Good news! I ran 18 miles yesterday, which is my longest run post-hysterectomy. Bad news: I ran those miles on a really tough route. If I were being honest, I'd say that's good because I finished and am stronger for having done it. I'm going to need a few more days of recovery before I really feel that way though. I mentioned in my last post that I met Jason Dinkel at FlatRock. He has been very encouraging and has been helping me stay motivated to run these last few weeks. We are doing the Storm the Dam marathon together in two weeks (not sure what I was thinking when I signed up for that!). Last week I was texting Jason and complaining that my trail would likely be flooded and I would have to do my long run on the road. He said I should come to Cassoday, KS and run 18 miles with him on the Heartland course. I get sick of running alone and wasn't looking forward to a run on the road, so I thought it sounded like a fabulous idea. I did no research about the course. I just knew it was a gravel road. I also knew it was in the Flint Hills, but that didn't really worry me.
As Sunday approached I kept an eye on the weather. It was supposed to be in the 80's and windy. Hmmm. I'm a wimp in the wind. Still, I went! I got up early and drove to Cassoday which is about 2 hours. When I got there we drove out to what would be our halfway point to stash a cooler with water and gatorade. Tony Clark is the RD for Heartland and he had told Jason we might encounter some bulls, so we thought we would have to drive further and do an out and back in the middle of the course. When we got to 9 miles we hadn't seen anything that worried us, so we left the cooler and drove back to the start/finish area. As we were driving out I could tell the wind was pretty strong, but I was determined. We started out going right into the wind on a little section of blacktop. Thankfully that didn't last long and we were on the dirt road.
The first 6 miles or so were pretty uneventful. We were doing run/walk intervals and I felt really good. I noticed there were a lot of hills but they seemed pretty gentle and I was happy to be out there. The wind was mostly blowing across us and we didn't have to run directly into it much. It was brutal when we did though. Eventually, rolling hills and 20 mph winds are going to take a toll though. Funny story here. The wind was so strong out of the south that it blew the sweat off whoever was on the south side of the road onto the person on the north side. It was really cloudy a few times and once I thought I felt it starting to rain. I said "Is it raining?" Ummm, nope. It's Jason's sweat hitting me. We switched sides because he felt bad so then I'm assuming my sweat was hitting him. Ahhh, the life of a runner.
I think it was about mile 7 that I started feeling the hills. They also got a little steeper at this point. By the time we got to the turnaround I was really feeling it. We drank a gatorade, refilled my pack and his bottles, and took off. UP A HILL. Really? We stashed the cooler at the bottom of a hill. We continued on and hadn't gone very far before my pack felt like it weighed 100 pounds. It was just killing me. We stopped and dumped some water and oh, the sweet relief!! Kept running, more hills. More wind. I was so bummed because I really wanted a good, strong run and all I felt was miserable. Thankfully Jason kept chatting and encouraging me. We still had 6 miles to go when I was just done. I wanted to cry because I was so disappointed with myself. I really felt like a complete running failure. This is the point in the run where I would normally call my wonderful husband and he would come rescue me. No chance of that here! That is really for the best though. I have to quit doing that.
You can see the Cassoday water tower off and on for a few miles at the end. It's torture! You know it's there and that's where you will end up, but I swear a few times it felt like we were moving away from it rather than toward it! We finally made it though. It felt so good to be finished. We walked a lot more than I wanted to and at the end I wasn't sure how I was going to manage 26.2 in a couple of weeks. I'm still not sure. I'll do it though. Race day helps a lot and hopefully the course will be a little less challenging. If not, at least I'm better prepared than I was before I did this training run.
Next stop: Storm the Dam Marathon!!
