17 miles of mud and miserable shoes

Yesterday's long runs was one of my worst runs to date. My original plan was 15 trail miles because that's all I had time for if I didn't want to run in the dark and I really didn't. That trail in the dark freaks me the hell out. I mean, it has bobcats! At some point Friday night I realized if I ran to the beginning of the trail I could add 2 miles and I didn't mind running 2 miles on the road in the dark. The two miles ended up being 2.5, because I took a back road rather than the highway, which would bring my total to 17.5 miles. Yay!

The run started out great. I was listening to Another Mother Runner podcasts and loving life. The first section of trail is 5.5 miles. It was sort of muddy, but not bad. I was moving at a good pace and still happy. I got to Oak Ridge, which is where blacktop intersects the trail I had stashed a powerade the night before so I stopped to drink some of that and text Rick to let him know where I was. BTW, I have a funny story about the powerade stashing for later. After I left Oak Ridge it got MUDDY. Like, your feet weigh a couple of extra pounds muddy. Less than a mile into this part of the run I fell. I had to sort of walk down a rock as it's too big to go around. Due to the muddy feet I just skied down it. I landed at the bottom in a super deep squat, which hurt like hell. I hit one hand on the rock pretty hard and one shoulder on a rock next to it. I took stock and decided I was fine. I kept getting texts and thought it might be Rick so I stopped again. It was his hunting buddy trying to find out if they were going hunting.  I called the house to yell at dh to turn on his phone. I told him about falling and got a little weepy, b/c it still hurt and I'm a wimp.

I kept running and it just kept getting harder. The mud was so thick. I had to keep stopping to get it off my shoes because it was just weighing me down. My goal was to get past the road where it's easy to bail. The road is about a mile long and I can walk up it to blacktop and have Rick pick me up. I was determined to finish though and didn't want the option to quit. After you pass this road you are stuck. I got past it doing fine. About a mile later I fell again! This time it was just me not paying attention. I was actually on the smoothest part of the whole trail. I was looking around and suddenly I was flying. I turned my body and landed on my back. With my hip on a rock. OUCH! First I stopped my garmin and then layed there taking stock. Anything broken? No? Can I get up? Yes? Any blood? Nope. Ok, I'm good. But I'm tired. So I start crying. Good grief this sucks. Why do I run again? I quickly realized that's not helping me at all and jump up and start running again. By that time my feet hurt though. I got new trail shoes last week. At first I was a bit concerned they were too small, but after a couple of runs and wearing them around the house and running errands I thought they were fine. They weren't. They are way too small. They smashed my toes together sooo bad. They also rubbed a blister on my big toe.

With 4 miles to go I sat down on a rock to take my shoes off for a few minutes to sort of check out my feet and see if maybe I could lace them different or something. My toes had been smashed together for so long that I had to peel them apart! The last 3-4 miles of this trail are the hardest on the whole thing. Or the first 3, depending on how you run. Anyway, it was going to be hard. Lots of rocks and climbing and my feet were in so much pain. I decided to go back to the road and walk up it and have Rick pick me up there. The mileage would be the same but the terrain would be slightly easier. With 3 miles to go my feet hurt so bad I contemplated taking my shoes off and going barefoot.

When I got to the road I called Rick to tell him I would be at the top at noon, which is the time he was originally going to pick me up at the end anyway. I had called him when I turned around and told him what I was doing, but didn't make myself clear. I got to the top and he wasn't there. Hmmm. I had heard a bunch of sirens as I was walking up the road so I immediately freaked that something happened to him. He called right then to ask where I was. Ummm, at the blacktop?? He said, no, I'm driving down the dirt road and I didn't pass you. Crap. He's on the wrong road. He misunderstood what I told him. He's pissed. There was a fire and he needed to go help with it (volunteer firefighter) and now he's stuck on this really rough road and still has to come find me. He finally found me and we drove to the fire, which is actually on our way home. They weren't letting anyone through because the house was really close to the road and there was so much smoke you couldn't see through. DH jumped out and went to help with the fire and I drove home. I couldn't go retrieve my powerade bottle because that area was blocked off, but I promise I'm not just going to leave it. I do not litter!

