In The Heat Of The Night 50k

I'm not quite sure when lining up to run a 50k as a training run became a thing in my life, but last night, I found myself doing just that. The IMTUF 100 miler is 6 weeks away. It is expected to be the 2nd longest race of my life, time-wise, assuming all goes as planned. It has less vert than UTMB, but the cutoff is 36 hours and it is a Hardrock qualifier. I'm pretty good at flat and fast, but my mountain fitness has yet to ever my match my enthusiasm. So I've been trying to duplicate much of last summer's training with long days on the trails and surviving weekday runs through the hottest summer I can remember in recent years.

I chose this race for a multitude of factors. It was a chance to do some night running which is good practice for running a 100 miler (in which only the Dauwalter's of the world don't need headlamps) and in theory, a break from sun exposure. The timing of it gives me chance to recover from the effort before the actual big race. Plus, the 6 p.m. start meant I could do a longer run on a Saturday without needing to put Max in his crate for a super long time. His potty-training has been great, but his mischievous behavior (re: destructive chewing) still needs some work.

Looking back, I can't decide if it was a pro or con that my work week was absolutely nuts. There's a part of me that was grateful for having it be so crazy that I was relieved to be running through the forest Saturday night with only running to worry about. But there's a part of me that wonders how much better I could have felt without all that extra cortisol stressing my body. I had multiple days of leaving my house at 6:45 a.m. and returning at 8:30 p.m., being "on" the entire time. I'm super lucky that Megan and Frank came to help with Adam and the dogs; they really are my lifesavers in so many ways. 

Two weekends ago, I ran at Brasstown and did the triple which was about 30 miles and 8,000' of gain. My coach and I decided to do a recovery week after that and coupled with the crazy workweek, I suppose I had a bit of a taper going into the week. I did manage about 20 miles this week squeezed into whatever pockets of time I could find, but all of them pretty easy miles given life and the heat.

I left my house around 3:30 p.m. EST to give myself enough buffer to get to eastern Alabama for the 6:00 p.m. CST start. There was a traffic jam on 285 that cause a bit of panic for me, but I arrived with just over an hour to the start and honestly, that was plenty. When I stepped out of my car, it was like an inferno outside. I had to park about 1/3 of a mile from the start and by the time I got to bib pickup, I was sweating profusely from just walking. 

Temps at the start

I went back to my car to get ready and sit in the A/C for a few more minutes. Eventually though, it was time to get the show on the road and practice working through feeling uncomfortable. I had no qualms about being given plenty of chances to feel uncomfortable!

There were 4 distances all starting at the same time - 5k, 25k, 50k, and 100k. I could glean from the interwebs that it was more gravel than single-track trail and that there was about 2,000' gain/descent per loop with the loops being 25k each. For all you math majors, that is 4,000' gain/descent for the 50k distance. This was half the vertical I ran at Brasstown, but I (correctly) assumed there was going to be a good amount of walking. 

When we started, I tried to position myself in the middle of the pack. I certainly didn't want to go out too fast and try to keep up with anyone running the 10k or 25k. Plus, I knew the first hour or two were going to be rough with the sun still out and the temperatures hovering around 90*. I was content to just get a lay of the land on the first loop and push it a bit if there was any sort of fight left in my legs after the sun when down on the second loop.

The pack spread out really quickly within the first 3 miles, but I had someone in view throughout the entire first loop. The terrain was all gravel and mostly well-packed except for the first half mile of the course. If it had been about 50* cooler, I would have really flown! There were really no flat sections at all. It was either up or down the entire loop. Which was actually kind of fun to run because I could gain back some time on the downs, but the ups gave me a chance to eat and get my heart rate down a bit. 

Good riddance to the big orange thing

There was one water-only station at mile 2.7, then aid at 5.3 and 10, water-only at 12.6, and the main aid station at 15.3. Rinse, repeat. 

I started to pass a few people here and there towards the middle of the first loop. I had started out conservatively enough that once I "warmed up", I settled into a comfortable rhythm. 

Miles and miles of this

At the 10 mile aid station, I pulled out my headlamp as it was starting to get dark. I bombed a few of the descents in the next section and was pleased that my legs were feeling so peppy. I'd been eating every 30 minutes or so and sipping both Skratch and water very consistently. It was hot and humid as bejesus though and I was drenched. 

When I was on the "demoralizing hill" (there was a sign letting us know that's what it was called), I opened up a pack of fruit snacks and dumped all of them in my mouth. Nothing weird, I do this all the time while running. But as I was trying to get any of them actually down my esophagus, I felt the dry heaves take over and immediately spit all of them out. The good news was that I didn't actually throw up, the bad news was that I was nauseous at mile 14. 

Coming into the aid station of the first loop complete, I grabbed a few more snacks from my drop bag and drank a bunch of water. I think even with my constant sipping, I was dehydrated. I needed to quite literally chill. So I walked out to start my second loop and tried to just relax for a few minutes, settle my stomach, and get myself in a better place. 

Fortunately, I was able to turn things around pretty quickly. I came upon a runner in that section who was bent over and massaging his legs, clearly cramping. I stopped to walk with him for a minute, basically forcing a packet of Skratch on him to use when he got to the water stop. He had no running vest or handheld on him and was just carrying a plastic cup from the aid station. Yikes! 

I filled up at the water-only stop, but the coolers were running really low so I went into hall monitor mode at the next aid station letting them know the water situation and to watch out for cramping runner. Food calories were feeling iffy at this point so I took a cup of what I think was store-brand Sprite and used it to drown a peanut butter cracker. This "short" race soon became an exercise in trying to practice eating for a longer race. Which is not really what I had intended, but I guess thanks for the gift, universe? 

Along the next section, I snacked on some more fruit snacks that actually made their way to my stomach instead of the ground. I was eating them a few at a time which seemed far more palatable than the entire package. 

I had committed myself to running at least 30 seconds up the bottom of each hill instead of just stopping to walk. 30 seconds seemed manageable and every little bit I was still running was getting me closer to the finish line. I had allowed myself the gift of music for the last 10 miles and let Drake and Diplo power me up and down the hills of the Talladega National Forest. 

The combination of snacks and jams made for an arguably fun last 10 miles. My legs were tired and I definitely was dreaming of sitting in my car with the air conditioner blasting, but there is always something that feels a little rebelliously fun about flying down a trail in the middle of the night at the age of 42. 

I knew that once I got to the particularly rough gravel in the final section that it was only about a half mile to go. I was highly motivated and feeling relatively good for mile 30 so I just emptied the tank as I came down the final stretch. The person handing out the finisher medals was just beyond the finish line and practically threw it at me as my momentum carried me well beyond the stopping point. 

Mission complete.

Driving towards Georgia, I realized the hour I gained was now an hour lost, but the silver lining was that if I was able to stay awake, I could watch the women's Olympic marathon when I got home. So like the crazy person I am, I immediately fired up the iPad when I walked in the door and carried it around as I got settled. I told Adam I would just keep it on closed captioning so he could keep sleeping, but I guess I've influenced him enough that he turned it on the TV and we stayed up to the see the finish. Let's just say I was sufficiently sleepy when I finally closed my eyes. What a night!