Monday, May 27, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
Pacing at Flatrock 101K
This weekend was the first ever FlatRock 101K! Obviously I'm not in any shape to run it, but I wanted to volunteer. First, I could see some of my friends that I don't see often. Second, I think it's good to help out at a race when you can.Third, it's practically in my backyard, so why not? Friday night was the pre-race spaghetti dinner and though Eric (the RD) said I was more than welcome to go, I didn't think I would because not being in the race, I thought it would feel odd. Then a few of the runners commented on a pic I had posted on facebook of a water crossing on the course (more on that later!) and said I should come. Since they didn't think I would be intruding I decided to go. As Rick was out of town, I took the boys with me. We got there, ate, and waited for my friends Candi and Amber to arrive. In the meantime, Ken Childress arrived with his wife Dana. We visted for a bit. Candi and Amber came and we chatted, and then Epic Ultras Blogger Zach Adams came over and chatted with us. Ken said he didn't have a pacer for the race and I volunteered to pace him from Oak Ridge to the finish, which would be around 10 miles. I'm not far out from my surgery, but I knew we would be moving slow and I wanted to run that far that day anyway, so I thought I would give it a shot.
Saturday morning I got up and cleaned house. Started packing stuff we won't need in the next few months (have I mentioned moving? yuck) and fixed lunch for the boys. I decided to head out to the Oak Ridge station where Dana was working and see how everyone was doing. It was fun seeing the runners come through. They seemed to be doing pretty well at that point, but they still had a long day ahead of them. I checked on Candi's times in and out of that station and she was so fast! I was so excited for her. After awhile I decided I should quit neglecting my children and go home. Not long after that I found out Candi was about 5 miles from the turnaround for the second time (again, so fast!) and that Amber was at the highway waiting for her. Since that spot is about two miles from my house I thought I would go hang out with Amber and wait and get to see how Candi was doing at the turnaround. She was starting to get tired, but looked amazing.
Back home again and got the boys ready to spend the night with their grandparents. I went and dropped them off, came home and ate dinner. I then went out to Oak Ridge to hang out, help out and see how Ken was doing at that point. He had been pretty tired earlier in the day, so I told Dana I'd pace him all the way from the turnaround to the finish. For those that don't know, this would be a 25K. Ouch! I was excited though. I saw Ken at Oak Ridge and we told him I'd pace him from the highway. We talked about how long it would take him to get there so I would know when to be there waiting. I hung around a while longer and talked to Dana and Jason Dinkel and his daughter. Jason has promised to run the FlatRock 50K with me in the fall, which would be awesome. I'm slow and sometimes out there by myself for hours. Having someone with me would make a huge difference I think.
I got to the turnaround, got everything ready, and waited for Ken. Tony Clark (to get an idea of his awesomeness, check out this video) was working this station and I visited with him and the other guy (whose name I don't know) while waiting. I saw a couple of runners come in and they were definitely tired. Eric called Tony to check on things and told him he was sending a guy named Luke to sweep the course with the last person. I'm thinking: Crap. Who is this random guy that Eric is sending out here? I am going to have to spend several hours in the company of someone I've never met and who might very well be creepy and weird. And have I mentioned it will be the middle of the night in the woods? I'm thinking Ken isn't in good enough shape at that point to save me from someone, and I've sent my pepper spray with Amber during the day. Lovely. BTW, Luke, if you're reading this, sorry I had such mean thoughts about you! Luke arrived and seemed nice enough. Ken finally rolled in and we got him ready to hit the trail one last time. I think it was about 10:30 pm when we started.
It has rained and rained here and from being on the trail earlier in the week, I had a decent idea of what we were in for. Lots of mud and water crossings. Within half a mile I knew I needed to stop and tie my shoes tighter or I was going to lose one to the shoe sucking mud. We were mostly walking with a little of some zombie shuffling thrown in. We came to the first water drop and Luke said that he had agreed to break it down and carry it to Oak Ridge. Ok, maybe this guy is nuts! I couldn't let him carry it all alone, so I started out with one water jug and one milk crate, while he carried two jugs and one crate. I would like to pretend it weighed a lot and I'm really strong and awesome for carrying it, but that isn't really true. It was light. It still got really heavy after carrying it awhile. I switched hands off and on, then didn't think I could carry it anymore. I mean, I could, but we still had a long way to go and I'm not in good shape and I'm a wimp or something. I handed it over to Luke who is now carrying three jugs, two crates, the bungee cords and a bunch of flags. Ok, guilt washed over me at this point. He carried it all for a while until I couldn't handle the guilt anymore and took one jug back. Yeah, I'm nice. I still let him carry everything else.