Anyway, if you got through that novel thanks for letting me whine. I ended up with 17 miles for the day. Long, hard, painful miles! Next weekend I will do as many as I can before Adam's basketball game on Saturday.

Psycho Wyco Run Toto Run 50K is in three weeks. At this point I don't know how I will possibly finish, but I've done it before, so hopefully I can do it again!

WinterRock 25K

During the fall I kept hearing rumors of a 25K in January on the FlatRock trail. Eventually I gave up on the idea as I hadn't heard anything for a while. Then in December I was looking at Facebook and what did my happy little eyes see? An announcement from Epic Ultras that they were having a 12K and 25K called WinterRock. I could not have been more excited! I didn't care where it fell in my training schedule, I was doing it.

Yesterday was the day and I was really excited. I ran on the trail three times in a little over a week and felt very confident. I mean, yeah, the trail was hard, but I knew I could do it. I  underestimated the trail and overestimated my ability to run on it. I'm pretty conflicted about how I feel about the race. On one hand, my time was great. The first time I did a 25K there my time was 4 hours 30 minutes. Yesterday it was 4 hours 13 minutes. Obviously I'm really happy I improve my time so much. It was way harder than it should have been though. I've had a much easier 15 miles on that trail. Yesterday was just all kinds of hard.

I could come up with lots of reasons as to why it was so rough. Some of them are even valid. It was my fault though. I didn't eat enough Friday and definitely didn't eat enough Saturday morning. No food means no energy. I'm trying to lose weight and start eating healthier like I used to. I did a great job of that this week, but I forgot to take into account that I would be running a really tough race and needed some fuel.

Despite the fact that the race was hard and I didn't really have the energy I should have, it was fun. I got to visit with some fellow crazy trail runners before the race and chatted with some new people during the race. One guy that I ran with for a little while has run Psycho Wyco, so I got to ask him some questions about it. Also, I didn't come in last! The first part of this race is on the road and people took off at a pretty good clip. Libby and I were bringing up the rear when we went into the woods. I actually passed a few people in the first couple of miles! This is a pretty new experience for me. I chatted a little with most of the people I passed and they all said they were doing the 12K. Because of that I was pretty sure I was dead last in the 25K. I had been prepared for that so I wasn't too upset. After the 12K turnaround I was by myself for quite a while. Then I heard voices behind me. I kept looking but didn't didn't see anyone. Finally I saw two people and it was two of the people I had passed. By the turnaround they had caught up with me. They passed me but I caught them at the aid station. We took off from the station together. Within a mile they were ahead of me. Occasionally I could see them ahead of me and it seemed like they were getting further and further ahead. Eventually I stopped seeing and hearing them and assumed they were long gone.

After the turnaround I met a couple of runners still making their way to the aid station. I was shocked that they were there, but happy there were actually people behind me. I ran most of the 2nd half without seeing another soul. I was running without music because I can't have headphones at Psycho Wyco, so it was boring. All I had to think about was how much I suck at running, so I was pretty down for most of it. As I started running down the last hill I knew that even though I hadn't run as well as I wanted to it was almost over! I could go home, take a bath and then snuggle in my warm bed. Taking off my muddy shoes was high on my list of things I wanted to do ASAP. When I got out of the woods and was running up the embankment to get to the blacktop I saw the two people that had left me behind after the turnaround. Huh? How did they get behind me? It turns out they had taken a wrong turn right at the bottom of the hill. The race doesn't take the actual trail at the beginning. Instead of following the blue flags like they should have, they followed the blue marks on the trees, which is what you do all day. I must have gained a little ground on them anyway, and then the wrong turn added maybe a quarter of a mile for them, so I got ahead. Once I got on the blacktop I gained more ground on them and finished ahead. I felt bad for them because I took a wrong turn in a trail race once and it cost me about 15 minutes. Two women that would have finished behind me finished ahead of me causing me to be the last female across the finish line. I definitely knew how frustrated those two were!

