Voyageur 50 mile: Part Two!

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! I'm finally finished with part two! So without further ado . . .

The way back was definitely much better than the way out. Loads better. I looked at my watch 5 or so minutes out of the zoo and saw there was still tons of time before the cut off (well, maybe 30 minutes or so? That counts as tons of time) and from that point on, it was golden. I told myself that no mater what, now, as long as I kept moving forward, I would be fine. I wasn't racing the cutoff so everything was a-ok. It might have been a little early to be assuring myself of such things but I don't think it was a bad thought per se - it kept me very positive the rest of the way back. I didn't worry a bit and mentally ran the very model of how you're supposed to handle a long race - aid station to aid station only - without even having to force myself to think that way! I only once thought about total distance left before the last aid station - somewhere around 15 miles left it was forced upon me (gee, thanks, Tom!) but I was able to put it out of my mind :)

Anyway, I stopped at the creek again to do a quick wash off of the mud left over from my fall (festering wound, remember?) and on my way back up I found Kelly and Amanda walking their way back toward me. They accompanied me back up to the Magney aid station, which was nice. Kelly complimented my swift walking speed at that point in the race, which was nice to hear. Strong walking was something I'd been working on. It's tough not to when you have people like Marcus around, who can beat you walking up a hill when you're running up a hill. Punk. Anyway, I was able to do a lot more talking now, too, without feeling as though I was going to hyperventilate, which was good. I grabbed a lifesaver from the aid station (something about this aid station was making me grab things that wouldn't otherwise be appealing) and, saying bye to Kelly and Amanda, continued on my way.

Heading into the Magney-Snivley, I felt much better than I had on the way out. And I know I ran a lot more on the way back even though it was much more uphill. Things just felt a lot better, despite having to focus at times on not choking to death on my lifesaver. Someone caught up with me here and he helped the time go by talking to me. Silly guy kept asking me questions though - half of which I couldn't hear and needed him to repeat only to not feel as though I had quite enough breathing power for sustained conversation. He eventually skirted around me, though, after we traded places a couple of times and then it was on my way down Skyline.

About halfway down Skyline is where Tom Burr caught up to me and we stuck together for a long time after that. Some great things about Tom: He's done this before (both 50s in general and Voyageur in specific), he has a lot to talk about, he doesn't need you to talk a lot back if you don't want to. We ran down Skyline together and into Beck's Road where I lost track of him briefly.

Here I am getting more gels from Dad. At this point, he asked if I wanted more sunscreen. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Sunscreen? Nah, it's getting later in the day and I'm about to head through Zapp's Loop which is quite shaded. More sunscreen didn't seem necessary and I didn't feel like taking the time for it then, anyway. I headed out down Zapp's Loop only to find myself wanting fresh sunscreen maybe ten minutes later. But probably sooner. Ooops. I passed Tom while he was, um, paused for a moment and he passes me back and disappeared strong down the hill.

So - Zapp's Loop is one of the NMTC Wednesday night trail races. My favorite one, in fact! And it comes with an unexpected (if you haven't done it before) uphill that's riddled with trenchs/ruts/bad footing. I timed myself up it one year and found it's less than 5 minutes up so since then, I've used that as a way to make myself suck it up and push up the hill. Now that it was mile 30-something, I tried the same thing, only with walking fast up as opposed to running fast up. Lo and behold - I caught back up to Tom! He regaled me with all sorts of interesting things (if only I could remember more of them!) as we made our way around the Loop and told me good things about how strong I looked, which was nice. He was great to have right behind me at that point, even if he did seem to think I wanted to hear how far was left :) Coming into Fond du Lac, I finally realized that the green shirted woman I'd seen lots of was his crew (his awesome wife, in fact).

Tom pushed me quite a ways up the other end of Zapp's but then he started asking me questions. And expecting answers! Which brought my breathing way back up and my pace back down. Bummer. I let him by me and focused on getting my breathing back to 'normal.' Up the last hill, onto the Munger Trail and into Seven Bridges aid station. I focused on running the entire length of the Munger until I got to the aid station as long as I was on flat, even ground.