I'm not sure what time we cruised into Oak Ridge, but I know I was glad to get rid of the extra weight. I had to go to the bathroom, which was lovely. I got as far away as I could and hid behind some trees. The world is your bathroom on a trail run. Too bad there are no actual bathrooms. I had some peanut m&m's and talked with someone about the food that would be at the finish. I was already hungry by then. We took off out of there with 10ish miles to go. Woohoo! We kept walking and talking and walking and talking. Earlier in the night Ken had told a story that was super creepy and I'm not gonna lie, I was freaked out a good portion of the first several miles. It was dark and scary in the woods. At some point I stopped being scared. Also, Luke turned out to be a very nice guy and was easy and fun to talk to. I suspect they both wished I would shut up, but if I didn't talk I was going to fall asleep. I started this thing a good hour or more past my bedtime. My back started hurting pretty bad but it's not like quitting somewhere along the way was an option. When we got to the next water drop Luke and I opened up all of the jugs of water to let them empty so that the person that was breaking down the station didn't have to. Ken went on, so we ran to catch up. It was so fun to run through the dark! It felt like we were going really fast, but we probably weren't.
Back to walking and talking and going through mud and streams. And more mud and more streams. Did I tell you guys it was muddy? Shoe sucking, slippery, sloppy mud. Everywhere. This trail is hard all the time. Add in night time, exhaustion, water and mud and you're in for a good time. Despite it being hard it was fun. My back was really killing me and with maybe a mile to the last aid station I asked the guys if they thought the last aid station would have ibuprofen. Ken thought so and Luke said he had some pain stuff if I wanted it. Because sure, taking medicine from someone you've never met seems like a great plan in the middle of the night when you're tired and in pain. I took it and it really helped. We FINALLY got to the last station. I tell you, between those two aid stations seems like the longest on the course every single time. I think we had 3.5 miles to go at this point. We weren't moving fast and it was getting colder outside so I was really chilled by then. And this is the understatement of the year, but my feet were wet. I started dreaming of warm, dry socks.
More walking, talking, shuffling with a little running thrown in. A couple more bathroom stops. We're almost there! I could feel the excitement building in Ken. I was excited for him. I was happy to have helped and was a little intimidated by him and Luke and their accomplishements.
Finally, the blacktop!! We turned our headlamps off as Ken thought it would be fun to sneak up on them. We started running. Wow, this road seems long! Still running. I swear I smiled the entire blacktop. We got to the finish and Ken had his moment of glory. I was sooo happy for him! I had my biscuits and gravy that I had been thinking about and we sat around and visited for a little bit. Dana took me back to my car, I took a bath and went to bed. I slept a little over two hours before the boys got home. Then we had to go to Iola for a couple of baseball games. Oh my goodness I was tired.
I really had a fabulous time. Ken and Luke, thanks for letting me hang with you and for telling me your stories and inspiring me to become a better runner. You guys are great!
Sorry for the really long post.
Edit to add some pics
Here I am at Oak Ridge with Dana, Jason and his daughter Carina.
Happy running everyone!!