Eric was doing his thing with the cowbells at the finish wich is great. There were still some people there and they were cheering as people came in. I went in the shelter to record my time and was seriously shocked that it was 4:13. My watch wasn't accurate as I had accidentally stopped it once so I had no idea how long I had been out there. I thought it was much longer.

 They had hot soup and hot beverages at the finish line. Unfortunately, I didn't get to eat the soup as it had carrots and I'm allergic to them. The hot cocoa was great though! I visited with Libby for a while and then headed home. It was a good day! And I'm even further convinced that the people doing a 101K on that trail in April are just a little bit crazy. No way. Never.

Ice, Snow, Friends and Trails!

My last couple of runs have been so much fun! I had planned to go to Wyoming the day after Christmas and probably wasn't going to run while I was there. The weather got in the way of that so we decided to go to Kansas City for a couple of days. When I posted on Facebook that I was going my friend Libby told me to let her know if I wanted to meet up to run. I immediately texted her that I wanted to and we set something up. I am doing a 50K in KC in February and wanted to check out the trail. I've heard the trail can be kinda nasty in bad weather that you should learn to screw your shoes. Boy is that the truth! The course is already marked from another race and it is a 10 mile loop that we will do three times. Libby and I decided to run one loop.

We hadn't been running long when we started encountering ice. Running downhill on ice is just a tiny bit frightening! We went much slower than anticipated due to the icy terrain so we didn't get to do the full loop. My husband and kids were waiting for me so I couldn't really justify spending most of the day running. I'm trying really hard to find a good balance between running and family so with that in mind we turned around after three miles. I was happy with six for the day. I'm now even more nervous about the race, but I think I can do it. I'm trusting Libby to force me on the last loop and once I start it I know I will finish.

A couple of pics from the trail. The first one is part of a parking lot. Thankfully we couldl avoid most of the ice on this part, but others you can't. The second pic is the view down a hill. Pictures never really show how steep it is. It was also much slicker than it looks.

 

 

After the run with Libby I didn't run for a couple of days. I had been wanting to run on New Years Eve and was probably going to do a road run. Then I found out it was supposed to rain and snow so I decided to run on the trail. I stupidly thought that maybe the trees would protect me partially from the weather. Ha! I think I mentioned before that I met a couple of nice girls named Amber and Candi at FlatRock. Well, Amber posted on Facebook on the 30th that she was running the next day and wondered if anyone wanted to run with her. I told her she should come to Elk City and run with me and she said yes! Woohoo! She brought Candi with her and we had a great time.

The weather was saying a mix of rain and snow. It was snowing when we started and I was really hoping it would keep snowing and not rain. It did snow for probably the first half of the run, but it switched over to rain. I'm not sure I've ever run in the snow and it was so much fun. I also really enjoyed running with others on the trail. I'm typically alone and it is a lot harder to motivate myself to keep going. We ran over 9 miles and were completely soaked when we finished. My feet were so wet my shoes squished with ever step. I still loved it. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end my year. Soon I will make a post recapping my year of running, but today I really wanted to share my trail adventures.

Some pics of our snowy run.

Me with Amber a mile or two in.

All three of us with the lake in the background. I'm not sure you can actually see the lake behind us but I promise it's there! (sorry Candi for posting a pic with half of your face cut off!)

Happy New Year!!!!!

Misconceptions

Umm, wow. I haven't blogged since November! Oops. I promise I'm running. A lot!