Heading into the Powerlines = ice in hat. I was also smart enough to ask for sunscreen this time and my dad was awesome enough to smear it all over my super sweaty arms and shoulders. What an awesome dad! I traded my handheld for my Camelback again and headed off. It seems especially cruel that in order to even GET to the Powerlines, you have to head uphill. Finally, I broke out of the trail and onto the Powerlines. I took a second to pause, have a sip of water, say hello to the Powerlines (and if you've run with me near here, you'll know that was literal) and headed off.

In case you've missed this announcement since: I now own the Powerlines! I can't believe how well I ran through them. I think when you're planning on moving slowly to begin with, moving slow doesn't bother you? In any case, I felt super strong and had no problems with them at all. Just one foot in front of the other. I even caught two (three?) people going through them! Tom was one of them, so it was nice to see him again, though I was sure he'd catch me again on the way up from Grand Portage. Fun factoid of that section: I have some sort of bug land right on my lips at the top of a hill. I had just finished a gulp of nice, sticky E-Gel and apparently, the bug decided I wanted to share. No go, bug, sorry. I was super excited coming into Grand Portage. I still felt pretty good and nothing gives you confidence like owning the Powerlines :) I knew it was going to be a long haul up to Peterson's but I felt as though I had gotten the heat under control (the extra heat in the Powerlines didn't even bother me!) and knew I had a couple of creek crossing to use for their cooling powers. Not to mention another opportunity for ice in my hat.

Mike's getting ready to join me for a few miles here as I'm getting my water refilled, putting more ice in my hat. Which I never felt, by the way. I figured I'd get a cold head at some point but I never felt the ice up there, even though I knew it was doing good. I'm also informing Dad (to the amusement of the people next to him) that I now own the Powerlines. Hey, it's important information for him to know :)

So then it's on to Peterson's. Ooof. That's a long way up and it was nice to have some company. Mike came along with me here and we talked a bit more than last time (I had more breath heading uphill here than downhill previously . . .). Grand Portage to Peterson's is a section that feels as though it's much longer than it is. You just get off the Powerlines and then keep going up and up and up. Even when it seems like it's leveling off, it's really still going up. Happily, there's a couple of creek crossings, allowing me to continue dowsing myself with water. At this point, I'd ceased to care about how dirty the water I'm pouring over my head looked as I scooped it up with my hat. As a side note, my hat was amazingly not super stinky at the end of the day. It just sort of smelled like lake water instead of smelling as though it had been on top of an active sweaty head for 12 hours in the middle of summer.

I think the worst part of the course might be when you come out onto the ski trails both the first time here and after Gill Creek. Something is inherently evil about ski trails after coming off single track trails. You get onto this nice smooth-ish (comparatively) surface. Nice and wide. Good footing. Maybe the hills aren't as steep. And . . . what's this? I'm still crawling that the same pace I was going before? Surely I should be able to go faster here! Add to that how your pace always seems faster on single track than anything that's wider open and everything suddenly feels very tough. Plus . . oh, yeah, you're still going uphill! I'm moving pretty slowly here, lots of walking. My legs haven't fallen off yet but they're feeling rather tired and not interested in moving very quickly.

Into Peterson's and mile 41.5. And it's Shaun! He was just about to leave when I came in and I gave him a quick hug before booting him out. I also got another hug from Rick who was working this station, too. More water over the head and pose for a quick picture. All smiles! Out I go to 'chase down' Shaun. I was surprised I was so close to him but he seemed pretty sprighty still, so I didn't think I'd see him again. I'm going to skip the part here, where I sent poor Mike running back for forgotten gels. Twice. Only because I wasn't clear the first time that I was going to be picky. And then ended up not needing one before the next aid station anyway . . . Thanks Mike!