~Mel
Saturday morning I got up and cleaned house. Started packing stuff we won't need in the next few months (have I mentioned moving? yuck) and fixed lunch for the boys. I decided to head out to the Oak Ridge station where Dana was working and see how everyone was doing. It was fun seeing the runners come through. They seemed to be doing pretty well at that point, but they still had a long day ahead of them. I checked on Candi's times in and out of that station and she was so fast! I was so excited for her. After awhile I decided I should quit neglecting my children and go home. Not long after that I found out Candi was about 5 miles from the turnaround for the second time (again, so fast!) and that Amber was at the highway waiting for her. Since that spot is about two miles from my house I thought I would go hang out with Amber and wait and get to see how Candi was doing at the turnaround. She was starting to get tired, but looked amazing.
Back home again and got the boys ready to spend the night with their grandparents. I went and dropped them off, came home and ate dinner. I then went out to Oak Ridge to hang out, help out and see how Ken was doing at that point. He had been pretty tired earlier in the day, so I told Dana I'd pace him all the way from the turnaround to the finish. For those that don't know, this would be a 25K. Ouch! I was excited though. I saw Ken at Oak Ridge and we told him I'd pace him from the highway. We talked about how long it would take him to get there so I would know when to be there waiting. I hung around a while longer and talked to Dana and Jason Dinkel and his daughter. Jason has promised to run the FlatRock 50K with me in the fall, which would be awesome. I'm slow and sometimes out there by myself for hours. Having someone with me would make a huge difference I think.
I got to the turnaround, got everything ready, and waited for Ken. Tony Clark (to get an idea of his awesomeness, check out this video) was working this station and I visited with him and the other guy (whose name I don't know) while waiting. I saw a couple of runners come in and they were definitely tired. Eric called Tony to check on things and told him he was sending a guy named Luke to sweep the course with the last person. I'm thinking: Crap. Who is this random guy that Eric is sending out here? I am going to have to spend several hours in the company of someone I've never met and who might very well be creepy and weird. And have I mentioned it will be the middle of the night in the woods? I'm thinking Ken isn't in good enough shape at that point to save me from someone, and I've sent my pepper spray with Amber during the day. Lovely. BTW, Luke, if you're reading this, sorry I had such mean thoughts about you! Luke arrived and seemed nice enough. Ken finally rolled in and we got him ready to hit the trail one last time. I think it was about 10:30 pm when we started.
It has rained and rained here and from being on the trail earlier in the week, I had a decent idea of what we were in for. Lots of mud and water crossings. Within half a mile I knew I needed to stop and tie my shoes tighter or I was going to lose one to the shoe sucking mud. We were mostly walking with a little of some zombie shuffling thrown in. We came to the first water drop and Luke said that he had agreed to break it down and carry it to Oak Ridge. Ok, maybe this guy is nuts! I couldn't let him carry it all alone, so I started out with one water jug and one milk crate, while he carried two jugs and one crate. I would like to pretend it weighed a lot and I'm really strong and awesome for carrying it, but that isn't really true. It was light. It still got really heavy after carrying it awhile. I switched hands off and on, then didn't think I could carry it anymore. I mean, I could, but we still had a long way to go and I'm not in good shape and I'm a wimp or something. I handed it over to Luke who is now carrying three jugs, two crates, the bungee cords and a bunch of flags. Ok, guilt washed over me at this point. He carried it all for a while until I couldn't handle the guilt anymore and took one jug back. Yeah, I'm nice. I still let him carry everything else.
I'm not sure what time we cruised into Oak Ridge, but I know I was glad to get rid of the extra weight. I had to go to the bathroom, which was lovely. I got as far away as I could and hid behind some trees. The world is your bathroom on a trail run. Too bad there are no actual bathrooms. I had some peanut m&m's and talked with someone about the food that would be at the finish. I was already hungry by then. We took off out of there with 10ish miles to go. Woohoo! We kept walking and talking and walking and talking. Earlier in the night Ken had told a story that was super creepy and I'm not gonna lie, I was freaked out a good portion of the first several miles. It was dark and scary in the woods. At some point I stopped being scared. Also, Luke turned out to be a very nice guy and was easy and fun to talk to. I suspect they both wished I would shut up, but if I didn't talk I was going to fall asleep. I started this thing a good hour or more past my bedtime. My back started hurting pretty bad but it's not like quitting somewhere along the way was an option. When we got to the next water drop Luke and I opened up all of the jugs of water to let them empty so that the person that was breaking down the station didn't have to. Ken went on, so we ran to catch up. It was so fun to run through the dark! It felt like we were going really fast, but we probably weren't.
