Internal Mono(b)log

I can’t believe it’s been a week since the 50k, it seems like so long ago and just yesterday all at the same time (amazing how the mind distorts time perception).

When I signed up for the 50k, I contemplated the 50mile option, but since it was a trail run with a large amount of climbing and descending, I pulled back and just signed up for the 50k.  When race morning came, I was VERY happy that I did.

The week leading up to the race, the SF bay area was wet. I mean, crazy wet!  Like flash flood wet.  It was so wet, in fact, that on the Friday night before the Saturday 50k race, the course was altered due to anticipated severe weather conditions!  

Another reason I was happy to have opted for the 50k route: the 50 mile route started at 5am!!! We, the 50k runners started at a much more civilized 7am.  

Arriving at the site, it was dark, windy, and raining. There was little shelter to be had and many of us hid in the gear drop trucks waiting for the minutes to tick by.  People, myself included, were a little dubious about why exactly we were doing this, but we were all joking around and I don’t think anyone who was there was going to be the 1st to scrub the run before it started.  Even with reports of 50 mile runners being evac’d because of injuries sustained while running the flooded trail in the dark, we were a resolute bunch (if perhaps a little insane 🙂 )

At 7 we were off.  Initially the trail wasn’t too bad, we were on a big climb, and while it was a little mushy in places and there were a few trail-edge to trail-edge puddles, it wasn’t bad.  It was raining, cool, and hazy to foggy.  At times the visibility was so poor that I couldn’t see other runners 100 feet ahead of me on the trail.  Of course, wearing glasses wasn’t a blessing in this weather and it got me thinking about laser surgery again.  

As the run progressed, the rain fell and many feet churned up the trail.  In places, the trail was in really really poor shape.  I was joking around with people saying it was like trying to run in partly set chocolate pudding, or like trying to run up and down 20% grades in Super Slider Snow Skates.  Remember these?

There were people bombing down these hills without seemingly any regard for personal safety.  If it hadn’t been for the frequency of the rocks jutting out of the mud, I may have joined them, but visions of face planting into a boulder had me slowing and picking my steps more carefully.   Down on these slippery slopes was challenging,  up was… well ridiculous!  More than once I nearly lost shoes in the mud.  A few times, while trying to clamber up one of these Tough Mudder hills I lost traction and slid backwards no less than 20 feet.  Fortunately I was laughing or I think I’d have been crying. 

At around my 40k mark the rain broke and the sun tried to come out.  It was very welcome and psychologically well timed. 

Soon I was running into the finish line, I’d done it, my gps read 48k but given the last minute course reroute I figured it was probably just the best they could do.  

But.

When I got to the finish line there was an aide station and people saying if this was your 1st time here to go back out for another lap.  48k? Another lap?  “Lap of WHAT?” I thought.  But perhaps they’d figured some way to add 2k to get to the 50k.  Crushing to be within 10′ of the finish line and sent back out, but so be it.  My watch was at about 6:15 and I went back out.  

I ran… and ran… and eventually made my way to the previous aide station.  My gps now at nearly 50k I ask the aide station where I’m supposed to turn around… They explain that there was an error and I should have finished.  I laughed.  They were very apologetic but I didn’t care.  I was having fun and after 50k what was another 2!  So I ran back in.  

Approaching the finish line for the 2nd time, I high-5’d all the same people I had maybe 10 minutes prior.  We were all laughing. It was just silly.  I think my “official” finish time is something like 6:30, but I like my 6:15 1st finish better 🙂

The Fnish-Line festival was pretty damped by the weather.  It was very small, and very soggy. That said, the post-race meal was better than almost any other race I’ve ever attended!  There was (omg) salad(!!!), chicken(!!!) and (not that I had any) pasta with sauce, and, if I recall, soup.   There was also finisher beer to be had (again not for me, but it was there!) 

One thing that surprised me was how psychologically challenging the weather made the day:  I knew going into it that it’d be physically challenging and I was prepared for that, but the weather, cold, wet, mud and ground conditions really challenged my mental resolve.  Physically, the day was probably a little easier because of all the forced walking, but mentally I had to dig deep and fight out of a dark place that, to date, I’d never encountered before.

It was definitely a fun day and a good challenge for my first Ultra.  Yea… it won’t be my last 🙂  Too much fun 🙂