Heading out of Peterson's is downhill. Yay! More down to Gill Creek (steep downhill. Ow.) and more water over the head. This water was so cold (or my body was so hot?) that I practically felt my heart stop from the shock of sudden temperature change. Which meant time to throw a capfull straight on my core and than another on my head. Up out of Gill Creek and . . . back onto ski trails. Uphill again. But now it's close enough to the finish to start sort of tasting it, just a little, even if I was still thinking just to Forbay Lake. At one point I promise myself that if I run all the way to the Munger, then I'm allowed to walk the ENTIRE Munger Trail section if I wanted to (which I didn't expect to but the offer was there). I didn't quite make it there, though - it was further than I originally thought. So then I decided that that meant I wasn't allowed to walk ANY of the Munger since it was flat.

And actually . . . Hmmm. I can't entirely remember. I know I had to stop and do something - fiddle with my camel? I'm not sure. Anyway, I walked just a tich but mostly ran the whole thing. And, of course, promptly forgot where it was we turn back into ski trail and thought I had a whole lot longer on the trail that I did. The guys a bit in front of me suddenly disappeared and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what happened to them because I KNEW we still had to go around the next corner too. Mike speculated a bathroom break and I decided I must have imagined that extra corner. And then we got closer and I saw the magical orange arrows spray painted on the tar pointing me into the trail and lo and behold - I HAD imagined that extra corner. Huzzah! That meant we were practically to Forbay Lake!

Into Forbay Lake and . . . Shaun again? He likes to hang out in the aid stations! I did a quick gel grab and water dunk, Mike ducked out and I headed out just behind Shaun. Headed out onto the longest 2 miles in the world. I was getting really excited here which probably didn't help this section feel any faster. I was still thinking 2 miles to Jay Cooke but allowed myself to think about the last section that would follow. Plus Shaun just kept running! No walking of uphills for him. Except for one where I was sure I was going to catch him. And I sort of did. Sort of. But then he took off again and I was all by my lonesome making my way through trail I didn't remember being nearly as muddy a mere 11 or so hours ago . . .

Coming up to the Highway 210 crossing, there was Shane manning the crossing for us. He was incredibly happy to see me since he was afraid I had dropped and it was nice to see a grinning face. He escorted me across the highway . . .

And there I was at Jay Cooke! I glanced at the aid table first (of course, when this picture was taken!). Then I saw my Mom, Sister and Nephew cheering for me! Well, Mom and Jess were cheering for me, the little guy looked a bit confused. Big smile on my part and a kiss on the head to the little guy who may or may not have recognized the voice of wet, smelly Auntie running at him. Dad was sitting down (I think) and I barely saw him here. I don't remember seeing Mike at all (I guess I saw them all day long and it was time to focus on someone else?). Beeline for the table. I handed my water bottle to Ron with a request for fresh water, please. I'm amused that I barely registered that it was Ron beyond briefly being amazed that he must have finished already and came back to help. Something I didn't even think to question until a different day! Even though he was changed, possibly showered, clearly hadn't JUST shown up and wasn't completely done in looking . . . ah well. Next up was Lisa, brandishing a plastic container of Heed.

She asked if I wanted it dumped on my head. I was momentarily confused, thinking about dumping Heed on my head but realized it was water and, though I wasn't ridiculously hot anymore, it sounded pretty nice. And it was. By the looks of things, though, Lisa was enjoying dumping water on me as much as I was. Hmmmm . . . But! There went Shaun and there was another women who was in front of me but looking like she wanted to leave so I better head out now! And away I went - Lisa yelling "Nice running" behind me. Come to think of, I was still moving okay (probably the same steady as she goes pace I'd been doing for much of the day) and felt alright. One good thing about the heat was that I didn't feel down on myself for being slow at all. Okay. I'm going to stick with Shaun! If for no other reason then to make the woman right behind me think that I'm so full of energy she might as well not even think about trying to catch me on this last stretch.