Back to walking and talking and going through mud and streams. And more mud and more streams. Did I tell you guys it was muddy? Shoe sucking, slippery, sloppy mud. Everywhere. This trail is hard all the time. Add in night time, exhaustion, water and mud and you're in for a good time. Despite it being hard it was fun. My back was really killing me and with maybe a mile to the last aid station I asked the guys if they thought the last aid station would have ibuprofen. Ken thought so and Luke said he had some pain stuff if I wanted it. Because sure, taking medicine from someone you've never met seems like a great plan in the middle of the night when you're tired and in pain. I took it and it really helped. We FINALLY got to the last station. I tell you, between those two aid stations seems like the longest on the course every single time. I think we had 3.5 miles to go at this point. We weren't moving fast and it was getting colder outside so I was really chilled by then. And this is the understatement of the year, but my feet were wet. I started dreaming of warm, dry socks.
More walking, talking, shuffling with a little running thrown in. A couple more bathroom stops. We're almost there! I could feel the excitement building in Ken. I was excited for him. I was happy to have helped and was a little intimidated by him and Luke and their accomplishements.
Finally, the blacktop!! We turned our headlamps off as Ken thought it would be fun to sneak up on them. We started running. Wow, this road seems long! Still running. I swear I smiled the entire blacktop. We got to the finish and Ken had his moment of glory. I was sooo happy for him! I had my biscuits and gravy that I had been thinking about and we sat around and visited for a little bit. Dana took me back to my car, I took a bath and went to bed. I slept a little over two hours before the boys got home. Then we had to go to Iola for a couple of baseball games. Oh my goodness I was tired.
I really had a fabulous time. Ken and Luke, thanks for letting me hang with you and for telling me your stories and inspiring me to become a better runner. You guys are great!
Sorry for the really long post.
Edit to add some pics
Here I am at Oak Ridge with Dana, Jason and his daughter Carina.
Me and Ken at the bench 2 miles from the trailhead.
Happy running everyone!!
~Mel
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Still Alive
So.......I haven't blogged for a really long time. Really long. The last time I posted was about the 50k that I didn't finish. Lots has been going on since then, but not a lot of running.
On Feb. 28 I had a hysterectomy. Not sure what else to say about this, except my head was pretty messed up about it for a few weeks before, which had an effect on my running, and I definitely couldn't run after. I didn't particularly want to talk about it, so I just didn't post at all.
I've been back to running a little over a week. It's going pretty well. It's obviosly not as easy as it was before the surgery and I'm definitely not running as far, but I'm running, so I'll take it. The only race on my horizon right now is the FlatRock 50K in Septemember. I really wanted to have a great race there this year and not just finish it like I did last year. Maybe cut some time off. This long break may have ruined that for me though. Adding in some time I may need to take off this summer (more about that in a minute) and it looks like maybe another "just finish it" type of race. What will be will be I guess. I will bust my butt when I can and hope for the best. Is it too much to hope that we have a really mild summer? No super hot? Yeah, I thought it probably was.
In other huge news, for those of you that don't know, my husband got a new job and we are moving. I'm happy he got a new job and happy to move, but I suspect it will put a damper on my running at some point. I will just do what I can. I know last summer my training was horrible and I still finished. Maybe this year I won't skip a bunch of long runs in favor of sleeping in my air conditioned house :) If I still run as much as I can and only take off when I have to, I'm probably still doing better than I did last year.
I will try to post here more often. It helps keep me accountable! Tomorrow I'm running on the trail with someone and couldn't be more excited. It's always fun to run with others.
