem great, but at the time I was thinking, "Oh no! I'm not ready to be done!" I had some races in September that I had been thinking about. I would need to increase my mileage to get ready for them, but I did not want to increase it too rapidly and have a repeat of May. A very delicate balance would be needed.
A few days before Labor Day weekend I decided to go ahead and run the Monster Marathon in Virgil. It sounded like a fun event, small crowd and beautiful area. It was most definitely hillier than I would have liked for my first race back to be an easier one, but this fit my schedule. Showed up with no expectations and just hoping to finish without any pain. I accomplished both of those and did better than I had expected time-wise. But with how hilly the course was and how aggressively I ran the first big downhill, my quads were sore for 5 days. 5 days!!! I haven't had legs that sore for.... geez... at least a year. That definitely didn't help build my confidence that I'd be ready to run 100 miles anytime soon.
Still, I went ahead and signed up for Virgil Crest 50M 3 weeks later... the weekend before Mountain Madness 50k. The second weekend of September I headed out for a ~24 miles run on the Mountain Madness course with a friend. It rain for a good chunk of it and we both struggled a lot in the later miles. Again, not good for building confidence. Struggling to get through a 24 mile training run only 2 weeks before a hilly, hilly 50 miler? What have I gotten myself into?!? OMG!! But aside from bailing on the race, it was too late to really do anything.
Fast forward 2 weeks to Virgil Crest Ultra. I hadn't really done much of a taper, so I wasn't planning on racing. Just get through 50 miles, un-injured and hopefully not feeling totally destroyed. There was no way I would be prepared to race 50 miles, let alone 50 miles with over 10,000' of climbing. So I took it out easy, ran a strong first half, then picked it up and ran a slightly faster second half (if you don't count the bonus 1.2 miles I ran). Even better, my left calf felt fine and my legs were only a teeny bit sore. A couple days off, some mid-week runs and it was time to tackle Mountain Madness 50k.
Again, I decided I was not racing. Getting in one last solid weekend of training before Oil Creek 100 was more important to me than placing well at Mountain Madness. So, I ran Friday after work and early Saturday before the race. Like Virgil Crest, I started out easy, watching the front of the pack pull away as they pushed the pace hard up the hills. Whatever, I'm not racing. But by 8 miles I was picking up the pace and feeling great. And I was in the lead. Wound up taking 1st F and running it 16 minutes faster than last year, although the course was slightly different. Even better, my legs felt great. No soreness, minimal fatigue. So good I went out for 13+ miles the next day.
All in all, September turned out to be a fantastic month of training and I even ran a few more miles than I did in January. And I am definitely feeling ready to rock it at Oil Creek in 12 days. BRING IT!!!
The first 2-3 weeks of August I was still in physical therapy. PT three times per week, for a hour, and not starting off running less than 10 miles at a time. Then gradually increasing... to 12... then 15 miles. Then they kicked me out. Which would seem great, but at the time I was thinking, "Oh no! I'm not ready to be done!" I had some races in September that I had been thinking about. I would need to increase my mileage to get ready for them, but I did not want to increase it too rapidly and have a repeat of May. A very delicate balance would be needed.
A few days before Labor Day weekend I decided to go ahead and run the Monster Marathon in Virgil. It sounded like a fun event, small crowd and beautiful area. It was most definitely hillier than I would have liked for my first race back to be an easier one, but this fit my schedule. Showed up with no expectations and just hoping to finish without any pain. I accomplished both of those and did better than I had expected time-wise. But with how hilly the course was and how aggressively I ran the first big downhill, my quads were sore for 5 days. 5 days!!! I haven't had legs that sore for.... geez... at least a year. That definitely didn't help build my confidence that I'd be ready to run 100 miles anytime soon.
Still, I went ahead and signed up for Virgil Crest 50M 3 weeks later... the weekend before Mountain Madness 50k. The second weekend of September I headed out for a ~24 miles run on the Mountain Madness course with a friend. It rain for a good chunk of it and we both struggled a lot in the later miles. Again, not good for building confidence. Struggling to get through a 24 mile training run only 2 weeks before a hilly, hilly 50 miler? What have I gotten myself into?!? OMG!! But aside from bailing on the race, it was too late to really do anything.
Fast forward 2 weeks to Virgil Crest Ultra. I hadn't really done much of a taper, so I wasn't planning on racing. Just get through 50 miles, un-injured and hopefully not feeling totally destroyed. There was no way I would be prepared to race 50 miles, let alone 50 miles with over 10,000' of climbing. So I took it out easy, ran a strong first half, then picked it up and ran a slightly faster second half (if you don't count the bonus 1.2 miles I ran). Even better, my left calf felt fine and my legs were only a teeny bit sore. A couple days off, some mid-week runs and it was time to tackle Mountain Madness 50k.
Again, I decided I was not racing. Getting in one last solid weekend of training before Oil Creek 100 was more important to me than placing well at Mountain Madness. So, I ran Friday after work and early Saturday before the race. Like Virgil Crest, I started out easy, watching the front of the pack pull away as they pushed the pace hard up the hills. Whatever, I'm not racing. But by 8 miles I was picking up the pace and feeling great. And I was in the lead. Wound up taking 1st F and running it 16 minutes faster than last year, although the course was slightly different. Even better, my legs felt great. No soreness, minimal fatigue. So good I went out for 13+ miles the next day.
All in all, September turned out to be a fantastic month of training and I even ran a few more miles than I did in January. And I am definitely feeling ready to rock it at Oil Creek in 12 days. BRING IT!!!
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