Last stretch! Less than 4 miles to go! More like a 5K, but I decided to think 4 miles instead. I can run 4 miles! Shaun was flying up the hills like a gazelle but I stayed with him . . . for a couple of minutes anyway and then he was gone for good and put way more ground on me then I want to admit. And then I was all by my lonesome. I knew that woman was back there somewhere and after a mile or so, I started catching glimpses of someone in white just going out of sight in front of me and I entertained fantasies of speeding up and catching her. And then my legs got very, very tired. The evil part of this section is how it keeps going forever. And the roots. And the rocks. And the part where it's uphill. Oh, and how I had no idea where on the trail I really was, just that you don't know you're almost to the Munger again until you come to the bridge. The bridge I was SO SURE was JUST around the corner. Ooof.

I dragged myself onto the paved Munger, determined to run the whole way in. After all, who knew how close that other woman was and I didn't want a sprint finish and I certainly didn't want to be beat right at the end. I made it about 10 feet. Walked some. Forced myself to run again - this time to the end! Or for another 10 feet, you know, close enough. You know that super high armed, arm pumping, determined power walking that you see some people do down the street? That was me. My legs simply wouldn't run any more. But they would walk fast! So walk fast I did! Arms high and pumping! But, by god, I was going to run the whole way in from the corner - a mighty two blocks. Slightly downhill. In fact, I was going to round that corner running! Round it running from a block before the corner! Okay, maybe round it running period was good enough. And I did run the whole way in from there, which shows my legs had more than they thought since I couldn't have run two blocks two minutes ago.

Now, you can't tell in this picture, but I'm grinning like an idiot for that last block. It's a neat finish line, with most everyone who's already finished still hanging out and cheering for those of us in back. And if it feels like grinning like an idiot after 50 miles, then I don't even want to think what it looked like to someone who wasn't just finishing 50 miles :) Anyway! I'm finishing 50 miles! And I'm running my way in! And smiling!

12 hours 22 minutes and 50 seconds. Definitely between 9:30 and 13 hours! So I'm happy. The more I think about how hot it was, the more I can't believe I did it. 109 finishers (I was number 95) and I'm not sure how many started but I heard 30 something or so dropped out. I no longer have any rights to bitch about running in the heat. Here I am, still rather soaked, collecting my awesome finisher mug and red beanie (new favorite hat!) from Andy and Kim.

Despite having requested a chair from Mike back at mile something or other (40 something, maybe?), a chair didn't look nearly as nice as hiking myself onto the cement border at the finish line with my friends. Christi finished almost 4 hours before me and was still there cheering in the finishers! That's how awesome my fellow ultra runners are. I sat until I realized I was shaking. Gee, how could I possibly be cold? I've only been soaking wet for much of the last 10 hours or so . . . So it was into the school to change. Now, I wasn't walking all the way across the gym to the bathroom so I settled for going around the corner to change. And promptly discovered painful chaffing. I highly recommend RE-applying any body glide you may be using if you plan on continuously dousing yourself with water for several hours . . .

Sadly, the finish line lasagna did not look good. I had some sherbert, though, and a bit of chocolate milk. I hung out as long as I could until my poor crew was definitely ready to be done. So it was back to the campsite for a shower and some pizza hotdish (I wasn't very hungry) and bed.

50 miles! I'll be back next year!

From NR: My first 50 mile! Part one!

I have so many ways to start this post! So many things to share! Guys - I finished my first 50 mile and let me tell you how awesome I feel! I'm going to take you on a ridiculously long blog aid station by aid station :) In way more detail than you want! But I promise lots of pictures! I'll also be talking about the course as though you know it, but I think that will be okay, even if you don't. Step one, though, is to say a public thank you to my awesome crew - my dad and my buddy Mike. You can definitely do a 50 mile without a crew (especially this one) but it was sure nice to have them.



We all camped in Jay Cooke the night before so that we were closer to the race start. I have a pop-up camper so I had a bed which was really quite nice. I slept pretty well and woke up not feeling tired at all. I had everything ready to go - clothes were laid out with my race number on top (to be pinned on race morning). The bag for my dad to carry was packed and ready to go. So, first step was some quick breakfast (mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Boost!) and then time to change.







