Well, now I got that out of my system for a while.
This is going to sound really stupid, but for some reason I
envisioned this being a little bit more “fun” I’m not sure why I would think
that. I have about 100 excuses but
honestly I don’t think I need to make any excuses, I’m happy with my result, I
really had no way to know what to expect and with all my resent set backs just
finishing a 50 miler is something I’m pretty proud of.
Stayed at the in-laws last night and actually got a really
good night sleep, almost 7 hours of sleep then woke up at 3:00am with no
alarm. My Father in law offered to drive
me to the start even though there were buses leaving Sheridan, we got to the
start about an hour early and 15 minutes before the buses so I had the porta potties
to myself for a while. It was chilly at
the top but I knew that was only going to last for an hour or so, so I was
happy about the cold. Surprisingly the
race started with an out right sprint with about 10 guys right off the bat, I
wasn’t expecting that at all, I started up chase group 1 with 3 guys behind me,
I felt good but we were running through snow drifts and mud puddles pretty
fast, I kept thinking “this is to fast” but I didn’t want the guys behind me to
pass. A couple times I saw 6:10 on my
Garmin, bad news. At mile 8 I tripped on
a rock and wiped out pretty hard, skinned my knees up but nothing felt broken,
the 3 guys all passed me, which looking back actually may of saved me from
something really bad happening. I
tripped about 5 times over the first 20 miles, I think that it was simply a
matter of me doing all my training runs on the road, my normal running stride
just doesn’t lift my feet enough so I kept tripping. I could tell that falling was taking a lot
out of me and decided taking a really hard fall was going to put me back a lot
more than just slowing down, so that’s what I did.
I would say this route is almost 50% un-runnable, the
up-hills are to steep to run- and the down-hills to technical. I was pretty upset that I kept walking up
hill but then I realized everyone was walking the up-hills and no-one was
passing me.
My family was all waiting for me at the mile 33 aid station,
I told them I was going to be there between 11:00 and 12:00, at 11:10 I was 3
miles away and saw that it was straight up-hill to the aid station, I averaged
about 16:00 pace for that next 3 miles.
All my kids and wife were waiting for me and walked me the last
100meters up the hill. They told me even
the winners all walked that hill so I didn’t feel so bad. I spent way to much time at that aid station
with my family, eating and taking care of blisters, I noticed 2 girls running
the 50M come in and immediately leave, my wife told me I had to go catch them
so I didn’t get chicked, I knew I couldn’t catch them though, they were
hauling. About 5 miles later I got
backed by Girl # 3 and thought, I need to start running with girls, they are
way smarter than me when it comes to racing.
I kept jocking back and forth with the 3rd Girl and
ran/walked with her for quite a while and eventually broke away. Besides the 2 girls I could only think of
maybe 2 other 50miler guys that had passed me and guessed I was in about 15th
place, but I didn’t really care, I knew I wasn’t going to pass anyone, and I
couldn’t see anyone behind me so I was content with my place.
Mile 38 all of a sudden like 10 people just stopped right in
the middle of the trail (at this point there were 100M, 50K, and 30K people on
the trail) and one of the 100M pacers was sword fighting something with a
stick, turns out there was a huge rattlesnake just off the trail all coiled up
and really pissed off. Eventually we all
bush wacked around it and I decided to try and help scare it away cause we were
afraid for other runners coming down the trail,
I found out I could throw rocks almost as good as I could run at that
point, and I’m terrified of snakes anyway so I left it to the pacer and
left. Not sure if he ever got rid of it,
I hope so.
Around mile 40 the trail actually got really nice to run on,
single track without rocks and a downslope, If I didn’t have 40 mile legs I’m
sure I could have flown down it, but by this point 9:30 pace felt like
sprinting. Then at 46 miles the trail
came out onto a dirt road which also would have been nice to run on but it was
85 degrees at this point and I was dead.
I kept telling myself I just needed to make a running motion no matter
how slow it was and just get done. That
4 miles was miserable, I knew my wife was waiting for me at the final aid
station to pace me in so that kept me going. The final aid station is at mile
50, seriously, I thought this was a 50 mile race I was ready to be done. I’m really happy my wife was there, she was
all gung ho and I kept having to tell her to slow down, but without her I seriously
would have walked the last 1.5 miles so I was glad she was there.
I finished strong, never had a major breakdown and was so
glad to be done. I immediately crossed
the finish line and jumped into the Ice cold river. So nice.
Things I learned,
Don’t follow the 6:00min/mile guys at the start of an Ultra
Don’t try to find the “dry” way around rivers and bogs, just
go through them you’re going to get wet and muddy anyway.
Do train on trails, not roads.
Learn not to fall down so much.
Learn how to take care of your feet better, I dealt with a
pretty bad blister almost the entire race.
Un-fortunately I am in a really bad age group so I don’t get
any award at all, If I came back next year I’m sure I could win something, but
at this point I don’t think that will happen.
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