My apologies to those of you who have read this already. I decided to post it here too so my family could read it if they would like to.
On race day it was about 42-45 degrees. Cold for me! I woke up early, had one glass of water, one of coffee, and two cheese sticks 3 hours prior to race time. At race time, I started verrrry slowly knowing I had 2 miles of uphill to do. I was definitely near the end of the pack. At one point, I'm sure I was last. About 1/2 a mile into it, I could hear people all around me gasping for air. Some were already walking/hiking. One girl said, "This is way harder than I thought it would be." It was a lot of single track so it was difficult to pass people. I decided to just hang back and not sweat it. I expected about 800 feet of elevation over 2 miles. um...no...
After two miles, I got ready for some downhill.....NOT! By 3 miles, we were still going uphill and some little downhill sections here and there. I got lapped by some pretty intense 10K'ers that made me giggle a little. By mile 4, I looked at my Garmin and thought, "crap...it's already been 1 hour!" Right then, we had some very steep downhills. I loved this part! I've always been a fan of downhill trails. I feel very comfortable stream crossing and rock hopping. So, I sped up a lot! I was happy to see some 7:30 and 8:30/mile pace. I was expecting 2+ miles, and before I knew it, I was at the start again and ready for my 2nd loop. I was shocked. My garmin said 5.34 miles. I drank a cup of watery gatorade and thanked the volunteer and started again. My thought was "thank God this race is short." LOL!
Loop 2 was harder. I started it out with a really cool guy named Rick. He was 67 (I originally told people he was older than that. I looked up his results and found out he was only 67. Oops!). He had ran 100 marathons (in 29 years!) and was working on 100 1/2 marathons. This one was #64. He planned to run one per month and would finish in 2011. Amazing! We ran/hiked together for quite some time. I hiked most of the uphills this loop. I didn't even try running uphill for most of it. I felt great! I couldn't have pushed much more, but didn't slack either. I just stayed as steady as I possibly could. By mile 7, I drank my first swig from my water bottle. I had been training without water or GU packets. I didn't need it. That felt great too. At about mile 8, I told Rick I was going to start running again. We crested a hill at that point. He wished me well and then fell down! I stayed for a minute or so to make sure he was ok. He assured me he was fine and encouraged me to go on. I knew I only had a bit more to go, so I turned on what little speed I had.
Once the downhill started again, I saw a lot of hobbling from people. I was really excited that all my downhill training had paid off. I had worn my knee brace just to be on the safe side, but my knees were holding up beautifully. I had no pain, and nearly no weakness in my thighs from overexertion. I think some were finding the downhill really difficult. I know from hiking, that intense downhills are as difficult as uphills. I am sorry I didn't practice more uphills, but I'm not sure it would have made a difference on this race for me.
When I knew I had about a mile or so left, I sprinted as much as I could. I slowed down when I need to. I felt like I still had a lot of gas left in the tank. I passed a woman who looked like she was having a bad leg cramp. I asked her if she was ok and if I could do anything to help. She said she was ok. I also passed a man who looked really bad. I asked him if he was ok. He said he was out of water. I offered him mine, but he would not take it. I tried!
I turned the last corner and saw my Andy, the kids, Jim, Sandra, and my nieces. I shouted hello to them and they all started cheering and jumping up and down. It was so sweet! I finished strong and energetic at 2:27:10. My goal time was 2:30 for this course. Yay me!
This was, hands down, the hardest run I've EVER been on. I was so proud of the way I felt then, and feel today. I know I trained in a very healthy way. It looks like in my age group, I was 10 out of 19. I can live with that. I really think trail running is my niche. I just loved every minute of it. I did my best to cheer people up on the trail. Some of them just looked so miserable. It was tough! I think anyone who finished what they signed up for deserves applause.
After I ate hand fulls and hand fulls of food, I got very cold. Andy said my lips were blue. I drank about 1/2 gallon of watery gatorade and headed to the car for my clothes.
It was such a fun day and a great and challenging race. I checked out my stats today from my GPS. Total ascent: 4351 feet! Holy Cow! No wonder so many of us found it so difficult. Total descent was 4252 feet.
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