"A" 5:00 and the win
"B" 5:30 and place top 3
"C" finish
Result: 5:25:31 for first female, 12th overall
Only a few pics at this moment. I will add more as they become available.
My first race ever was a 12k trail race in Engadine, MI It's called the Black Bear 12k and is still held every year on the fourth of July. I was 16 and I ran most of it barefoot and it took me more than an hour to finish. I ended up winning that race a couple times in later years. I started following professional running and at some point I read an article about Ann Trason, the most successful female ultra runner in the sport's history. Inspired by her, I promised myself that I would try an ultra when I got older. At the time it was unusual for someone my age to be running the half marathons and 25ks that I was doing and it never occurred to me to do an ultra at the time. Fast forward to last year, when the 2014 BT50k was happening and I decided I might try for it in 2016 after I got my sub 3:00 marathon. It sounded difficult and technical, my favorite kind of trails. Not fast at all. The slower the times, the tougher the course. These are good runners out there finishing these races. Fast runners. And even they are reduced to 8:00-10:00 pace range. I don't know why but that makes me want to try the race.
Over the past year I started following professional ultrarunning and kept coming back to the BT50k thought over and over again. I can't make the trip out to Utah to run the Speedgoat 50k (bucket list ultra) or to BC, Canada to run the Squamish 50k but I can run the "cult classic" BT50k right here, less than a half hour drive from my house. I decided not to wait until 2016. I registered right before the Cleveland marathon. I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't delay my ultra to continue training for a sub 3:00. There was definitely a risk of me slowing down with trail/ultra training. I worked up a schedule that included trail tempos on the Reagan trails and at least three of the official training runs on the course, up to 25 miles. I started spending more time on the trails starting in early June. I've always been proficient on technical trails and the addition of actual trail shoes had me flying through Reagan and Huffman trails at about 7:30 pace for my tempos. Those were hard workouts! I was only able to make it to two official training runs on the course. The first one was about 17 miles at 10:30 pace and the second one was 20 miles, also at about 10:30 pace. I felt very good on these runs and never had doubts about running the race. There were piles of mud, very steep climbs and descents, creek crossings, logs to jump and very friendly trail runners. I made sure to practice power hiking on the climbs. It works different muscles that have to be built up. The time gained by running the climbs does not benefit a trail runner of my speed as much as saving the energy does. I can kill the flats and downhills, but I submit to the climbs! I may improve on that area in the future but I will continue to work on my hiking technique. I do my best to lean forward and grab the trees around me to pull myself up but as I got tired I started to get sloppy and lean backwards, which caused a loss of momentum. I also started sitting on the logs that I climbed over for a few seconds as I got tired. There wasn't anyone around me to see, but I bet it looked pretty funny.
I wasn't nervous for this race until I got to the Oak Grove picnic area where the start and finish is staged. I already knew that I was ranked as the first female but I didn't take that into account at all. My plan was to not exert anything more than an easy effort for at least 20 miles. After that, the pure time on my feet would make this race the hardest thing I've ever done. I loved the chill atmosphere at the starting line. No one was keyed up or doing run-outs. Only myself and a couple other guys even warmed up. When you're looking at 31 miles ahead of you, warming up seems silly and I'm pretty sure you'd get laughed off the starting line if you did a run-out. I was definitely nervous lining up next to all the experienced trail runners but I knew once I got out there on the trail I would relax and just focus on keeping a steady pace and not falling. I went out in the top 10 and I think I heard that the first mile was 8:05. The lead pack of men started to fade away and included Mike Ryan and Brian Polen, who I had run the training runs with. This is on very runnable bridle trails, so the pace was fast. Once we dropped onto the Buckeye Trail the mud started and the pace slowed. I traded places back and forth with Kam in these early miles and passed a couple of guys. I hiked the steep climbs from the beginning. On the gradual hills I shortened my stride and "toesed" it to the top. I let myself be pretty reckless on the downs. My favorite downhill section is one with a sharp left turn and a log across it that I have to leap over as I'm coming down at break neck speed. So much fun! My least favorite climbs are the stairs. I'm no good at those. I love the deep mud, even when I'm tired. I run through it fast, on my toes and feel sort of like I'm walking on water. I also love the smell of the swamp mud, so the bog of despair is not such a bad place for me. My all time favorite part of the course is the runnable section before and after the Snowville aid station. There are creek crossings, which I love and I like the winding smoothness of the trail. The section before the Peninsula aid station is also a favorite. I did not like coming out of the woods. As the race went on I started feeling like a vampire, not wanting to come out in the sunlight. I booked it through the aid stations for this reason. Just wanted to get back into the cool woods! Too bad because the aid station volunteers were amazing. Friendly and quick.
