That was HARD! A total full-body workout and thrashing. The race was out at Lake Wyandotte, with relentless 300-400 foot steep hills one after another, and the mud, oh the MUD! One hill was so steep they kindly strung a rope down to pull ourselves up or it would have been very difficult to get up it. There were two races--if you were in the 50k you could run the loop twice. I can't really give a precise mile by mile account because there were no markers but I can sorta remember things. I have never been more proud of 11 minute miles in my life! My legs, arms, abs, it all hurts today! I had been warned that this was a very difficult trail race and a bit of a doozy by my experienced trail-runner friend Tex.
Morning: Up at 3:39, at the quik trip by 4:00am to meet Eddy, and then he followed us for the three hour drive. We arrived over and hour early, and watched the 50Kers take off(and chew the trail up for us). Warm up was some light jogging with Tex and Eddy and getting used to the handheld water bottle, which was a requirement or you got disqualified. It was a hot and muggy day, but with much of the trail being shaded I was never aware of being terrible hot during the race. Finally, 30 minutes after the 50Ker, us one-loopers lined up at the starting line and then we were off. A pack of 10 guys sprang to the lead up the single-track trail and into the woods and I took off after them. The hills and climbs started immediately, followed by treacherous rocky descents where even with the brakes fully engaged it was hard to move at a speed in which you did not roll down head first and break your limbs. I fell twice in the first two miles before I got a little better at this. The hills were incredibly steep and I quickly adopted the power-hike. I would lower my head, swing my arms like crazy for momentum and sweep my legs up the slope as hard as I could. I grabbed onto any tree branch that looked like it would hold me to help pull me up the slopes. At the top I told myself to keep moving and would shuffle slowly for a minute to catch my wind and then would open up my stride as soon as the burning in my legs would let me, but then of course I would be back to another crazy descent or punishing hill. It was beautiful and a I saw deer and birds but it was intensely exhausting. I knew I was the leading lady and didn't want to lose my lead. After 5 or 6 miles or so the trail flattened out a little for a few miles and just gently rolled up and down and around through the woods. I was able to get the pace going again and get a little leg recovery here before getting back to business. Somewhere in here the mud started. It was shin deep and there was no going around it. I adopted the mud power-shuffle using a lot of forward motion rather than up and down as up and down got your shoe sucked off. Twice I stood in shin-deep mud trying to shove my foot back into my mud-filled shoe; afraid to move for fear I would never find the shoe again. The last two miles were the muddiest. Whenever the trail went up a bit and I could get out of the mud I would shuffle-run up as best I could. Sometimes power hiking was faster when going up, but if it wasn't too steep my uphill shuffle run was quicker. I never looked back, especially at the end when I envisioned a female on my shoulder poised to take the lead. My motto was "keep moving as fast as possible". I passed a lot of people who were very polite and would step off to the side and let me through. I'm sure I sounded like a freight train as I spent much of this race panting like a dog. Then there was grass, and I could hear the cheers at the finish line, and then I could see it. I came over the bridge and sprinted and it was done. I felt great! Turns out the second place female was 15 minutes behind me--we were the only two to break 3 hours on the loop. The first 50k lady ran it in 6:27 which is awesome--two 3:13's on that loop would be tough! Next year I want to run the 50k--two loops--although I would have to run at much lower intensity to do it twice. There were a lot of DNF's--191 out of 214 finished in the 15 mile(25k) and only 66 out of 112 finished the 50k! Wow! I'm sure the second round in the 50k was tough with the trail even muddier and the sun even hotter. As intensely fatigued as I was I never hit a wall so I was glad about that. I am also impressed at how well my stomach held up. Whenever I hit an aid station I just grabbed a handful of the first thing I touched and shoved it in my mouth while the totally awesome volunteers filled my water bottle. I had an interesting mix of bananas, watermelon, and chocolate gu. I was in and out of the stations in about 10-20 seconds I would guess. This was a fun experience and I will definitely be back! Oh, and trail runners are incredible athletes--I have a lot of respect for them!
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