BT50k Race Report

Prelude to a Race

Ok, before I go into the race report, I have to set the surrounding scene for you (just bear with me, I'll try to make it quick).

My veins have always been pretty close to the surface of my skin so you can usually see the road map that is my circulatory system fairly easily. One vein in particular sticks out more than the rest-it's on the inside of my right calf. Over time I've noticed a slight lump/bulge in it but since it's never given me a problem, I've never addressed it. A week before the race I was sitting outside with my mom and she mentioned that it was larger than she'd seen it before-I, in turn, assured her that it was nothing except mildly ugly.

Fast forward to the Wednesday before the race.

I was sitting at my desk at work and got up for a cup of coffee. This horrible burning, pulling stinging feeling radiated up my leg and at the epicenter of the pain was that god damn bulging vein (if you look closely at the picture you can see it). I sat down quickly and hoped it was just a temporary thing. Curiosity took over and I stood after resting for just a few seconds and sure enough, not only did my leg hurt but it was painful to walk on it. I tried not to overreact but this was all too familiar (Cleveland Marathon, fractured bone, two weeks before...you get the picture).

I called my sports doctor and tried like hell to get an appointment that day but he must have been busy cuz he didn't even get a chance to call me back until after 5. I described what happened and he thought it might be a superficial clot so he instructed me put warm compresses on it and then to come and see him the next afternoon.

We are now into Thursday late afternoon and yes, the race is on Saturday.

So after examining me, he wasn't sure if it was a clot or possibly a tear in the fascia or maybe even Compartment Syndrome which I had only read about once or twice. To be sure he wanted to do an ultrasound but of course, it was now close to 6:00pm and the lab wasn't open. I was instructed to call the lab in the morning and try to get fit in somewhere. My doctor's parting words to me were "if you have any shortness of breath or increased heart rate...get to the emergency room." Yeah, that's just what I wanted to hear two days before my first attempt at an ultramarathon. And my parting words to my doctor were "if I were you, I'd wear a cup to work tomorrow cuz if you have to tell me AGAIN that I can't run the race I've been training for, I'm gonna kick you in the nads and I'm gonna kick you hard." Thank god he understands the subtle form of communication I have.

Friday's a new day though.

I go for the ultrasound and the clot issue is ruled out. We still don't know exactly what's wrong but since the pain was subsiding he gave me the green light to run but informed me to pay attention to my legs and if I felt any cramping then I should stop...um, yeah, it's a 31 mile, 7 or 8 hour race, over technical terrain...I assured him that I was pretty sure that at some point, somewhere along the line I most definitely would feel cramping-how I was to tell the difference between "normal" cramping and "bad" cramping I'll never know... but at that point all I heard from him was blah, blah, blah, you can run, blah, blah, blah.

Sooooooooooooo..............................

Buckeye Trail 50k Race Report

Thankfully the heavy humid weather broke just in time for the race. In fact, it was chilly to start. The alarm had gone off at 4:00 am and I dragged myself into the kitchen to make my ritual oatmeal with brown sugar before the race. Surprisingly George got up with me instead of sleeping a little later. I wake up that early cuz I'm paranoid about eating before running-it has to be at least 2-3 hours before I start otherwise the fear of a stomach uprising would ruin my whole time. So anyway, George was up and at 'em and made me some really good coffee and started going over the plan of where and when he'd meet me. I can't tell you how much it means to have him involved. I don't think this race would be as fun and as meaningful if I didn't have him to share it with. At the risk of sounding stupid and sappy I'll just say this...I love him. A lot.

After bodygliding the hell out of pretty much every inch of my body, I got dressed and filled the cooler and my waist pack with what I needed. We hopped in the car and surprise, George made me a CD to listen to on our 40 minute drive. For some reason this song (Slow Show by The National) and Clara Bow by 50 Foot Wave really stood out to me so I just kept replaying them over and over and over. Little did I know that both those songs would replay in my head a few hundred more times when I was by myself for the last 16 miles of the race. So again, I thank my husband for having such good taste in music (and if you don't agree then go fuck yourself...it's what helped me get through).

As soon as we pulled up I saw Trail Goddess Kim directing traffic. I leaned over George and introduced myself excitedly~in just a few seconds of talking to her I could easily understand what all the hype was about...now if only I could set up a time to actually run with her! Then right after we saw Kim, we saw Sara and her husband Kevin which made me happy cuz she has been a really nice addition to our "back of the pack" group. Once we got ourselves situated, Red, Kurt & Jim pulled up and joined the mass of runners who were eagerly congregating in the now full lot. We talked to a bunch of people from bloggerland (E-Speed, Brett and Bill Bailey to name a few). And then Red & I got caught talking about the hot young Josh who is running us all into the ground with his fantastic accomplishments...thanks alot Rob for blowing our cover as the cool, collected older ladies of the trails!

So it's nearing the start time and Vince from Vertical Runner so eloquently states that everybody needed to get their ass to the starting line. We all gladly oblige and before you know it, the race has officially begun. I gave George a quick kiss and hug goodbye and started down the drive that would be welcoming me back in 7 or 8 hours. Red took off a ways ahead of Debi, Sara and myself. We let her go for a little bit but then reminded her that we had a long way to go. She gets really keyed up with race day energy and for any other race I would embrace that but since this was our first ultra, I wanted all of us to run it like we had trained it.

