So I am out of shape.
This fatherhood thing doesn’t exactly line up with running ultras, and
being sick for 2 weeks with no running doesn’t help. But I toed the line at the Elizabeth Furnace
50K again regardless.
It was a fun day in the mountains, and running with friends
was definitely the highlight. After a
snowy, cold winter we were treated to a beautiful 50-60 degree sunny day. Woohoo!!!
The first 1,500 climb went fast running with a big
group. From there Greg, Brian, and I
forged our way through the 5 streams of mudhole gap and trudged up to the
Tuscarora trail. This rock infested
disaster is not my favorite trail, and let’s just say these 3.5 miles went
slowly.
A little over halfway into the race on the climb up to
Signal Knob, Brian had decided he slummed it with us for long enough and took
off (he went on to finish in an impressive 5:17!). Greg and I pushed along up to Signal Knob and
then back down the mountain to the 21.8 aid station. It was around this time that we both realized
we somehow forgot to train for this race.
It was going to be a looooong Sherman Gap loop.
After Greg’s impressive somersault coming down the Tuscarora
trail, we rolled into the aid station and quickly move through. I felt worked over at this point and the
inside of my thigh started to cramp up badly.
My body just wasn’t used to using the lateral stabilizers on the trail. Fortunately I had a steep 1,500 foot climb to
work off the cramps. Shoot me now.
If I wasn’t running with Greg, I am pretty sure I would have
turned around and called it. But we soldiered
on. The last mile of the climb is
insanely steep and cruel in the best of conditions. From how slow we were moving you would think
Greg and I were trying to summit Everest.
We staggered up impossibly slowly and literally just flopped on the
ground at the top. I guess that was it,
and we would just be left for dead.
Eventually we talked ourselves into moving along the
ridge. My legs were dead, and I couldn’t
run much without the cramps coming back.
But I had been taking S-caps, hydrating, and eating some gels, and I was
kind of coming back to life (sort of).
Jack came by moving much faster, passed us, and told me to
latch on. I felt barely good enough to
do that, and he dragged me across and down the mountain. Thanks to him I finished pretty strong and
ran the rest of the way in.
Mile 21.8 was a minute or two faster than my time 5 years
ago. I crashed hard in the last stretch
but was pretty happy with being only 18 minutes slower than 2009 overall and
squeaking in under 6 hours.
It is also pretty clear that I have lots of training to
do. This is a tough course, but it will
seem easy compared to the Sardona Ultra in Switzerland at the end of
February. 53 miles in the Alps with
20,000 feet of climbing is terrifying.
Time to get to work!
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