When we got to the start, I wandered over to Kim to check in and attempt to trade in my race shirt. I swore I ordered a medium, but no, even after their warning ahead of time about the small shirt sizes, I didn't double check to make sure. So it was very nice of them to let me exchange!





After that it was time to wander about and chat until the start. I'm in the center-ish here, in the soon to be familiar to you Northwoods jersey, black shorts and Austin-Jarrow hat. I'm running eerily close to my soon to be new pal, Tom. We would spend a lot of time together several hours later as he caught me on our way down Skyline! I came to recognize his wife Nancy's bright green shirt at the aid stations before I knew who she was there for. I also never asked his name the entire time we were running together and ended up having to ask Nancy after I finished. Ooops. Who needs names when you're running together?







Now, how the heck do you start a 50 mile race when you've never done one before and your goal time is anywhere from 9:30-13:00? I opted for slowly and let a lot of people by me until I hooked up with Rick. Perfect! Rick has done tons of these and he'll help me start smart. So I latch on to poor Rick as we head into the single track to Jay Cooke. If Rick walked up something, I walked up. If Rick bounded around a group of slow, unsurefooted runners heading carefully over technical trail, I bounded around a group of slow unsurefooted runners heading carefully over technical trail. I decided if we were still running together after Jay Cooke that I would speak up and let him know to tell me if I were driving him crazy. It was a good way to start, though. He was surprisingly aggressive, passing around a couple of groups I think I would have just waited behind had he not led the way.



Soon enough, we came to the swinging bridge in Jay Cooke where my mom was waiting to cheer and take a couple pictures. She told me to think cold thoughts. A most excellent idea! Sadly, at the aid station, Rick told me he was much too far ahead of where he should be so I set off on my own. Another Rick was at the road crossing so I stopped for a brief hug and then it was off to play tag through the next section with a guy I'd see on and off for most of the first half of the race. The trail was much muddier in the next section than I expected. Funny how you try to go around the mud some in the start of a race just to crash through it later.







Up next was Forbay Lake. I'm caught here with my head rather down which is not good running form, I know. It's rather hard to run with your head UP while you're on trails, though. I do try to keep my head up and only my eyes down, but that tends to bring the head down eventually anyway. But, that's getting off track. So this is one of the few pictures of me (all pictures are by my dad or buddy Mike except for two by my mom) that my dad took where I wasn't smiling like I was having the time of my life. So, grab a gel from my dad's bag and on to the next section.



Running on the Munger is just gross when you get to spend so much time on nice soft trails. I focused on keeping a nice even pace, though, as long as I had flat and smooth. I remember watching the woman in front of me but I don't remember what about her I was paying such focused attention to. I think she might have been wearing a skirt and I was deciding if I liked it? That might have been later, though. I passed a couple of people as we came into Gil Creek - I know I'm good with single track so I figured I would be able to stay appropriately in front of the small group instead of going around them just to slow down. I flew in front of them down Gil Creek but they caught back up on the way up. I know Marcus, don't say a word! I have a handful of things I really want to focus on and one of them is upping my walking speed if I have to walk up something. They (mostly) didn't actually pass me on the way up, though, so I couldn't have been walking up too slowly. I decided it wasn't yet necessary to dump water over my head at Gil Creek but that would soon be the norm.





Here I am coming into Peterson's. This pictures makes it look rather uphill, doesn't it? I don't remember it feeling uphill at that point but I DO remember it feeling downhill on the way back. Most interesting . . . The reverse side definitely felt uphill on the way back, though, let me tell you. There's a few spots that last much longer than the distance between aid stations seem to indicate and Grand Portage back to Peterson's is one of them. But I'm getting ahead of myself by several hours . . .



