ULTRA FUN!

Yesterday I ran my first (and perhaps my only) ultra marathon. I did the Spring Equinox 50K Trail Race down at Clear Springs Recreation Area in the Homochitto National Forest. This is the same event that was my first ever trail race last year, when I ran the 10-miler a few weeks after completing RNR NOLA, my first half marathon. Sophie and I had so much fun last year that we knew we had to come back (and we did go back to camp with our families and run shorter sections of the trails last spring), and as we drew near to this years event date and the registration cutoff, we also knew we were capable of finishing the 50K this time around. I wasn't nervous at all... until the Thursday before the race. Not so much worried about finishing, but worried about being out there all day and feeling miserable for hours and hours (I am well aware that trail mileage takes a LOT longer than road mileage to complete, based on past races such as Equinox, Furtive, and Big Dog, and this course is known to be extra tough). In fact, just as folks questioned our sanity for choosing The Blues for our first marathon, people were equally surprised we picked Equinox for our first ultra. Of course, unlike road racers, the trail runners included "that's awesome" and "whoa, badass!" to their surprise. It took our running buddy Mack over eight and a half hours to do the 50K here last year. He is the 69-year-old that I recently strove to match for time in a 10K race, and a guy who has run over 300 races in his life, about half of which have been marathons or ultra marathons. I wanted to do the 50K in 7-8 hours max, and I worried that if it took Mack longer than that, how could I be so sure of myself? It's not as though I set an actual time goal, but I figured "the faster the better" in terms of getting off my feet and out of the heat (it got up to almost 80 degrees by lunch time), sooner rather than later. The biggest challenge (bigger than the mileage and rooty/rocky terrain) was the elevation change: 4550 ft.

(The Equinox website reported 4547ft elevation change for the 50K course. My chart was a little different because I didn't have good satellites throughout the run and my battery was low for the last 2 hours...)

The course was the same as last year, except they traded the 25K for a 50-miler:

I drove down the night before the race with my friend Lee (a 5am running buddy) and we camped at the group campsite (where most of the other runners were also camping, due to the 6:30am start time). Sophie camped with her family, the Lilleyman family camped, there were other kids, and dogs, and trail runners of all ages and calibers. It was a neat group, and I would have happily sat at a campfire, beer in hand, to swap running stories with them all, but even though trail running is far more laid back than road races are, these folks still meant business because they knew what they were up against in the morning - camp closed down at 9:30pm as everyone crawled into their sleeping bags while the race director walked around yelling "Goodnight! Go to sleep!" And then got moving again at 4:30am... 

We started off the day with breakfast (2 hard boiled eggs, an oatmeal bar, a banana, and coffee for me), then headed down to the starting line a half hour before the start to grab our goodie bags and get our race numbers Sharpied onto our arms. (Even though the start/finish pavilion was only a couple hundred yards from the group campsite, I drove Lee and Sophie and myself down there because it was at the bottom of a very long, steep hill that I knew none of us would want to climb after the race when our muscles were wiped out and locked up.)

Amy, Lee, and Mack (the most die-hard of the marathoners/ultra marathoners in the 5am running group) with me and Sophie

A brief intro from the race directors/Forge Racing Ambassadors, and we were off (just 10 minutes past the planned starting time) to the ring of the unicorn bell. 

That's me in bright green, second from the end on the right, eating a Gu as they talked

The thought of running alone in the dark, on trails, like so many ultra runners do in their training and in races (especially when they're out there overnight to complete 100-milers), has always seemed crazy to me and is one reason I know I would never run farther than a 50K (the other reason being that while running this race my body told me that 31 miles was plenty far enough thank you very much). I never want to have to train alone in the dark in the woods! However, running for a half hour in the dark with a group of runners during the race was not at all scary. It was actually really cool to see all the reflective tape on shoes, clothes, and packs in front of me, and to see bobbing headlamps on the people behind me.

The kilt boys. They passed us before mile 2, but we passed them back at mile 20 and didn't see them again until they finished 20 minutes or so after us. When we stopped to talk to them at Aid Station 5 they told us one of them was an ultra marathoner and the other had never run farther than 6 miles at a stretch. If that's really true, that marathon guy is going to owe his buddy a lot more than a cold beer.

Once the sun came out, the cloud cover kept things from getting too hot too quickly (we started the race at 58 degrees and ended about 20 degrees warmer), though that only lasted through mile 14. Then the sun beat down and I was so glad I had my visor and sunblock on. We were sweat soaked from about mile 4 onward, like literally wring the clothes out soaked, and it's only March. Perhaps I won't do all of those other trail races I mentioned last month...



