50k complete. Barely.

Yesterday, I completed a 50k race!

Not well, but completed.

In fact, I see it far more as a learning experience than anything else.  This is new for me.  When I did my first long distances (half-marathons and marathons), I followed the training plan, did what I was supposed to and finished around where I thought I would finish.  Not so in this case.

I should say that I turned my ankle at 2 miles and while it hurt for a while, I realized that I was fine to run.  This was, of course, the same ankle that I sprained in November.  So I had to walk any sections with roots.  This wasn't too much on this particular course, but it was still a decision that had to be made.  I figured that if I turned my ankle again, that might be the end of my day.

Also, I broke pretty much every race rule ever.  I ate something I don't usually eat for dinner.  I stayed up late watching a movie.  I ate new things on the course.  And you know what?  None of these things were my undoing.

The weather was perfect.  The weather could not have been more perfect, in fact (today is hot again).  The course was great.  Organization was stellar.  Friends wanting to help were incredibly great and I am very grateful.  So all of these things were good.  Even the forest spiders weren't that scary, except maybe when I saw what appeared to be a nest of them.  Ew.

Here is what I learned (and there are so many things):

1) I undertrained.  One of the ultramarathoners came and joined me for my last little stretch, and I grumbled that I undertrained.  He said everyone always feels like they undertrained.  Fair.  But really, I did.  In the future, I will need to set aside more training time if I want to do this distance.

2) I thought of this as a long-ish marathon.  That's silly.  It's not.  It's a whole other thing.  That goes back to undertraining; I missed some runs because I thought, 'It will be okay, it's like a long marathon.'  No.

3) My fueling strategy was not good because do you know what?  By the time you have been on a course for 6-7 hours, you want something other than caffeinated jelly beans.  So next time I will think more carefully about how to fuel and get advice from other ultra runners.

4) I should have started run-walking early.  I started for real on the second of three loops (I mean, I had had sections where I walked earlier, but there wasn't a routine).  No.  Earlier.  Possibly throughout.  Also, I did get advice from a ultra person to learn how to walk more efficiently because it will help save time. 

5) I didn't hate it, I didn't die, and I'm not injured, other than an ouchy ankle.  I would like to do it again, although now is not the time because I have too much happening to put in the training.  But I am not swearing them off.  Someday.

Never a dull moment

The trail run is tomorrow.

This happened today, near the place where we are running: http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/24355685/2014/01/03/pcso-lion-on-the-loose-near-spring-hill

Legs of Lead

Okay, I think this is a good sign.  Today, I went out and ran 3 miles and had legs of total lead.  Why is this a good sign?  Because my very first ultramarathon ever is on Saturday.  Saturday!  I will go in the woods and run 50k.  If you're counting, that is only 10 consecutive 5ks.  This is my mantra.

Running has been better as of late--better than my previous blog post, at any rate!  I did the Hillsborough River Half Marathon and while I was somewhat slow (over 3 hours), it was hot and my legs were tired, so I feel perfectly fine with that result.  It was really a training run, so slow is just fine.  I also landed in a pretty severe amount of mud and had muddy shoes for around half of the run.  Trails!

Last weekend, I finally got up to Croom for the first time in forever.  Croom is where the race is Saturday (Saturday!), so I am glad that I had a chance to run up there.  Groups of people hadn't been going because it was hunting season, which makes perfect sense to me.  I also got to practice running at night, which was helpful because the start of the race is at 6am, so it could be dark.  Did you know that the forest floor glitters at night in Florida?  The glitter is created by light reflecting off the eyes of wolf spiders out hunting.  Seriously.  SERIOUSLY.  Florida is not for the weak.

I am in the unusual position of having no idea what I will be doing after the ultra.  Well, okay, I have a vague idea.  I am doing the 5k of the Florida Challenge later this month.  Originally, I was planning to do the half-marathon, but there is a 3 1/2 hour cut off, and I don't want to come up on that.  It is a very difficult course, lots of up and down.  So the 5k is a better idea anyway, I think.