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| Getting close to the first aid station (mile 6). |
As I neared the turn around, a very experienced ultrarunner named Steve joined me and I ran with him from about mile 12 to mile 22. We didn't talk much but I tried to observe and copy his rythm on trail. He obviously knew the surfaces like the back of his hand and made very smooth transitions. We went through the first Peninsula aid station, the turnaround and the second Peninsula aid station together. He said that I should be able to drop him in the later miles and to try and pick people off in the last 6 miles. I did not think I would be that strong in the later miles of the race but I took his advice to heart. In the later miles I ran as many of the climbs as I could, tiptoeing to the top. I was staying on top my nutrition, with one Powerbar Endurance Formula pack, one cup of Tailwind and one endurolyte tablet at every aid station. I went through my whole handheld of water between aid stations. After the second Peninsula aid station at about mile 21, I started to pick up the pace a bit and left Steve behind for the time being. This was my favorite part of the race and honestly some of the best running of my life. I felt great, trucking along at about a 10:00 average and completely forgetting that this was a race. I had Twenty One Pilots' "Tear in my heart" stuck in my head and even started singing it a couple of times. No one around to hear! I came into the Snowville aid station in good spirits and ready to enter "ultra territory." I made a big mistake in this aid station. I had run out of my own nutrition so I tried to load up on enough calories to make it through the next six miles. Not sure why it didn't occur to me to grab a gu and take it with me! I drank a tailwind, two cups of coke and got down my last endurolyte tablet. I thanked the volunteers and jogged out of the aid station only to be stopped in my tracks by a confusing puddle in front of me. I literally did not know how I was going to get through it. This was a very small stream that I simply had to hop over and climb up the bank, but my mind had stopped working. I was feeling light-headed and had to stop and stand in the puddle for a few seconds to get the world to stop spinning. Blood sugar spike! I had to walk for a few minutes as the sugar rush settled down. Then I started feeling great and ran a pretty good pace for the next few miles, including the bog of despair section. The ultra term "Relentless forward progress" is real and I was achieving it during this stretch. I started feeling warning signs of a bonk around 28 miles. My mind started going blank on how many miles might be left. Couldn't figure the distance out for the life of me. I'm not sure if I could have told you that I was racing a 50k that day. I just felt like I would be going through the woods alone forever with nothing to eat. Did I mention I was starving? I started fantasizing about a hamburger and french fries and if someone had handed me a big mac, I would have munched on it as I ran along the trail. I came out of the Buckeye Trail onto the bridle trails and saw Kam ahead. "Oh, I raced him in the beginning and now I'm going to catch him," was my thought. And then, crash. I stopped dead in my tracks and couldn't fathom moving ahead one more step. Blood sugar crash. The worst of my life. I'm lucky I didn't pass out. There were moments when I had to stop and stand to keep that from happening. I kept moving forward at a snail's pace, even though I told myself that I was "power hiking." It isn't power hiking when you're on flat, runnable bridle paths. As I walked along I kept an eye out for the orange trail markers to make sure I stayed on the path. It would take me a few seconds to focus in on them. My vision was going. I had the most irresistible urge to stop and take a nap on the side of the path. I was also looking out for something, anything to eat. I eyed a couple of squirrels. Where are all the black raspberries when you need them? Somewhere in the 31st mile, Steve and another guy caught me. I was terribly jealous of their ability to run. They would be eating before me. I even tried to jog after them for a few strides before slowing back to a walk. Another guy passed me and stopped briefly to ask if I was okay.
"Not really. How many miles are left?"
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| About 200 meters from becoming an ultrarunner. Photo credit: Margaret Zayas |
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| Oof. I can stop for real? Photo credit: Vertical Runner |
The song in my head for 50k: "Tear in my heart" by twenty one pilots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nky4me4NP70
Results:
https://www.westernreserveracing.com/race-results/2015BT5O.htm
