Last weekend I ran my first trail race. It was also my first ultramarathon, a 50k through one of our state parks. Thirty one miles, two times through a 15.5 mile loop. Why did I do this? Well, I ran my second full marathon last fall. One evening during D&D, while nothing was happening with my character, I started wondering what I should do next. At the end of the Detroit marathon last October I definitely felt like I could keep going with more Gu packets. An extra 5 miles at that point seemed like just a tidbit. All my races have been road races, and honestly I haven’t come across any road ultras. But…. There was this ultra in June on what was described as well groomed trails. So I signed up!
I was running a pretty steady load, with long runs of 13+ miles every weekend. My boyfriend and I were registered to run a half marathon in Texas in February as part of work/social trip for him, and I tapered a bit, running maybe like 8 miles for my long run the weekend prior to the race. I don’t taper. Ever. My new Hokas also ended up being too big and too different from my old standby Mizunos, and I got a black toenail on my second toe. Yuck. More on this.
So, I ran my fastest half in Texas! It was unseasonably cold, to the point that our rental car, a Nissan Sentra, warned us about low outdoor temperatures. Being from MIchigan, this cracked us up. That said, race morning was cold. And I am always cold after a long run. After the run, the 44th running of the Cowtown, I was cold. We went back to our AirBNB (which was pretty sketch) and I sat in front of the space heater for an untold amount of time. The shower had, I kid you not, about 4 minutes of hot water. Eventually I took a short shower and had lunch, and felt good!
Getting back to Michigan, the next race on the calendar was the Marine Corps half in Virginia in May. This race I had signed up for in 2020 as a trip for myself, coinciding with my birthday! I didn’t even know my boyfriend then. Well, it got canceled in 2020, then again in 2021, so finally my deferred registration was valid this year! Getting back into training, I found it hard to devote the long run time. I just didn’t want to! I upped my daily mileage but didn’t do much in the way of long efforts. My black toenail got more and more weird, finally coming nearly off. I kept it bandaided on as long as possible while the new one starting growing in. FInally, it came off altogether. One of the weirdest feelings!
The Marine Corps half was great. This time we had unseasonable hot weather, topping out at nearly 100 the day prior to race day. Thankfully, the race started early and the sun stayed hidden, and it was not awful. We drove all the way home that day – we were ready to be home and there was worry that one of my guinea pigs and possibly my cat would have passed away while we were gone. They were both in questionable health.
Arriving home at 10 pm, my guinea pig had indeed passed away. It was very sad as she wasn’t very old at 3, and was my first guinea pig.
Back to running, it was about 4 weeks to the ultra at this point. I had not done a single training run specific to the race. Nothing long. No trails. I felt like I should, but again didn’t want to! Worried I would back out of the event I booked a hotel room for the night prior about 15 minutes from the race. I now felt completely committed to running this race.
In my next post, I’ll tell you all about the race – both grueling and amazing at the same time!