Running Downhill

Saturday was the big day; my first Ultra Marathon. For those wondering, an Ultra Marathon has no real distance. There are long one, longer ones, and ones so long you have to be a "special person" to even consider running. At 50km (31.1 miles) this is the shortest of the longs, but I suppose, an Ultra none the less.

Friday night, Jon, Lynette, Melissa, and I went to the pasta dinner (yum) after picking up the copious amounts of stuff you get for signing up to run (swag). From there, we headed to Huntsville, TX; it would be our staging area so as to have a 10 min as opposed to one hour drive Saturday morning. Everything leading up to the run went well. Ludicrous amounts of Advil had my body humming along after Thursday's softball games, so I took off, in good spirits, at 7:30AM.

Then I fell. Twice. I have never ran trails before, and when they call this the Texas Trail Endurance Run, they ain't jokin'. I'm talking serious roots people. The first one was under some leaves, and on the second one I was being stupid, but in seven miles I had two spills, but wasn't any worse for wear. Our pace through this first bit was somewhat slow due to the crowd (over 500 people finished) and the tight size of the trail. As we picked up the pace, I think the heat (ended up around 82 on the day) and just the task at hand made me wilt a bit, and I told the group, near the 25k aide station, that I would see them at the finish. I made it to the start of the second and final loop of the lake (30km into the race at that point) in 4:02, a pace of 13:01/mile.

I saw my crew heading out for their second loop as I stopped to graze at the start/finish line (also the start of the second loop) aide station. The aide stations were amazingly stocked; Cheetos, pretzels, chips, twizzlers, gum drop candy, oranges, apples, bananas, Oreo cookies, and of course Pepsi. Oh, and water and Gatorade. I barely used the Gu I brought for fuel, instead I opted for the real food, and choose to eat by color; a lot of oranges and Cheetos. For the second loop (12.5 miles in length), I was in full on running triage. I was a bit too far gone to run for long periods of time, but the terrain was too hilly to make use of run/walking (where you run for say 5 min and walk for 1). So I simply let the terrain dictate my action; I walked the uphills, ran the downhills (gravity is your friend!), and ran or walked, depending on my mood, the flats. I finished in a total time of 7:33:57, or 14:36/mile. I had thought I should finish between 7 and 8 hours, so I was pleased with the effort. After all, it was a personal best at the distance :)

One last thought on the race, and why it had the most demoralizing finish ever. I'm about a mile from the end, and I see this girl hunched over, barfing her guts out ... serious regurgitation. Myself and the guy in front of me directed the next medic we say to head back to "take care of the girl blowing chunks all over the course about a quarter mile back". Not long after that I hear "Sorry you had to see me throw up like that", I look to my side, and there is regurgitation girl, not just catching me, but smoking me ... she was blazing! Perhaps I should have latched on to her and tried to run the last bit on her shoulder, but I just let her go. A famous man named Ben G Jones once said the test of a man was if he can puke and rally; that lady certainly passed the test!

I'm glad my body and mind cooperated and got me to the start line and more importantly, the finish line. Though my participation looked grim just a few weeks ago, giving my body a chance to heal was the right decision. Ruling out participation weeks ago, when things were at there darkest would have turned out to be the disappointing choice.

As for my Ultra Marathon future, they give away one of two "big" gifts to all Sunmart finishers; a Tyvek jacket or an afghan. I choose the jacket, so I can pimp it when I run, so I suppose I have the afghan as a reason to run Sunmart again. Afghan? Would I really run 31.1 miles again for an afghan? I guess we'll see next year!