Here's where the story gets a little boring...at least on my part...because surprisingly, the first half of the race was more than enjoyable. Besides having the fantastic company of my immediate running group, I had run 16 miles and I wasn't feeling a bit of discomfort. I thought I saw Jim struggling a little but he was still leading our pack for a good portion of the run. Red & I joked that we needed to reign the rhino in. That's just one of our pet names for Jim... he has a few others but we'll just keep those to ourselves.

My plan all along was to run the whole first half very comfortably and then hand any extra shit along with my camera and waist pack to George at mile 16 and take off and run my own race from there on out. Between him and the volunteers, every need I had was met during that race. I can't even tell you how much I looked forward to seeing him. I think I surprised him by being in a continual good state of mind...that's rare for me during races but again, to me that's the beauty of this first attempt-I just wanted to finish, that was my only goal. So at each stop he'd ask how I was doing and I'd happily reply that I couldn't be better, that I felt good but was still cautious and didn't want to jinx myself.

After leaving the half way point I slowly increased the gap between myself and Red & Jim. And by mile 20 it was just me & George celebrating at the aid station. I asked him to stick around and wait because I wanted to make sure Jim got a few S!caps (electrolyte replacement tablets) in him before continuing on. Little did I know that it was just about too late for Jim, he unfortunately cramped so bad at mile 20 that he was forced to make the smart decision to pull out of the race.

I said goodbye to George one more time and went on my way-mile 20 was the last stop I'd see him at before the finish. Very slowly I started passing a few people. I thought of Kim because as she puts it, I "chicked" a few guys and I can't lie...I smiled a little as I did it. I got to the Snowville Rd. aid station just in time because my water supply was running low. The one thing I regret is that I didn't practice eating during my training runs so the spread that was at the aid stop was lost on me. But I can tell you this, I've never seen a wider array of candy and chips and variety of beverage than I saw here. But being the pussy I am, I was so afraid to try anything new in fear of getting sick. I looked at one of the volunteers and asked how many miles I had to go and they said 6. Just a 10k?? No problem...I got this, I totally got this. Maybe ten minutes after that epiphany is when my legs started threatening to cramp up. Nice, the trail gods had heard me and they obviously wanted to make me their bitch.

First it was my quads...I had been taking the S!caps every hour leading up to this point but then I started popping them like they were candy. Then my calves started feeling extremely tight and all I could think of was that god damn Dr. Figler telling me about Compartment Syndrome. I would run for a little then squat down to stretch my legs without ever fully giving in to the dreaded siren call of sitting down. I kept thinking that if someone were to pass me they'd think I was taking a shit right there on the trail but I couldn't help it...if squatting was what felt good then that's what I'd do. Those songs that George had put on my CD were the only things I could wrap my brain around then. The one line in the first song goes "I'm gonna hurry home to you"...and it kept going through my mind and I found that concentrating on getting back to him is what helped me through those last miles. By this time the hills were a mixed blessing. I looked forward to them because it gave my quads a rest-I would really lean into them and let my ass do most of the work but at the same time those hills left me sucking air like I was drowning. So I started breaking the hills into small sections: "okay, just get to that small tree and you're golden". Made it. "okay, see that root up there? Just make it to that and you're golden". Made it.

And so on and so forth for the next three miles until thank the lord, a clearing in the woods. It was that first bathroom stop and I knew two very important things about this place-1) there's a drinking fountain by the pavilion which is good cuz I was completely out of water and 2) there's only about 2 miles to go until the end. That's 2 miles until I've FINISHED MY FIRST ULTRA MARATHON! The cramping subsided for the most part and I made my way around the last of the deceptive curves and finally saw the finish line off in the distance. I made it. I did it. Besides George being there of course, my sister and my parents were there cheering me on. Jim was there too and it threw me off since I didn't know he had dropped out of the race and all I could think for a split second was that the fucker had somehow passed me! E-Speed and her friend MT were so nice to stick around and see everyone finish. I crossed the finish line in 7 hours, 23 minutes and 37 seconds. My goal had been 8 hours so I was definitely flying high.

Once I completed the race and quickly stuffed my face with cookies and pretzels I turned my attention to my friends who would be coming around the bend any minute. Sara was the first to appear and let me say this now-she is one tough woman...I found out later that she had taken a really bad fall and split her eyebrow open along with getting a nice size goose egg above her eye but she kept running! That's balls baby.

Next came Red and she ended the race within just a few minutes of her projected goal. I can't imagine running this race without her. She's the main reason I was drawn to our running group and she continues to entertain me and support me and all in all be a fantastic friend and running companion. I know she battled problems with her IT bands for a good portion of the race so my hat goes off to her for pursuing in spite of the pain.

Debi's crossing was just as exciting. Here's a woman who doesn't always get her training runs in during the week yet always showed up for the long runs and kicked ass and took names. On top of it, I'm sorry to say, she's a little prone to falling so for her to still fearlessly tackle this very technical trail says so much about her character and her drive and determination.

So when's the next one? I need an excuse to inhale another large pizza like I did when I got home from the race...