Saturday morning felt really strange – since the run didn’t
start until 7pm, I could sleep as late as I wanted too. This was truly a novelty, since I’ve been
getting up at 4:30 every Saturday for months and months to get in my long runs. I slept until 7:11 which felt completely
luxurious, and had a leisurely breakfast with my family. I even managed to get the house cleaning done
by 11.
My plan was to meet Pat McHenry, Alan Barnes and Todd Baum
in Syracuse and drive to close to the race site with them, where we planned to
meet Allison Ospovitch and Tim Hardy for an early meal prior to the race. I was in the car and a couple of miles from
my house when I had the feeling that I had not, in fact, packed the shirt I
planned to wear for the race. I flew
back to the house and indeed, my sleeveless running top was neatly folded in my
workout room – NOT in my bag. Not
having this shirt would have been a bit of an issue since the race start was
supposed to be hot hot hot. I jumped
back into the car and, now a bit short on time, pushed the pace a little to get
to our meeting place on time.
I made it to our meeting place on time, and we all piled
into Alan’s car, setting the route for the Olive Garden. Allison ended up not being able to join us,
so it was just me and the 4 manfolk.
When the food came, there were a few remarks about how much food it was
before a race. I felt a little bit self
conscious since the meal was my idea – but figured that the other racers would
do whatever they needed to do in order to be respectful of what their bodies
needed. For me, that meant putting a
strict limit on how much of my dinner I actually ate, and regretfully watching
as the waiter took away at least half of my delicious entrée after the
meal. Having had the experiencing of
running on a completely overly full belly during my boat running stint (10
miles about 45 minutes after an extravagant 4 course cruise dinner), I knew I
wanted to go into the race not hungry, but not in any way where my stomach
would be talking to me either.
We arrived at the race venue at pretty much a perfect time –
about 40 minutes prior to race start.
The day was still hot – at least mid 80-‘s, but the humidity wasn’t
awful, and without the sun being overhead, I was optimistic that the
temperature would be fine. People were
setting up tents and personal aid stations, and I said hello to a couple of
folks I’ve met over the past year. I was
happy to see Dave Farrands, who has given me much shoe advice over the past
year, as well as Mary Skelton DeSilva who I met at BOB and have been following
on Facebook. I was envious of Mary’s
race outfit – a fabulous get-up with lots of bright colors, an adorable race
skirt and a reflective skeleton on the back of her shirt.
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| Todd Baum getting ready |
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| My pal Pat |
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| Me - just prior to race start |
I didn’t have too many preparations, as there was going to
be an aid station every mile or so, so pre-race was pretty stress free. We lined up at the start a couple of minutes
before the race, and just like that, the race started.
The one thing I had been a bit concerned about ahead of time
was the terrain. I’m generally a road
runner, who has only recently ventured into trails. This was a mostly grassy course on the
grounds of an Equestrian center, with about ¼ mile total of actual pavement,
along with several gravel sections. The
grass definitely slowed things down a bit, but I was pleased with my early pace
of between 10:30 and 11 minute miles.
Since this was a training run anyway, I really didn’t need to worry
about pace – but there is always a competitor lurking in the back of my
mind.
I learned quickly during the first couple of loops the
sections of the approximately 1 mile loop to be wary of. There was a section that hat a few lurking
ruts which had some ankle roll potential.
Also, probably about mile .75 or .8 of the loop was an obvious hill
which had a little steep section at the top.
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| This hill was a bit of a bitch |
Even though there were a number of runners I knew, I ran at
my own pace. On occasion I’d find myself
running close enough to someone to chat for a bit, but even when I ran with
people I already knew, like Pat or Allison, we only ran together for as long as that pace worked for both –
I’d either let them go ahead because they were running faster or I’d pull ahead
and go at my own pace. I learned some
time ago that I run my best races running at my own pace – and even if my
“average” pace is almost exactly the same as another runner, that does NOT mean
we run the same sections at the same pace.
I might be stronger on hills and they might be stronger on flats, and if
we try to stay together, someone ends up struggling or going too easy.
It was astounding to me how quickly the time went by. I’ve been putting in lots of really big
mileage lately – the last couple of months featuring 45-50 mile weekends with
combos of 28/15, 30/15, 30/20. The end
result of that training is not only that 30 miles is easier physically, but
that it doesn’t seem as long mentally. I
had created a new running playlist, and just find myself in a perfect spiritual
zone. My music was perfect for the
event; the evening was stunningly beautiful.
