Finally finished a 50 mile run! After the first 5 mile loop of running up to the top of the ski hills and running down a black diamond, I was terrified that I wouldnt make it much further. My quads were already burning and my left hip flexor was in serious pain. I knew I wasnt rested enough after I PRd at a marathon 2 weeks ago. Lesson learned. I continued on and started to lose time on the down hills because of my hip flexor. At the 25 mile aid station I came in completely wanting to make the decision to turn right to just finish the 50k. It was 6:15 in, and the race cutoff was13 hours. Last year I got to this point at 6:30 and made it 45 miles. I lost it a bit feeling defeated. I wanted to make it there by 5:30 to give me an extra hour to finish the second half, and I knew I had to do that torturous 15 mile loop again, and I really didnt want to. My mom told me to eat something to see how I felt, so I did. Then another runner came in who i had been running with earlier. She went back out to work on the 50, so I said what the hell... I signed up for the 50, I might as well keep going. I caught up with her a couple miles later and we kept each other motivated for awhile. She had a note card with the cutoff times for the other aide stations, so I took off knowing Id be slower on the downhill. I made the next 3 aide station cutoffs through mile 35, so it was back through the prairie and up a 1 mile hill gaining about 970 feet. I struggled through the prairie because I had also been having stomach issues, so it was a very fine line between eating enough to feed my muscles and needing to throw up. I took tums and pepto bismal to work on keeping everything in, but the next 2 miles were all walking. The girl from earlier, Toni and another guy, Andy caught up to me at the top of the hill. We all walked together for awhile. They had been told at the last aid station that they wouldve forced to be done at mile 45. I guess Im too stubborn and didnt want to end where I did last year. Id come all this way to finish. There was a long downhill coming up and even though my hip flexor still hurt, I knew I could run it with my low energy so I took off. Their feet were hurting too much to run on the loose rocky surface, but my Hokas had protected my feet so far and they were in relatively little pain. I made it to mile 40, and my mom didnt have anything out. They were not going to let us continue. I asked if I could keep going and the guy who was something like the safety officer said I could keep going to the 45 mile station but I shave to be done there. The cutoff time was 5:30 and it was now 4:25. Last year it took me 13:17 to finish 45 miles so I figured Id at least beat my time from last year. Then Andy and Toni came rolling in. We started talking about that last 5 mile loop (the same one we did for the first 5 miles of the day) and we had the safety guy convinced that if we all did that loop together that we could go... Depending on what time we made 45 miles. We were all happy and set out again. I was feeling energized so I used that to my advantage and started running. I knew it would be a long 5 miles and figured theyd catchup anyway. Twice during that time I had to go to the bathroom. The only other time so far, I pulled my skirt down, but that is so time consuming! I started thinking about my ultra friends in Hawaii and someone told me about going standing up. Supposedly you just pull your shorts to the side. Id also thought about just going while running like I know some ultra runners do. My feet had been soaked since mile 10 anyway. I decided to try to be a little less gross and did the standing technique and it worked amazingly well! Good thing too because I had to go again a couple miles later. My sweat production was slowing down I guess. I also discovered that if I didnt move my left leg through its full range of motion that I could run without the hip flexor pain. It resulted in an almost galloping style as I practically dragged that leg along. During one of the last downhill sections Andy caught up to me. He said he was done at 45 miles. This was his first ultra so he was fine with that. I started thinking too... I was in so much pain and so tired I just wanted to be done too, but then there would still be that 50 mile finish I didnt have. If theyd let me go, I was going to finish. Andy helped me through the last mile or so and he was done. My mom and Ben were there waiting for me. I asked about going on and they said theyd let me but I couldnt go by myself. Andy was done and they said Toni was at least a mile behind me. It was 6:13, and they werent going to let anyone go after 6:30. The cutoff was supposed to be 5:30, and the official race was over at 6:30. I said I didnt care about the medal, I just wanted to do it for me. So I asked Ben if he wanted to do a 5 mile hike with me. He was already a step ahead of me and had his mountain bike ready. Amazing that he had the forethought to think that mightve needed!!! :) So he saved the day and we set out on those last 5 torturous miles. I was only able to jog for bits at a time and it took me almost 2 hours, but at 14 hours and 34 minutes I finally crossed what would have been the finish line! I guess they wanted to keep it up for me but a bout of rain 20 minutes earlier made them pack it in. They still have me a medal and even had an awesome dances with dirt blanket for me! I felt beaten up but I had no blisters (thanks to my balega socks, hoka shoes, and skin lube I put all over my toes and heals) and no chafing. I felt pretty good so we started driving home. Then the adrenaline must have worn out and shocked my body. We pulled into a gas station just in time. I thought I was going to be sick, but instead I almost passed out. I had to urgently use the bathroom and my mom had to guide me through the store because I couldnt see and I was stumbling so badly she had to explain to the store clerk that I had just run 50 miles and that I wasnt drunk. I cleaned up and changed because I was also getting so cold that my fingers were going numb. I pikes on the blankets when we got back into the truck. The same thing happened about 30 minutes later, but then after that it was just bad muscle pain. That Im fine with, but the fainting... Not so fun. Anyhow Im glad I was ale to finish, but theres no way I could have done it without my mom and Ben. My mom got me through each aid station with potato soup, cold clothes, Mountain Dew (which I hadnt really had for 2 months btw), watermelon, pineapple and encouragement. If Ben hadnt been there, I wouldnt have been allowed to keep going. Thank you both so much!!
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 15:48:59 +0000
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