I have also been going back and forth on the Everglades Ultras.  It is in February and yes, it is smack dab in the middle of the Everglades (okay, truthfully it is a bit off to the side).  You get a whistle to get help in case you see wild creatures that don't want to move off the trail!  This is code for 'alligators.'  There are three distances: 50 mile, 50k, and 25k.  The 50 mile is out because there isn't enough time to train and I would be worried about the time cut offs.  Rationally, I know that the 50k should be out, except that logic dictates that as a runner, I am not rational.  I am going to wait and see how I feel about life on Saturday after Croom.  If I don't hate it with ever fiber of my aching being, then maybe that will be a cool thing to do.  Or maybe the 25k.  Rarely am I this indecisive about running, but there you go.

I also signed up to do a 5k challenge this year.  The challenge is to complete 12 5ks in a year.  I think I did it last year (seeing as how I did 7 in a summer, I think I must have).  This challenge is part of Mojo for Running, a website set up by my running coach, Deb Voiles (she is also the founder of Run Tampa, which is a great group to join if you live in the area).  There isn't much information on the challenge yet, but you can find out more on Facebook.

Anyway, lots to think about, lots to plan, and lots to dream about.  I didn't even mention the Zion National Park run or the Yellowstone Ultra.  Many dreams.  But I will wait to sign up for things until after Saturday.

Hills vs. Heat

Holy cow, there are a lot of updates to share regarding running.  Like:

1) I did the 12-mile run in northern Georgia.  At the time, it was, by a lot, the hardest run that I had ever attempted.  At one point, I didn't even want to do downhills any more.  It was that bad.  Also, the whole thing was at 2200 feet and over which (who knew) is really hard if you usually run in flat swamps.  I was third last; the two people behind me hiked the course.  But I finished it!  And believe me, that felt like an enormous achievement.  There were at least two points where I was tempted to go back to the start instead of continuing onward.

2) Then I did the Rattlesnake Run and the 10-mile race of Wildhorse.  Both of these were more challenging than I anticipated.  Rattlesnake was hard because it was a week after the Georgia run and my legs were completed dead.  It didn't help that there are (Florida) hills there, plus it got hot that day.  Wildhorse was hard because the last mile was really hard.  Ever had to climb a hill during a race that was so steep, you needed to use a rope (rope was provided)?  I have!

2.5) I sprained my ankle (not running.  Wearing heels during a night out in Pittsburgh).  Fortunately, it was just a mild sprain and I was back and running in a week.

3) Today, which was a mess.  The plan was to do the 30K that is part of the X-Country Marathon.  However, let me share with you the weather this morning.  As a reminder, it is mid-November:

No.

We started at 7:30am, which as you can see presented pretty challenging conditions (far too close to the Threshold of Ick).  By around 9:30am, I realized that I was done.  Just done.  This race will live in notoriety as my first DNF (did not finish).  It was too hot and there were lots of parts of the course that were not shady.  So you can add ten degrees to those temperatures near the end.  And you know what?  After the fun bouts with heat exhaustion that I have experienced in the past, I didn't want to risk it.  I'm pretty sure that I did have heat exhaustion, but it wasn't as bad as last summer.  Probably the fact that I gobbled down some salty foods right away helped.  Go pretzels.

And I was definitely not alone.  There were at least a dozen other people who dropped out of the 30K race.

If you're curious, all of this is training for my next major challenge: Croom Zoom.  I signed up for the 50K.  Yes I did.  My first ultramarathon.  With any luck, the weather will be more amenable (also we start earlier).

So yeah.  I have not had a great month of racing, that is for sure.  But I am reminding myself that the more you challenge yourself, the more likely it is that you will run into adversity--and the races that I have been doing are challenging ones.  But adversity is not the same as being defeated.  Today was a mess, but that was due to circumstances out of my control.

And we now have the definitive answer: hills > heat