I think there are a lot of misconceptions about running. Even runners have ideas that aren't always true about stuff they haven't experienced. This week someone said something about ultra running on a running forum I'm on. I was offended by it and my feelings were hurt. To quote, she said: "I know I want to be faster, but I want it to be EASY. Apparently these are not compatible goals, lol. Maybe I should be an ultra runner instead of a marathoner." Ummm, wow. So running an ultra marathon is easy? Of course I understood what she meant. Yes, the pace is generally much more relaxed in an ultra vs something shorter. What she doesn't get is that running slower over a longer period of time is not easier than running faster for a shorter period. It's just different. She was talking about heart rate and that if you are running slower, your heart rate is typically lower. Well, maybe. But when you are going slower because there are 50 billion rocks and a ton of hills I don't really know if that is true. Trust me, when I walk up a really steep hill with big rocks my heart rate is pretty high. There are people that run 100 mile races. I think a vast majority of them walk a lot. Do you think there is anything easy about that race? Definitely not. And had I run 100 miles or even attempted it you can bet I would have been far more upset by that comment. What an undertaking! To insinuate that because it is slower it is easier diminishes the accomplishment.

The fact is, there is nothing remotely easy about running long distances. I suppose you get to a point where it isn't quite as hard, but it isn't easy. When you get comfortable you strive for more. You try to run faster or you do a tougher race. I don't think any runner should ever look at what someone else is doing it and judge it in any way. The trail I run on a lot is really tough. It's technical and hilly and just plain hard. Does that mean I think someone that runs a paved running trail has it easier than me? No, I do not. I think they are doing what they want to and are probably a heck of a lot smarter than me.

I guess I think people shouldn't judge what they don't know. To me, running a marathon on the road is not the least bit appealing. It's not because I think running 31 miles on dirt is easier. It's because that's what I prefer. Heck, I would prefer to run 20 miles on the trail vs 2 on the treadmill. Anyway, I have a lot of random thoughts rolling around in my brain about this. Mostly, I just think people should be more careful about what they say. You can't always know what will offend someone and what won't and you can't always even worry about it. However, if you are on a forum full of runners and insinuate that any type of running is easier than another it's a pretty good bet someone is going to be offended.

I'm running a bunch this weekend and then will likely take a week off. We are going to Wyoming during the holidays and as much as I would like to run there I will likely wimp out in the cold and wind and not run at all. We'll see though.

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mel

New Trails, New Friends and Thanksgiving!

In case you somehow missed it, last week was Thanksgiving! Who else ate way too much? I'm going to assume all of you did so that I don't feel quite so bad about myself. I am happy to say I ran 7 miles Thanksgiving morning to help offset some of the calories. Interestingly, while running through town I could actually smell turkey a couple of times. Seriously. There are a couple of houses that had such enticing aromas coming from them that it was hard not to stop and ask for a bite to eat. Since I knew the people they probably wouldn't have been shocked, but I kept running. Mostly because if I did soemthing like that my husband would have a heart attack.

On Saturday I went to Pittsburg to run with someone that I met recently. She's a member of the running forum I'm on and lives not too far away. Her parents live in Pittsburg and since she was coming to visit for Thanksgiving I talked her into doing a long run with me. I've wanted to check out the trails at Wilderness Park for a long time and this seemed like the perfect time to do it. I think Libby was a little skeptical of the whole thing but she met me there anyway. First of all, brrr! It was cold starting out. I really like the trails there though. They are pretty easy compared to my local trails and I like that you can make loops and stop at your car if you need to. As it warmed up we stopped to shed layers, grab extra drinks, gels, etc. We also ventured out of the park a few times and ran on the roads. It wasn't a quick 14 miles but we got it done. I've never done a long run with someone else so I really enjoyed it. The miles go by much quicker when you have someone to chat with. We both neglected to get pics of the trail due to some weirdness at the end of the run so I unfortunately don't have anything to show for my running field trip.

It was so nice to run with someone else and discuss things like nutrition, walking durning ultras, hydration, etc. We talked about PT, massage, injuries, etc. No one that I know really cares how often I hydrate or eat a gel during a run. They definitely don't care what kind of gel I prefer and won't give me tips on what they like and works for them. They don't care that my strategy is to always walk the hills during really long trail runs. When you run with someone else though they do care, because they want to talk about the same things. It's very cool. Or there's a chance that she only listened because she's really nice and wanted to get a long run in and felt like I was holding her hostage. Libby is running FlatRock next year so I got to talk about that. Since it's one of my favorite subjects it was right up my ally.