We knew we were getting close to Aid Station 2 (the BEST aid station!) when we saw this sign

So, why was Aid Station 2 the best? Well, they had motivational signs posted to trees along the trail leading up to the station and beyond, unicorn tears (AKA beer, which I am happily sipping in the below photo), homemade carrot cake, volunteers in costume, and everything else I never thought I'd crave while running (rice balls, boiled potatoes, M&Ms, cookies, chips, pretzels, and soda, plus the traditional ultra fuels like Hammer gels, Heed, and Endurolytes). This was the aid station we spent the most time at, especially on our second/final loop - I had seriously been having mirages of it for miles (I was completely spent, out of water, and it was a 4.7 mile stretch between the second to last aid station and this one, in the heat of the day). I have never experienced repeated mirages like that before - I thought I was losing my mind and it was very frustrating. At one point I almost convinced Sophie that they must have moved the aid station (after we'd crossed a road that I was SURE was going to be the place). I was so happy to see them... When we walked up that second time a whole bunch of girls ran up to congratulate us on being almost done (we only had a 5K to go at that point) and asked us what we needed. They refilled our hydration bladders for us and said lots of encouraging things while we ate and drank. If I remember correctly, I drank 3+ liters of water during the run, plus some Coke at the first 5 aid stations. And didn't need to use the bathroom once...

Sipping the unicorn tears on the first loop (nobody could stomach that stuff the second time around)

Still smiling big and not yet hurting at mile 8.3

After the sun came out, our hiking:running ratio increased significantly. We wanted to take a picture at the halfway point and had to guesstimate it since satellites were spotty on the southwestern portion of the trail and our GPS mileage got way off after we passed Aid Station 3. So this is how we felt at mile 15-ish: angry and crazy. OK, not really. OK, maybe a little...

Somewhere after Aid Station 5 (that would be past mile 20, the furthest we'd ever run on a trail!) a unicorn came flying out of the woods and ran me over. Or maybe it was a small rock sticking 2 inches out of the ground that I tripped over... That was the only thing we could find in the vicinity once I finally stood up and looked around for the cause of my ridiculous, slow-motion face-plant. Luckily my belly has a lot of cushioning and that's what hit first, so I survived it without a scratch. Just a lot of dirt. I laid there so long laughing before I got up that Sophie teased me (through her own tears of laughter) that I fell just so I had an excuse to sit down for a while. In reality, I just laid there because I was laughing so hard that I thought I'd pee myself if I tried to stand up. If the camera hadn't been tucked into the front of my vest, I would have let Sophie take a picture of me laying there, face in the dirt (and yes, so happy to be off my feet for a minute). Crazy unicorns.

This place really is gorgeous. I particularly liked the bridges. And the downhills...

Look! It's a picture of me running the trail! Sorry we didn't take more awesome action shots, but in an effort to not be out there all day, we actually took less photos during the run than we usually would. Plus, we were just so tired for over half the run that it seemed like too much effort to unzip the vest pocket and grab the camera.

We saw this rainbow Skittle covered sign in the trail the second time we passed the wonderful Aid Station 3. (We also saw new motivational signs that they'd added, which I read silently as I ran past. When Sophie stopped to read them out loud I had to tell her to stop halfway through because they almost instantly reduced us to tears. Apparently running for longer than 4 hours makes us really emotional...)

A little bit of funny goes a long way when you're exhausted and emotional. Unicorn poo is funny.

Sophie hurt her knee at some point during the last 10 miles of the race, we're not sure when or how exactly. She'd had me lead the entire day because she'd been sick for weeks and hadn't run much and said she needed to play "follow the leader" to get the miles done. Personally, I think she just wanted to stare at my booty for 8 hours... Anyway, I'd occasionally get a little too far ahead and not realize until I stopped to cross a muddy patch or particularly bad root zone (or walk uphill), and the noise of my sloshing water bladder would cease, letting me become concious of the fact that I was no longer hearing her behind me. She would catch up quickly and tell me to go ahead and aim for a better time, but there was no way I was going to do that. For one, I was exhausted and sore (oh my aching feet and hips!) and just going through the motions by that point, no time goal anywhere near my radar - I just wanted to finish! And also, she's my running partner. There was no way I was leaving her, especially when she was hurt. (I had gone through a very bad episode of calf spasms/charlie horses between miles 20-23, and I think she walked with me for at least half a mile straight while I choked down a protein bar she insisted I eat and repeatedly stopped to stretch and massage my calfs, in the hopes that I wouldn't be knocked over by spasms for the next few hours of running. That is friendship! And it seemed to work because the spasms were mostly absent for the last 8 miles.) I ran ahead a bit at the very end so that I could take her finish photo and be standing there to give her a great big hug (I knew we were both going to dissolve into tears at the finish line).

