Rocky Raccoon 50 miler

Yesterday I sat out to do something I had never done before. Run/walk/crawl 50 miles. I ran a full on New Years Eve and on New Years Day I sat out to run another full which I cut short to a half. Needless to say, my plans to properly train had been met with resistance. It is amazing how life can get in the way of play, but that is another story.

I headed up to Huntsville on Friday night and stayed at the Super 8 and was even crazy enough to eat Mexican food the night before the race.

I was worried because it had been raining all day and the course was surely a wet mess. Little did I know.

I decided to sleep in until 6am for the 7am start and promptly at 4:30am I woke straight up to the sound of crashing lightning. What had I gotten myself into? I tried to sleep until 6 and worried about how the start would go. I got ready and drove to the park.

At 6:45 I got out of the car and headed to the start complete with rain gear and headlamp because it was still dark at this time. The race started even though the sky was rumbling.

My first loop I walked some and talked with some folks from San Antonio, they called themselves old folks, but I don't think they were THAT old. We chatted and one gentleman told me the he too was not properly trained so I did a walk/run combo with him for a while. I soon realized I would not finish my first loop of 16.67 in four hours as I had planned if I did not run away from him. I slowly pulled away and wished him well. I only saw him once more, I hope he didn't give up.

The trail was wet, VERY wet, and muddy, VERY muddy. I was able to finish lap one in 4:15 and when I arrived a very sweet person named Betsy helped get my gear bag and proceeded to remove my shoes and socks and then clean my feet. She rubbed me down with Vaseline and said my feet looked great compared to most people (no blisters yet). I got on new shoes and socks grabbed some grub and headed back out.

Lap #2 I did in 4:30. I started getting sleepy and someone gave me a Honey Milk (coffee flavor) and I perked up and felt a million times better. At the end of this loop my wonderful husband and two of my kids had arrived to cheer me on. Either I messed up on fuel or sat too long because lap 3 was a killer. It took me like 6 hours.

The sun went down and I found myself all alone for sections of the course. I kept having images of "The Blair Witch Project" in my head. Looking back on it, it was pretty neat being all alone out there. I am a "safety" person and everything in my being tells me never to run alone after dark even in the security of my own neighborhood...but something about that was so calming and enjoyable.

I had been wearing my Garmin which died at mile 45 and something about being alone in the dark woods with no idea of how far to go was rough. I got cold, and I got SLOW. The last loop was very rough on my body, but not my mind. I never hit the wall in this race. There were never thoughts of "I can't do this." I was in a good place~I like that place.

I crossed the finish line 15 hours and 46 minutes after I started. I had planned for 15-18 hours and had I trained properly I think I could have easily been under 14 hours without the body issues. The bottom line is I crossed that line and that is all that matters!!

Today I am sore, I waddled into church like a 100-year old woman. My feet are swollen, and I am sure it will be days before I recover. Oh, and in my leisure time on the computer I just signed up for the Chicago Marathon this October. :)

Here is some stats:

3 pairs of shoes

3 pairs of socks

Changed shorts to skirt for last lap

Peed in the woods about 5 times

Pooped in the woods once (not just for bears)

Never fell but saw 6 people fall

Heard countless numbers of people farting and burping

Didn't eat enough... I had, pretzels, Fritos, ham and cheese sandwich, breakfast taco, pink & white animal crackers, hot mashed potatoes, whole new potatoes (my favorite out there), Oreos, 3 Honey Milks, drank a TON of Cytomax and Gatorade...water too but not as much.

At last but not least... This is NOT my last 50-miler. I think I am hooked on ultra-trail runs for a while. The people that do these are so different from road racers, in an odd but neat way.