We had quite an interesting experience. There is a lot more to the story of our run together, but I think that's a story that is best left for another day.

Piles of miles...

I haven't updated my blog lately but I can assure you it's not because I've slacked off on my running. In fact, it is just the opposite. The weather has been pretty much perfect and I've been running a lot. I actually ran two of my highest ever mileage weeks this month. Then I was struck by illness and didn't run as much last week. I still ran 20 miles, so at least I didn't completely quit running. It actually amuses me that I am considering 20 miles a bad week when there were times over the summer that 20 would have been great.

Why am I running a lot you ask? Well, I want to be training for something. Confusing? Yeah, I'm confused about it too. Conflicted might be a better word. See, there is a race I really want to do but it's likely out of my reach this year. My plan is to follow a training plan as well as I can and see what happens. I will wait until the last minute to register. If the race fills up before I'm able to register then I guess that's a sign that I shouldn't do it.

The rational part of my brain keeps telling me I'm crazy. It's been saying that since week 1 of Couch to 5K though. I stopped listening to it a looooong time ago! The crazy part of my brain keeps telling me I can and should do it. In fact, my inner crazy person is wearing a cheerleading uniform and waiving pom poms around. She's also skinny and cute and has perfect hair. Why can't I look more like her?

My husband and kids are fully against me doing this race. Well, that's not completely true as I haven't told them about it. (Don't worry, my husband doesn't read my blog. He won't read this! He's completely horrified that I even have a blog.) So while they may not be against me doing this race in particular, they are fully against me doing any distance further than a 50K. That race was very much a stretch for them. They can't comprehend why I would want to do it and they worry about me. Their feelings are legitimate and I try my best to pay attention to them. I can't have them worrying about me all the time and I can definitely understand why they would. It's not fair to them to have to worry. If they continue to be against me running a distance over 50K I won't do it.

The reason I'm not really saying what I'm sort of but not really training for is because whether or not I do it is still so up in the air. I dislike feeling like a failure and if I tell everyone and then don't do it I would feel like I failed. So right now I'm following a training plan that very well might lead to nothing except exhaustion and aches and pains.

Happy Running!

~Mel

Soaring Wings Half Marathon Report

I just have to say this: Best race ever!! Seriously, It was so much fun. It was incredibly well organized, the crowd support is amazing, it's a fun course, my pace group was awesome, etc. Seriously, if you have ever considered this race or consider it in the future, go for it!

The race is in Conway, Arkansas, which is about 5.5 or so hours away. My mother in law lives there so we made the trip. I got off work early on Friday and after a stop at WalMart for last minute stuff and a quick trip downtown Indy for some Neewollah food, we were on our way. I met a couple of friends in Conway for dinner and had a great time. If you know my husband, please ask him about his waitress from TGI Fridays. He and the boys sat at a table alone and his waitress seems to have taken a shine to them. Funny story!

Saturday I got up bright and early and got ready and got the boys up to get ready. My super awesome mother in law Marilyn made biscuits and gravy for breakfast! I've never had such a good pre-race breakfast. I think I need to more races in Conway. I knew parking was going to be difficult so we left pretty early. I had no idea how difficult it was going to be. After driving around for a long time I finally got out and walked and Rick went to park the car. Marilyn, Ryan and my nephew Logan got out and walked with me. I felt bad for them because it was cold. I choose to do this, they didn't. Still, it was nice. Rick parked our car and Marilyn's husband John parked too. They both (along with Adam) met us right before it was time for me to go line up.

I got to the starting line and wow, lots of people. There wasn't enough room for everyone in the corrals so I just kind of squeezed in. As the race started people were still trying to get off the grass onto the road. When it was finally time for my group to go I realized my Garmin had entered sleep mode. Crap! I got it started about 10 seconds past the start line. Oops. Messing around with my garmin put me pretty far behind the pace group I wanted to run with so I had some catching up to do. I did get caught up and stayed with the group until the last mile when I went ahead.