On Feb. 28 I had a hysterectomy. Not sure what else to say about this, except my head was pretty messed up about it for a few weeks before, which had an effect on my running, and I definitely couldn't run after. I didn't particularly want to talk about it, so I just didn't post at all.
I've been back to running a little over a week. It's going pretty well. It's obviosly not as easy as it was before the surgery and I'm definitely not running as far, but I'm running, so I'll take it. The only race on my horizon right now is the FlatRock 50K in Septemember. I really wanted to have a great race there this year and not just finish it like I did last year. Maybe cut some time off. This long break may have ruined that for me though. Adding in some time I may need to take off this summer (more about that in a minute) and it looks like maybe another "just finish it" type of race. What will be will be I guess. I will bust my butt when I can and hope for the best. Is it too much to hope that we have a really mild summer? No super hot? Yeah, I thought it probably was.
In other huge news, for those of you that don't know, my husband got a new job and we are moving. I'm happy he got a new job and happy to move, but I suspect it will put a damper on my running at some point. I will just do what I can. I know last summer my training was horrible and I still finished. Maybe this year I won't skip a bunch of long runs in favor of sleeping in my air conditioned house :) If I still run as much as I can and only take off when I have to, I'm probably still doing better than I did last year.
I will try to post here more often. It helps keep me accountable! Tomorrow I'm running on the trail with someone and couldn't be more excited. It's always fun to run with others.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Psycho Wyco: Only 10 miles?
I'm not really sure where to start with this post. I didn't finish the 50K at Psycho Wyco, but I know I did the right thing by dropping out at 10 miles. I've been fighting a cold for weeks. I've been sick off and on and have no energy. Every run the last two weeks (of which there have been very few) was a miserable slog. To be honest, I probably should have never started this race, but I was signed up and determined.
I woke up Saturday morning with a bad headache but was hoping it would go away. It didn't. The first couple of miles of the race I was really battling nausea. That happens when I'm dehydrated but I knew I wasn't. Still, the course is a lot of fun and I was actually enjoying myself. The first half was muddy but not too bad and I was settling in for a long day of running. There are a couple of tough parts, but nothing I couldn't handle. Then you come to a long grassy hill, then some blacktop to an aid station. Still doing ok! After you leave the aid station you have a loooooong steep climb up some blacktop. I went up it eating a brownie from the aid station, so I didn't hate it too much. Then we entered the woods again and I just hit a wall. The nausea was mostly gone, but my head hurt and it was like every bit of my energy had evaporated. This doesn't usually happen to me until after 10 miles and I had gone somewhere around 6 at that point. Someone had passed me right after we entered the woods and I made it my goal to keep up with her. This probably pushed me to go faster than I really wanted to go, which was good. Still, with every mile my head hurt more.
We hit the three hills section of the course and I didn't think I would make it. Thankfully the very nice lady that had passed me was with me and she was amazingly encouraging. I told her my head hurt really bad and she asked if I needed some electrolytes. I knew that wasn't the problem because I had felt bad before the race and it didn't feel like dehydration. Having much experience with that issue, I know what it feels like for me. I think I was maybe 2 miles from the end when I started getting blurry vision. Then the nausea and headache symptoms kind of came together for me and I realized I had a migraine. I had been bragging to my husband that I hadn't had one for a really long time just a few days ago. I've been pretty stressed lately and sick and it all came together to ruin my day. With a mile left to go I knew I wasn't going to do the second two laps. Could I have finished? Maybe. Probably. Would I have enjoyed it? Not a chance. Every step sent pain shooting up my back into my head. How many steps is in 20 miles? My back, shoulders, neck and head were killing me. When I got to the start/finish area I found Libby. I immediately started crying. I was tired and in pain and done and so disappointed. She sat me down, gave me a drink and some food and did the best she could to encourage me. I really evaluated how I felt and just knew it wasn't my day. She walked to the finish line with me to tell them that I was dropping. I still got a medal! The cool thing about this race is that if you drop down at the end of a loop you still get a medal for the distance you covered.