It was somehow magical as the sun started to go down and you started to
encounter pockets of coolness on the previously warm course… I
think I was one of the earlier runners to grab my headlamp to have at the ready,
and I turned it on essentially as soon as I felt I couldn’t reliably scan the
ground surface for the various obstacles I knew were there. Within 30 minutes most of the runners had
their lights going – some with red or blinking lights on the back as well. On the dark looped course, the runners looked
like fireflies. It was beautiful.
One of the things that was a big unknown for me about this
race was how my body would react to night-time running. I am an early morning runner – my body is
raring to go at 5:30 am, and by 7pm it is pretty much done and shutting
down. I really don’t tend to like
running after work because it feels like everything is tired, and my pace is
always much slower. Also, with my 4:30
am wake-up schedule, I’m an early bird as far as bed-time – so I’m usually in
bed between 8:30 and 9. My one 8pm night
run on the boat a few weeks ago was actually good mental training for this race
in that it showed me that I could successfully run in COMPLETELY different
conditions than those I was comfortable with – so it was very freeing.
And so it was. The
hours slipped by stealthily. As has
happened at my last couple of ultras, the miles just added up, and I was at 5…
at 10… in the teens, and then more than halfway to my goal of 35. And I was in love… in love with the magic of this race, of being
out here in the middle of the night with other amazing people who have
discovered the complete zen of the perfect ultra run; with the blinking lights,
and the blazing yellow reflections of the eyes of the barn cat that was
following us around and around the course.
There is such a thing as perfect happiness, and I was embedded in it.
As with my last looped course at BPAC, I knew that I’d
either have to finish short of my goal or go beyond it, since your loop only
counts if you do the full loop. Of
course I chose to go beyond it, so I finished my planned run having run 35.6
miles in 7 hours and 2 minutes. At that
point, looking at the leaderboard, I was first in my age group and 4th
for overall mileage in the race, with a field of 80+ runners. Stopping at that point was tough and I really
felt like crying. I wanted to keep going
and to see what I could do – but having trained for the past 6 months for my
upcoming 100 miler, was just not willing to risk any possible injury or overuse
going into that goal race. So stop I did
– heading into the volunteer tent for my shift.
I wiped myself down with baby wipes and changed into clean
dry clothes… I loved hanging out with
Ansis, Doug and Mark in the aid station.
Doug and Mark shared their ultra stories, and Ansis shared his music
play list. My job was coffee. The other aid station volunteers were
skeptical about anyone wanting coffee, but I had brought the pot based on a
sense that it might be popular, and indeed as soon as we started letting the
runners coming through know that we had coffee, it went pretty steadily.
I had a couple of bad moments shortly after starting my
shift when a wave of cold sweat and nausea overcame me and I knew I was close
to fainting. With a bit of rest and a
cookie and some coffee, the moment passed and I recovered to enjoy the next 3
hours immensely. One of the runners I
met was a relay runner named Kristen, who informed me that not only was she
running the same 100 as I was, but that she had run the full 100 the previous
January in the winter. I subsequently
learned that she didn’t just run it – she won the women’s division. I look forward to running with this superstar
in a few weeks!
Watching the runners go by, and seeing that I really wasn’t
all that useful in the volunteer tent, I was itching to be back out on the
course. I asked the other volunteers if
they’d mind if I threw on my bib to just walk a couple of miles and stretch out
my legs while tacking on miles. None of
them minded, so that’s what I did. There
were less than 2 hours left in the race, and although I’d only planned to walk
a leisurely mile or 2, I ended up walking briskly for the rest of the race,
tacking on another 6 miles and bringing my total mileage for the 12 hours to
41.75 or so. Which, even with my 3 hours
off, brought me in as 2nd in my age group, and 21 overall in the
race.
I call this blog Running Addiction, and for me it really is. Days (and nights) like this get under your skin and have you wanting more. There are some wonderful images burned into my brain from this event. The glowing skeleton on the back of Mary's shirt. The effortless, beautiful stride of Todd Baum, winner of the event - who was very clearly mentally in some other wonderful place - every time he passed me and I said "hi", he looked startled, like he was just breaking out of a reverie. Dave Farrands and his steady, solid pace and encouraging words. Cheerful and incredibly nice Mike Valone, accompanying his wife Lisa as she attempted her first 26.2 (she made it to 50K!!). The young woman with the amazing tattoos and even more amazing muscle definition running her first ultra and looking for all the world like she's done this her whole life. (And may I say I want her muscle definition!). The blinking headlamps and taillamps; the sun coming up in pink and yellow streaks as I pulled off my final 6. Pat winning in his age group; Todd winning the race. Yes - nights like this get under your skin.
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| Morning |
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| Mary and her fabulous outfit |
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