I've never run with a pace group so I wasn't sure if I wanted to. I'm so glad I did though! First, my group was awesome. We had a lot of fun. Big shout out to Jesse, the leader. He did a great job! There were several times I felt like I could have gone faster, but thought it was best to just stay with them because I knew I'd get tired later. I was right!

The first three miles were uneventful and just easy running. Mile 4 was tough! There was a huge hill and if I had been running alone I most definitely would have walked. I was determined to stay with the group though and I did it! This race was such a boost to my confidence in regards to hills. I often walk hills but this race just had so many that if I had walked up every incline I'd have walked half of the race. Ok, maybe not, but there were very few flat sections. It was constant up and down. And guess what? I never walked!

After the top of the hill was a huge downhill. Yay! At the bottom of the hill you go up again just a little bit and then have some flat section to the next aid station and are back to the start. My family was there cheering and gave me a high five. I was having so much fun at that point. Again, the next few miles were uneventful. Up and down, up and down, and up and down some more. Lots of joking from the group. It was highly entertaining to just listen to everything people around me were saying. At mile 6 they had energy gel along with the water and gatorade. I'm not sure what brand it was but I plan to find out as it was really good. It just tasted like fruit without a lot of stuff added. I took two. One I consumed right away and I put the other one in my pocket for later. When I got to the end of the 8th mile I was pretty tired. This is when I was very grateful to be a part of the pace group. The next two miles were pretty rough. I was determined to keep going at the pace I wanted to go though and I did it! When I got to the end of mile 10 and knew I only had a 5K to go I started doing better. Then I really kind of perked up and started enjoying myself again.

I can't remember when it was, but we were running up a hill and someone had set a bowl of starburst out. Win!! But have you ever tried to open a starburst while running up a hill? I can't believe I didn't fall down. Also, they were really cold so it was hard to eat them. With around 2 miles to go (I think, math gets fuzzy) there was a gummy bear station. Woohoo! I got a little cup of gummy bears. Around the end of mile 11 (again, I think) there was someone handing out GU. At that point I didn't think consuming one would do me a lot of good but I took one anyway. I put it in my pocket and will use it in the future on a long run. After that was another really long hill. The same one from mile 4 actually, just coming up the other saide. That also meant the last mile would be mostly downhill. Rock on.

I was close to the top of the hill and realized everyone but the three leaders of the group was pulling away. My goal was always to pull away at the end of I had energy. It turns out I did! The last mile or so was great. I felt wonderful and happy.

My official time was 2:29:24. This is almost a 10 minute PR! The only other half marathon I've done is the Oklahoma Aquarium run. My time there was  2:38something. Almost 2:39 I think.

I have some questions about the chip timing. According to the 10K split time, I was faster than the pace leader at that point. The thing is, I wasn't. An aid station was right before and I had gotten the two gels. I slowed waaaay down while putting one in my pocket and had to really hurry to catch up. I hadn't caught up by the time we crossed the mat. I'd say I was a good 15 seconds behind. So that seems weird. Also, there was someone shouting times and she said 77 minutes and something when I crossed. I remember at the time thinking it was very odd as that was way slower than typical for me. According to the results I crossed 10K at 1:10something, which makes much more sense! Anyway, this weirdness is my only complaint about the race and it's not a big deal. Just in case you are dying of curiosity, the pace leader finished about a minute behinde me, just a little over 2:30. I'm so glad I pulled ahead. Finishing 30 seconds past my goal of 2:30 would have been really depressing.

I actually think maybe I could have finished a little faster, but I'm really happy with what I did. I ran a really smart race and I'm glad. I was never completely exhausted and never felt like I couldn't finish. I was just happy and relaxed. During the race I passed a lot of people and was happy that I hadn't started too fast and slowed down which is what I typically do. I also know I can go faster and have something to look forward to!

This week I start training for....something. I haven't decided for sure. I know what plan I'm going to follow and what I would like to do, I'm just not sure if it's going to happen. There are a lot of things that will affect my decision. Stay tuned!

~Mel