If only my brain had been working though... My going ahead like that scared Alex so badly when I came around the corner and his wife wasn't with me. I'm sorry about that Alex!

So, WE DID IT! We ran a 50K! It was exciting and emotional and mostly fun and left me with an incredible feeling of accomplishment! But it also hurt like hell for about 3 hours and I'm going to be paying for it for a few weeks. My feet, hips, and lower back (pretty sure that's from all the near-fall saves I did when tripping over roots and rocks, tweaking my back to try to stay on my feet) are suffering the most pain and soreness, but I'm honestly hurting everywhere, even places I didn't expect (the outside of my lower legs, my biceps and chest and abs, the tops of my feet... just everywhere below my head...) I made it through without any real injury though (even though I fell twice, and actually landed right on my knee, scraping it enough to bleed the second time), so I'm pretty happy with that! Since I don't have any (important) races coming up anytime soon, I can really take my time recovering and allow myself to ease back into whatever mileage/workout routine I decide to maintain over the spring/summer. It's quite nice to have all the pressure off for the forseeable future.

I ended up with an elapsed Garmin time of 7:45:40, and a moving time of 7:16:04. That means we spent about 30 minutes stopped at the 7 aid stations to refill our hydration bladders and eat, no kidding. Well, maybe 25 minutes at the aid stations and 5 minutes laughing like crazy and unable to move after I got run over by that unicorn...

Here are my splits, which are not entirely accurate, since my total Garmin mileage came in just over 29 miles and the course was definitely a full 50K (31.07 miles), meaning I lost satellites for some of the run. I think it's interesting to see that we kept a pace pretty close to what I was thinking we could do on these trails (12:00-14:30 miles) for a lot of the miles BETWEEN aid stations. Pretty obvious which miles included the aid station stops though! (If you look at moving time instead of elapsed time, you'll see our moving pace stayed around 15:00 or under for the first 18 miles. Then we REALLY got tired and walked more often.) I like seeing our "Best Pace" too - shows how well we moved down some of those hills. And the total calorie burn? That's more than 2 days worth of calories for me... No wonder I started seeing stars at mile 21!

Amy, Lee, and Mack came in about a half hour after Sophie and I (out of 42 runners, I came in 25th, putting me 9th out of 15 female 50K finishers), and only an hour or so later, our friend Tom L. finished the 50-miler in first place out of the 12 who completed it (and there was no other 50-milers anywhere near him - he had almost an hour lead on second place - truly incredible). He's the guy that won the Run Thru History this year, and has been featured on the blog in a turkey costume during ERDC's Turkey Trot. Half the 50-mile racers dropped down to the 50K due to the heat, so it really is a very big deal that Tom did so well, especially on this hilly course (he averaged a 10:40 pace while we averaged a 15:00 pace). Poor guy may never do another 50-miler though! Other friends, or spouses of friends, that raced the 50K included Jacob, who finished an hour and 10 minutes before me, and Lindsey, who finished about 15 minutes ahead of me. And one of my other 5am running buddies, Tom K., did the 10-miler and beat our time from last year by 2 minutes! That distance had 39 runners, so there were a total of 93 runners at Equinox this year! Considering there were 54 total last year, I would say this race is gaining in popularity despite it's reputation of being such a tough course.

 

The race directors are really nice guys, and they have really nice friends. I borrowed this photo from their Facebook page, showing the lovely Forge Racing running shoe, unicorn, and unicorn poop cookies that someone brought to share (seriously - rainbow sprinkled unicorn poop COOKIES), along with their anvil (their company logo) and unicorn head (used for photo ops by many after the race), and the unicorn bell I gave them (sitting on top of the anvil).

I highly recommend running a Forge race if you're even the least bit curious about trail running, or if you already know you love trails. It's an overall great experience, the race directors make it feel personal by congratulating each and every runner as they cross the finish line, and I can guarantee you'll have a good time before, during, and after the race!

I thought for sure the kids would be all over me today after not seeing me for 24 hours, but even though they said they missed me, they were all about the daddy-loving snuggle fest. Better for me to be able to rest, ice, compress, and elevate my sore muscles though, so I couldn't complain!

 Thank you Sophie, for another awesome adventure! And a huge thank you to Jay, for letting me have a "wild and crazy" mom's 24-hours out! ;-)