This is Mike's picture of me coming into Peterson's (seriously, there's a ton of pictures, which is pretty cool and I plan to share them all). For some reason, it really amuses me that he's caught me looking at my watch. Here's why, though - Dad told me here that I was still on my original pace. I had written down for him the earliest times I would be at an aid station so he would have some sort of idea when to expect me with the caveat that I probably wouldn't be on those times and that they'd get increasingly off. I also wrote down distances between aid stations and the amount of time each section would take - again with that "fastest I'd be going" pace. But he told me I was pretty much still on so I looked at my watch in surprise. And then laughed at myself because I had no conception of what the time on my watch meant at that point. My only real goal for the day was finishing and I had such a varied time ability depending on weather, etc, so I didn't try to remember any particular times that I 'wanted' to see at aid stations. I didn't much look at my watch for reasons of race time until I was getting closer to the zoo, just for seeing if it was gel or salt time yet.



Through Peterson's and on to Grand Portage. This might be a good time to mention that I don't like to dilly dally at aid stations - I even had several people comment on how little time I spent in them (or was that just a couple of people saying it several times? It all blurs together). Since I had Dad carrying my extra gels, I really just needed to grab a new one or two from him and get my water bottle refilled at each aid station. And, of course, get a hug if someone I knew was working there! Which is actually a very cool thing about this race and one of the reasons I chose it as my first 50 mile. Since it's right in my backyard, it felt as though I was always seeing someone I knew and that's a nice lift. I had friends at aid stations, friends cheering along the way, friends biking back and forth along the course (Randy! You should post your pictures!) and that can really make a difference in your day. Anyway, it's easier to zoom through aid stations when you don't eat a lot of solid food, too. I ended up eating maybe a couple of pretzels and a couple slices of watermelon total the whole day. And some frozen grapes! My stomach was fine on the gels, so that was good as I wasn't sure if I'd stop being able to get them down or not.





Crossing whatever creek it is on the way down to Grand Portage, it was finally time to start dumping hat-fulls of water over my head at each crossing. Well, I think I started with one hat-full per creek but trust me, that soon became two or three later in the day. Cue the pictures where I start looking more and more like a drowned rat. The pictures where I have a funny looking, misshapen, lumpy head from the ice in my hat will follow shortly. This is coming into Grand Portage when I see Rick K. Again! Big smile for Rick. If I look as though I'm starting to run in the wrong direction, it's because I'm heading for my dad since it's time to trade a waterbottle for a Camelback. I didn't think the powerlines would be all the muddy but I wanted both hands free for grabbing at vegetation, anyway. Plus, I was already sucking down water and I didn't think the handheld would last me through the open-to-the-sun Powerlines.



Let me tell you, the Powerlines are much worse going up from Grand Portage than going the other direction. It seems as though it's much more uphill. Much more. But, at least the temperature wasn't too bad - it was overcast and I decided even if the weather gods were just teasing us and saving nasty weather to come, I would take it! It was definitely nice to know that we don't have to go as far as it looks - when you're coming over the last hill, you can see powerlines stretching forever and ever away and if you don't know you're about to head into the woods and away from the Powerlines, it could look pretty disheartening. I had a white shirted shadow at that point (he seemed to latch onto to someone and follow exactly what they did until they were going too fast or too slow for him. Which seemed a bit familiar to my first few miles . . . ) who wondered allowed if we were almost through, so it was nice to be able to tell him we were. Eventually, I was going too slow for him and I lost sight of him on my way up Skyline. I have no idea who he is and still wonder if he was able to finish.



Coming into Seven Bridges, my Dad tried to send Mike through Zapp's Loop with me. Which confused me to no end - I wasn't planning on having him run with me until the second time through the Powerlines or the way up Grand Portage so why would he be trying to send him along so early? Turns out my awesome dad was writing down all of my aid station splits (which are interesting to look at and I bet they'll be helpful for planning next time around) and looking at my split through the Powerlines, I think I understand why, now . . . I don't think I fully warned them that that section would be much slower. Heading down to Fond du Lac, I tried to stretch out some and ducked around a couple guys (I think one might have been my soon to be pal, Tom, but I can't remember for sure) only to not really speed up all that much (or maybe they decided to hang on to me) but I tried to at least be fast enough to not annoy the guys who just let me around them.