I called my mom to come get me and went to Libby's car. I was so tense and couldn't relax and just hurt everywhere from my waste up. I whined to her for quite a while and when my mom got there we got everything loaded in the car and they took me to get some excedrin migraine at Wal-Mart. My head finally started feeling better but everything else ached. On the way home I started getting chills and body aches. It felt like the flu. I spent the rest of the evening in bed feeling awful. I woke up this morning hoping that I would suddenly feel better, but that's not the case. I feel better than yesterday but still feel pretty crappy. I'm very disappointed that I didn't finish but it is what it is.
I'm actually realy happy with my time for the lap I did. I enjoyed the course and even enjoyed the mud. I definitely want to do this race again when I'm not sick. Maybe next year!
I woke up Saturday morning with a bad headache but was hoping it would go away. It didn't. The first couple of miles of the race I was really battling nausea. That happens when I'm dehydrated but I knew I wasn't. Still, the course is a lot of fun and I was actually enjoying myself. The first half was muddy but not too bad and I was settling in for a long day of running. There are a couple of tough parts, but nothing I couldn't handle. Then you come to a long grassy hill, then some blacktop to an aid station. Still doing ok! After you leave the aid station you have a loooooong steep climb up some blacktop. I went up it eating a brownie from the aid station, so I didn't hate it too much. Then we entered the woods again and I just hit a wall. The nausea was mostly gone, but my head hurt and it was like every bit of my energy had evaporated. This doesn't usually happen to me until after 10 miles and I had gone somewhere around 6 at that point. Someone had passed me right after we entered the woods and I made it my goal to keep up with her. This probably pushed me to go faster than I really wanted to go, which was good. Still, with every mile my head hurt more.
We hit the three hills section of the course and I didn't think I would make it. Thankfully the very nice lady that had passed me was with me and she was amazingly encouraging. I told her my head hurt really bad and she asked if I needed some electrolytes. I knew that wasn't the problem because I had felt bad before the race and it didn't feel like dehydration. Having much experience with that issue, I know what it feels like for me. I think I was maybe 2 miles from the end when I started getting blurry vision. Then the nausea and headache symptoms kind of came together for me and I realized I had a migraine. I had been bragging to my husband that I hadn't had one for a really long time just a few days ago. I've been pretty stressed lately and sick and it all came together to ruin my day. With a mile left to go I knew I wasn't going to do the second two laps. Could I have finished? Maybe. Probably. Would I have enjoyed it? Not a chance. Every step sent pain shooting up my back into my head. How many steps is in 20 miles? My back, shoulders, neck and head were killing me. When I got to the start/finish area I found Libby. I immediately started crying. I was tired and in pain and done and so disappointed. She sat me down, gave me a drink and some food and did the best she could to encourage me. I really evaluated how I felt and just knew it wasn't my day. She walked to the finish line with me to tell them that I was dropping. I still got a medal! The cool thing about this race is that if you drop down at the end of a loop you still get a medal for the distance you covered.
I called my mom to come get me and went to Libby's car. I was so tense and couldn't relax and just hurt everywhere from my waste up. I whined to her for quite a while and when my mom got there we got everything loaded in the car and they took me to get some excedrin migraine at Wal-Mart. My head finally started feeling better but everything else ached. On the way home I started getting chills and body aches. It felt like the flu. I spent the rest of the evening in bed feeling awful. I woke up this morning hoping that I would suddenly feel better, but that's not the case. I feel better than yesterday but still feel pretty crappy. I'm very disappointed that I didn't finish but it is what it is.
I'm actually realy happy with my time for the lap I did. I enjoyed the course and even enjoyed the mud. I definitely want to do this race again when I'm not sick. Maybe next year!
Sunday, January 20, 2013
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!
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!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
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.
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.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
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!!!!!
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!!!!!
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