Anymore I dread writing race reports. There was one point in time in which I loved too. Nowadays I find myself getting easily frustrated trying to match the right words with the emotions I was feeling at that time.
I want to tell you all a tale of triumph and comeback but I just don't have it in me to get excited about a 9Th Place finish. Even if it was at the National Championships. So instead I've decided to just sort of lay it out there in chronological order.
I guess you can say that my journey towards last Saturday began on December 27Th, 2010. When at Cabela's shopping with the family I injured my back picking up my daughter to look at the fish in their aquarium.
January 5Th, 2011 I had received word from the doctors that my X-Rays were negative and that I could resume light training but to stop at the first sign of pain.
Later that day after about a half hour of working out on the elliptical trainer. I signed up for the USATF 50 Mile Trail National Championships at the Nueces 50 miler in Rocksprings, Tx. "What the Hell was I Thinking?"
10 days later on January 15Th I completed my first full week of training since the injury. I finished with 72 total miles. Of which only 20 miles of it was running. The rest was a combination of the elliptical trainer and walking on the treadmill.
February 19Th. Man! That was a long six weeks. They went great too. Though I was pretty hard on my injury. My body seemed to be responding to the workload. I even managed to get a 50km training run on the trail done in 3:53:56. Not super fast but solid and I was happy with it.
The next two weeks I spent the time tapering and trying to dig up as much info about the competition as I could. The more I dug the more my stock on finishing well went down. After doing all the assigned homework. I had a fairly reasonable idea of where I was going to finish.
Realizing that I didn't have a snowballs chance in Ecuador of making a podium. Unless by some sick twist of fate everyone that I picked to finish ahead of me. All suddenly fell violently ill due to food poisoning. I was most likely walking into a major ass whoopin. I was O.K. with that. It was what I wanted. If for no other reason than to make myself a better runner. Sometimes you gotta get knocked down. Before you can understand what it takes to make yourself better.
Figuring if everyone had their typical day. I could do no worse than 8Th place in the Championship. At the same time I was aware that I could place as high as 5Th if someone ahead of me had a bad day. Or as low as 11Th if I had a bad day. Basically, I knew that at the end of the day no matter what the outcome. I would be enjoying a nice slice of humble pie with my customary ice cold beer. Yum, Yum...
The day before the race was anything but calm and relaxing. A few weeks earlier my buddy Darin Schneidwinde. Agreed to crew for me. He has been suffering from a nagging overuse injury and he figured if he couldn't race than he at least wanted to help out anyway he could.
Friday morning we were on the road at 5:00 A.M. and heading for Texas. Both happy to be escaping the piss poor weather conditions we were getting here in Kansas. That was a long drive but worth it. 13 hours later we arrived at Camp Eagle to sunny skies and 78 degree temperatures. I checked in and grabbed my packet. Then Darin and I headed over to the camping area to set up our tents just before sunset.
Exhausted from the drive down we had got our tents up and settled in for the night around 9:00 P.M. Saturday morning I awoke to a tapping sound on the outside of my tent. The tapping was from rain. I opened my eyes just in time to catch a flash of lightening from a thunderstorm that had rolled into the area overnight. The next thing I remember was being attacked by my tent. The wind was blowing so hard that it had collapsed the poles on my tent and snapped one of the poles on Darin's tent. I just yelled out "You Have Got to be Kidding Me." I wasn't even about to fight with it. So I just lay there and let those West Texas winds do their thing until around 4:30 A.M. When I decided to fix up my tent enough to get ready for the long day ahead.
We got the car loaded up and let the tents just lay there on the ground. Drove over to the start and got checked in. Then proceeded to wait for the countdown. Waiting there I became really nervous. All the crap I had been dealing with up to this point decided to surface and knot itself up in my stomach.
5 minutes to start! I wandered over to toe the start line and just like in my last race I knew I wasn't the top dog here. So I gave respect where respect was due. Deciding to line up one row back from the front.
The command to start was given. Setting out from the pavilion under the cover of darkness. Like he was shot out of a cannon. David James (2nd Place at the USATF 100km National Championships) took off from the front of the pack. I decided to hang off the back of the chase pack in around 7th to 8th place. A very capable group that contained the likes of Jason Schlarb (5th at The North Face 50 mile Championships last December.) Jason Bryant (3rd place USATF 100km National Championships.) Steve Moore (2nd Place at Zane Grey Highline Trail 50 miler 2009.) Jack Pilla (10th Place at JFK 50 miler 2010 in a time of 6:29.) and last but certainly not least Liza Howard. who in my opinion with her win at the USATF 100km Trail Championships in January followed with a successful defense of her title at the RR 100 miler. Now adding a win here at the USATF 50 mile Trail Championships is well on her way to earning the women's Ultrarunner of the Year award. I was in good company and right where I wanted to be.
The pace was pretty conversational. It was still dark out and with the amount of rocks on the course nobody was really getting crazy. Our little group stayed intact for the most part. With the exception of Jason Schlarb. Who decided to fly the coupe around the 4 mile mark setting out to reel David James in.