Fond du Lac (no pictures since I had my crew skip this) had the nicest aid station volunteer! She asked what I wanted as I peered at the cups on the table. What I said was "Water, please. For my head." In which I meant that I wanted a full glass and not a partially filled one (why I thought she would have any idea that was what I meant, I have no idea, but my mind was already in it's own little spot) but she decided that meant I wanted the water poured on my head for me, which she promptly did! I was a bit surprised but thought it was quite nice. Happily, I was never tired enough to forget to thank anyone (at least, I don't think I was!). Remembering Shane's comment about my first 50K (he said I was grumpy through his aid station), I tried to make sure I was remembering to be overly polite to the aid station workers which probably meant I was at least being polite since it seems I have a messed up view of things the longer I'm running. I also worried about being short/grumpy with my dad so I tried to focus on that, as well.



On to the second half of Zapp's Loop. I love Zapp's Loop - it's my second favorite NMTC race (well, my favorite now that Hartley is different). I was very glad that I decided to give it a go backwards the weekend before since I had never done it backwards before. It's rather surprisingly uphill at first! Happily, there are lots of river crossings which means plenty of opportunity for happy wet feet and happy wet capfulls of river water. Apparently, this section also meant plenty of opportunity for feeling like crap. Hmmmmmmmm. Not what I was looking for. It was in this section that I started really worrying that I might not finish. Not that I would drop out but that I would be going so slow that they'd pull me from the course. I was not feeling good at all and I wasn't even halfway through! This seemed like a very bad sign, despite trying to remind myself that Lisa hadn't felt good until mile 30 the year before. There was some dry heaving and some swearing and lots more walking then I wanted to be doing. Especially since I was going downhill . . . But my stomach wouldn't let me run so I decided that I would at least walk until they forced me off the course. I did manage to get back to running on the way up but still with lots of worrisome doubts going about my head. I had started the race taking one salt pill an hour and I honestly can't remember when I changed to two but I hadn't gotten my schedule down yet. Later in the race, every time I started feeling a bit nauseous, I would look at my watch and it would almost always be about time for salt or a gel.



Coming into Beck's, I just felt hot and ugh. Which is about what I said to Eve when I saw her but happily, she had my favorite - frozen grapes. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. I don't know why but nothing tastes as good to me on a hot long run as delicious frozen grapes. It became apparent here that Mike would be coming with me at this point whether I wanted him to or not, which meant he was going all the way to the Zoo since I was having Dad skip Magney/Skyline. Which isn't worded quite right - it's not that I didn't want him to run with me, just that I wanted him LATER and I worried this meant he changed his mind about which section to run. My dad has issues with heat and humidity (we're a great team for a late July race!) so I worried that he wasn't doing great and Mike was running now because he'd need to crew later. It was nice to have company as I slugged up Skyline, though. And slugged is the right word - though Mike missed the joys of dry heaving up Zapp's Loop, I wasn't feeling all that great for the part he was along for, either.



So, up Skyline. Happily, I saw Randy here, who took a picture of me gallantly striding up the hill. Even faking feeling good lets you feel good for a bit! That's a long way up Skyline, though - a full mile uphill on pavement. Ew and double ew. Then the turn into the Magney ski trails. This section was crazy slow for me and I was doing a lot of walking/barely running. We were starting to see racers coming back at us, though (actually, I lie, the leader came at us while we were still on Skyline), and that's a ton of fun. Ultra runners seem to generally be very supportive of each other, even when you have no idea who the other person is. It's always fun to see how the lead runners are mixed up, too. I love out and backs! Towards the end of this section, I realized I didn't have a gel with me. There was some mix up and I didn't communicate well enough to my Dad about water bottle/camel exchanging earlier and I forgot to grab a gel, thinking I already had one. I decided I ought to be okay and didn't think about it for a while.



