Ok, race day! It was a Saturday morning, and it was chilly. Strangely chilly. The week leading up, including the previous evening when I drove up, was in the 80s. This morning it was in the 50s. Not complaining, but kind of. I hadn’t brought any long sleeves and over my running tights and tank I wore my boyfriend’s t-shirt I use for jammies. Still chilly.
I drove over to the state park and got my race packet. There was also a half-marathon going on and the group picking up packets for that was larger, but still pretty small. This was not a big event by any stretch. Looking around at the folks doing the different distances, I remembered my first half-marathon and how amazed I was to be running that. Same with my first 10k. And 5k. Hell, I remember my first run thinking I was going to die after half a mile! And here I was, getting my bib and gear check bag for a 31 mile run. Truly unfathomable to me.
So, the course was two loops of 15.5 miles each with a gear check bag available at the halfway point. I wasn’t sure what to pack, but didn’t put much in there given that I was familiar with how I felt at the end of a marathon without any extra stuff. Just some extra GUs, a Powerade Zero, the blue flavor, anti-chafe, sunscreen, lip balm. I think that was it?
On my person I had my run belt loaded up with GUs, 8 of them I think! In the end I only ended up using four, but in my marathon running I use one every 4 miles or so and was anticipating the same usage here. In my tights pockets I had my phone for music in one and then I put the collapsible cup they gave us to use at aid stations in the other. My earbuds were draped around my neck. My bib was attached. Ready to go! It was a little windy as the start/finish line was near a lake in the park, and I was cold. But again, better too cool than too hot! I was very thankful to have this temp for my first ultra!
The race director, a slim ball of energy who did an unbelievable job of marking the trail with orange tape like every 0.05 miles (really, outstanding!!) called us over with his bullhorn to go through the course. The half-marathoners had a couple of places where they deviated from the loop to go 13.1 miles rather than 15.5 and he was describing those so no one missed their turns. After that it was only a few minutes and we were off! He led the race out on his bike, and we started on a sidewalk then through a parking lot before our paths diverged. Soon we were on a paved path through the park, and came to the first turn into the woods. There was a guy coming behind me with a very loud footfall who was clearly pushing hard already, and I had to be careful not to get caught up in that, even when he passed me. I used my GPS watch to stay near my target pace as much as I could, but in the woods the signal was poor and sometimes it told me I was at a 28 minute pace…
As I mentioned in my last post, in addition to being my first ultra it was also my first trail run, and I quickly learned that a trail run is to a road run as reading a trashy romance novel is to reading Greek philosophy – not only is it harder but it requires all your attention! In fact, I didn’t turn my music on a single time, I was fully engaged in watching for roots and stumps, holes and debris, navigating up hills and down hills and around muddy spots. There were several places where a path had been cut through grassy plains and these were extremely cambered (slanted to the side). One of these cambered stretches included a hairpin turn that was nearly impossible to take at anything more than a walk for fear of sliding down to the inside!
Despite my best efforts, the trail got me more than once. We were not too far into the woods, the heavy footfall guy who had passed me earlier was right in front of me and keeping my cadence steady I gained on him and scooted around on the left. He said to me, “Go get em!” And then about 1 minute later my foot hit a root and I windmilled my arms like crazy to not fall on my face! He complimented my recovery, giving me a 9.5 out of 10, and I told him I had just almost gone and got ‘em.
Next time…. More trail action!