Then around 12-13 miles in I started to notice that my sock choice for the day was going to give me some problems. I tried to ignore it but the sock on my left foot. Kept slipping off my heal and underneath my arch. Not wanting this to turn into something that would turn into a DNF later in the day. I had no choice but to stop and fix the issue.
Once I stopped to fix the problem I lost contact with the group. I tried like hell to catch back on and every time I'd almost get back. My sock would slip off my heal. After about the third time jacking around with my damn sock. I decided to just focus on even pacing until I got back to the Pavilion. Then I could make a sock change and hopefully correct the problem.
After I got the socks taken care of at the Pavilion. I set out on the second of three loops for this race. I figure I had dropped to 10 place at this point and the group I was trying to get back up to was 12 minutes ahead. I decided to stick with a steady effort. Hoping that a few of the guys in the front group would blow up. But they never did. They all ran really solid races. My race on the other hand was starting to resemble someone who was trying to run in quicksand. The harder I tried the more it went downhill.
There was a high moment for me during the second loop when I actually thought I was making some sort of progress. I eventually caught back up to Liza Howard who had just crested the hill I was about halfway up. I saw her make a turn to the right and wasn't worried about not being able to catch back up. So I put my head down and just focused on my cadence up the hill. What I failed to focus on though was the fork in the road that was supposed to lead me down the right trail. Apparently neither did Liza and a few other runners.
The wind had been gusting pretty hard all day and at some point during the race it had blown down a very important trail marker around the 10 mile point of the loop. It wasn't til I noticed passing a landmark on the trail for the second time on that loop that I realized I was off course. The problem was that I continued to run down the wrong trail for 8 minutes before I actually convinced my self I was off course.
I met up with Liza on the trail who had also realized she was off route and we started to look for where we got off course at. Luckily for us we didn't have to look for long. At that moment Joe the RD came rolling up in in an ATV and asked us if we were OK. We said that we thought we were lost and didn't know where we got off. He drove up the road a bit and found the sign that had been blown over and got us headed back in the right direction.
Back on course now Liza and I pretty much ran the rest of the loop either together or leap frogging back and fourth. She was really strong on the uphills and I was stronger on the descents. We always seemed to have something to talk about and even joked about how at the beginning of the race she was worried about me because I was ahead of her and all she noticed was my ponytail. She was worried because I wasn't talking and she thought I might have been another female runner. I couldn't stop laughing for awhile about that one. I played along and at one point we tried to figure out a way to convince race direction I was a female then I could take home some money from the Championships. That was fun while it lasted. Liza is a super nice person. Who really does love this sport.
Eventually though due to my own stupidity it came to an end. From all the issues with the socks, getting lost and conversation. I wasn't paying very good attention to my calories and fluids. I was starting to show some beginning signs of dehydration. So at the aide station with two miles to go before I hit the Pavilion at the start. I stopped for about 5 minutes. I knew I was never going to catch back up to the front of the race and the only way I was going to move up. Was if the other guys started to pay for their efforts from earlier. I ate a PB&J and chugged a bottle of water. Then had my bottle filled. Grabbed a handful of M&M's and set off for the Pavilion.
Once I got back to the Pavilion. I really wasn't in the mood to head back out and start another loop. I was bonking and in bad shape. On the way down though I told my buddy Darin. That no matter how bad it got. Or how bad I was getting my ass kicked I was going to finish this race. So with much reluctance. I stayed true to my word and set out on that third loop.
It wasn't about pacing anymore or effort or strategy. It was just about putting one foot in front of the other. However many times it took to cross the finish line. Hell I was still in 8th place at this point. That certainly wasn't a reason to be throwing in the towel. The other reason was. That no matter where I finished and how that would feel. It would never compare to how bad I'd feel on the ride back home and the weeks and months after the raceif I had quit.
With about 6 miles to go another runner came into the aide station the same time I did and left before me. I looked at him and he looked at me. Nothing was said but I could tell that he knew I had nothing left in me.
Eventually I made it back to the Pavilion. Crossing the finishline in 9th Place O/A in my first experience with a National Championship race. Kind of an anticlimactic way to end a race report. Certainly not the way I had planned or envisioned it going down. So it was with a handshake a metal and an ice cold cup of Coke that my race ended.
Will I do the race again next year? I'm not sure. I'd like to. Right now I wish I could take a Mulligan on this one and do it all over again as soon as my legs recover. I know I can do a lot better than what I did. With so many races out there. It really is hard to commit to the same event year after year.
All that said now and put behind me. I feel like I can move forward with the rest of the year. A lot of things were against me from the very day I signed up. So inspite of everything not materializing the way I thought it would. I am still happy for getting the chance to experience and take it all in. It's not everyday that an 'Ol boy from the middle of the USA has a chance to get to do something like that. I'm satisfied for now.
Everything about this race was great. Friendly people and volunteers. Well organized. Tough, challenging course. with a deep field of competitors and class acts. It has the making of being a Classic Ultra. Nice work Joe! and all those involved...Thanks for a great weekend.