Coming into Magney/Skyline and waiting for me were my friends Kelly and Amanda! They watched in dismay as I drank some Coke (it looked good for some reason so I drank a partial cup) and ran with me until we turned off of Skyline. I chatted with them quite a bit and found myself completely out of breath as Mike and I headed across Spirit. As in sprinting a 5K out of breath and having quite a bit of trouble feeling as though I was getting enough air. More than a bit worrisome since I was still moving rather sloth-like at this point and that didn't seem to bode well for the rest of my race. This called for a full blown sit down in the creek crossing - I decided I was overheating since I hadn't been able to pour a good amount of water over my head in a while. I'm still going with that theory too - especially since, later in the course, even though I was already wet, pouring water over my head made my breath catch it was so 'cold.' So, I plopped myself down on a rock and dunked my wrists in the water for a quick minute, dumped a couple capfulls on my head (noticing the large amount of dirt in each capfull) and then we were on our (still slow) way.



So I'm still hot, moving slowly, breathing like I'm about to keel over, alarming Mike and lamenting my lack of a gel now that I realized I was way overdue for food when I tripped on something and down I went. Clearly there was a giant root there. Or maybe a massive boulder. Or some sort of zombie hand reaching out from the ground. Or, you know . . . absolutely nothing that would cause a normal person to trip. Hm. Now, some of you know that I can make a lot of noise when I fall - the more tired I am, the louder I will be. I think I believe in that moment that more noise equals less pain. By god, I can scare the pain away if I saw ow, shit and damn loud enough! It was one of those horrid slow motion falls where your reflexes just aren't there to stop you even though you're falling so slowly. I landed hard and skidded a bit and swore a bunch and then some more at my right calf that decided to painfully cramp now that it didn't have weight on it and then bopped back up and on my way again. This all thoroughly alarmed the two women coming at me - I had to apologize and let them know I was louder than it actually hurt. Though, it was nice to know that it looked more painful than it felt. So I'm hot, still breathing hard, and now worried about the amount of dirt in what must be massive gouges in my leg and shoulder. Happily, it really didn't hurt all that bad once I got back up and moving. At least, not enough to make me limp more than the first couple of steps.





Coming into the Zoo was nothing short of awesome, cheering section wise. I had Kandi and Tara on the bridge above making lots of noise, random people who knew my name cheering at the corner for me and at the aid station were: Dad, Shelly, my co-worker Karri with an awesome sign, Kelly and Amanda. What a welcoming committee! I zeroed in on Shelly at first and went straight for a hug and then to find my washcloth to get the dirt off my surely festering wounds of doom (because a gash can definitely fester in the 10 minutes it took me to get there. Really). I grab my (clean!) washcloth and started unscrewing the top of the water container. Part-way through this, I realized the poor volunteer next to me has a rather horrified expression on her face but doesn't seem to want to stop me so I let her know that the washcloth was clean. I can only imagine her trying to decide how to stop the crazy runner from dunking her gross, used, sweaty washcloth into the water everyone drinks! Not to worry, though, I didn't even let my hands get wet, I just dipped the washcloth in. As it turns out, of course, my wounding wasn't nearly as impressive looking as I thought it would be once the dirt came off. Ah, well.







So this is where I thank Shelly for helping me wash off! She was being so nice and gentle - dapping at my shoulder so as not to scrape it down more. Well, by this point, I was getting antsy. Like I said, I don't like to spend time in aid stations. I fill up my water, grab what I need from Dad and go on my way. So I tried to convince her to just rub the dirt off fast, though she was rather insistent about being nice to my scraped up shoulder. Somewhere in here, she was quizzing me on how I was fueling. I am very proud to say that I stuck to a schedule and stuck to it well the whole race! A gel on the top of the hour (except for the one I missed coming into the Zoo) and a salt pill at about quarter to and quarter after give or take. It did take a bit to get the salt schedule figured out, but I stuck to it once I did. Happily, I've found a gel that I can take even when I don't really want to, so that helped a lot.



So! Halfway through! Time to head back! And the end of Part One. I hearby promise that Part Two will not be long in coming.