Gate2Gate Trail Run 50k Race Report

Where: Alachua (near Gainesville), Florida
When: October 20, 2018
What: 50k at San Felasco Hammock State Park
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1917006769

Goals: 
- Finish Under Time Limit (8hrs) - YES
- Have Fun - YES

Training:

My longest run prior to deciding to do this 50k was the 25k version of this race last year, so I knew I needed a good plan to ramp up the distance. I followed Krissy Moehl’s 50k plan from her book “Running Your First Ultra.” I made a couple of modifications here and there (like subbing out some easy runs for roller skating, typically subbing 3-5 skating miles for every mile on the plan). Of the runs in the plan, I only completely missed 6 of them due to illness and life thangs. Even though I had lots of training under my belt, I was extremely nervous/stressed the entire taper period (due to the race and other life factors).


Pre-Race:

I’d been watching the weather like a hawk leading up the race. One day it projected a nice, cool 75, the next, it was 75 and thunderstorms all day, then thunderstorms half the day, then hot, then hotter. It settled on hotter for the actual race day. The hottest day on record for October 20th in that area is 90; it was 89 and humid as hell (I had the silly thought about 10 miles in that Florida was just a giant sou vide due to my form fitting running clothes and the general feel of the air). I oddly enough wasn’t super concerned with the weather since it was exactly the weather I trained in, and actually cooler than several of my long runs. I knew how to handle myself

My boyfriend and I woke up bright and early, our clothes, nutrition, drop bags, and clothing changes for after were waiting for us, so we got ready with ease. We had some coffee, smoothies, tempeh bacon, and hash browns for breakfast before we hit the road for the hour(ish) drive up north. The weather was cool (mid-seventies) as we placed our drop bags with the rest of them and made our way to the start area. He headed up towards the front to hang with the fast folk, and I went towards the back since I was just hoping to finish.


The Course/Race Info:

The race itself made of two 25k loops around San Felasco Hammock State Park. The course is on mountain bike trails, horse trails, a dirt access road, and pedestrian path. You get everything! Rooty single track, gravel, a stream crossing, meadows, and oh yeah, so much loose sand (running through sand is the worst, but if you run off road in Florida, there’s gonna be sand). Last year the course was different and it was good, but this year? Oh man! I loved it. Yes, there were a couple miles in full sun and they sucked, but the course as a whole was A+! The 50k starts at 7:30, the 25k starts at 8; everyone has until 3:30 to complete the race. Runners with a blue bibs were in the 25k, runners with red bibs were in the 50k, so you could easily feel better hearing someone zooming up to you and noticing they had a bib of a different color.

Prior to the race, the RD hosts several (3-4) course tours free of charge. Each loop had a little over 600’ elevation gain. Aid stations were at (loop 1) mile 5, 9, 12, 15.5 (start finish), (loop 2) 20.5, 24.75, 28, and 31.5 (start/finish). The RD is a high school English teacher and uses the incentive of extra credit (I think?) to get his students to volunteer, so the aid stations varied in whether or not the volunteers acknowledged you, lol. All stations had at least one experienced adult that was helpful, AS 9/24.75 had several and it was my favorite. Having hydration (handheld, vest, etc) is required for this race and it is also cupless, so if you want soda you have to bring your own, I got a sweet collapsible one on amazon that fit easily in the back zippered pocket of my vest.

Packet pickup is the day before at a local brewery or the morning of. You get a sweet pint glass with the race’s logo on it and a really nice t-shirt. The color this year was red, last year it was blue (the first year was black and I’m hoping for green next year), so all of the swag and finishers medals follow the theme. If you finish the race you get a sweet medal, if you finish the 50k you get an awesome headsweats hat.


Loop 1:

I started at a nice trot, having some friendly conversation until we entered the trail and went single file. I stayed with a nice little party bus of 5 people for about the first 3 miles before some people fell off or sped up. I saw a lovely deer family, but that was the only wildlife I saw the whole race (later my boyfriend told me he saw the deer and two snakes, a little garden type and a cottonmouth). As I heard the cowbells of the first aid station, I pulled my tailwind bottle from my vest (tailwind left bottle, regular water right bottle) and finished it up. I brought enough tailwind to refill several times and I knew I would be needing the electrolytes. Part of the trail we ran on has regular people traffic and these two little 5 year olds with their mom cheered us as we ran by, it was adorable.

At some point around mile 10 I dashed into a wooded area to pee and literally two minutes later saw someone else come out of the woods - apparently it was a hopping spot for peeing, or maybe it was because it was the first area where you could potentially not be fully exposed, lol. I had a nice conversation with this guy Eric who came up from Miami and was not expecting the elevation or the difficulty of running in sand. He was riding the struggle bus and after I left him I didn’t see him again (he did end up finishing about 20 minutes after me, so that’s awesome!). Around mile 14, you come out to this meadow area before entering the single track again. I had a short conversation with a lady probably 5 years younger than me and she made a statement about almost being done and I cackled. She looked at my bib and I told her I probably wasn’t the smartest, but she should totally do the 50k the next year.

Got to my drop bag (my boyfriend and I were sharing) and he had spilled redbull on my dry bandana ::sob::. I refilled my bag with tailwind packets and another gu, grabbed a PB&J quarter, first of many, and my headphones. I headed back out, but had to turn around after 300 or so feet because I had left my headphones on the table and I knew I wanted podcasts and music for the second half of the race. Loop one took me 3:13:29.


Loop 2:

I headed out on loop 2 feeling pretty confident. I knew that even if I walked it in and didn’t run at all, I would get a finish. This is when I started incorporating more walking into my race. Once I was 2 miles into the second loop, it was like a ghost town. I ended up passing several people during the second loop, so that was kinda neat, I’m a turtle, but I am apparently a heat trained turtle that was a having a great day! At the 24.75 aid station, a volunteer offered to pour some cold water on the back of my neck and hoooo boy, that was refreshing!

My longest run ever in my training was 22 miles, so everything past that point was new territory and it was so fun and exciting. I got very excited when I got to the 26.2 point and was still feeling amazing (note: I was more than likely at the 25.75ish point because by the end, my watch added about a half mile to my distance over the course of the race). When I got to the hilly gravel road portion, it was in full sun and that brutal heat was beating down on my head. I knew that if I ran, I would be out of it faster, but I could only manage a slow trot on the flats and a power hike up the hills. I got to the 28mi aid station and was greeted by the unenthusiastic teens, but that did nothing to my high spirits. As I got ready to leave I called out, “Please cowbell me out of the aid station!” And they did, so I left to some cheers for my last three miles. I got my phone out and changed from a podcast (I had listened to the Joe Rogan Experience and Serial) to some nice good heavy metal. I saw my watch and saw I was at 6:20ish, so if I managed to get these last three and a change miles done in 40 minutes, I would get under 7 hours! Which was an entire hour under my goal of 8 and 30 minutes less than my super secret under 7:30 goal! I immediately wanted to run, but I needed to eat the handful of pringles and pb&j I grabbed and not choke, so I took it easy until I ate. Then I started the walk/run again and saw a dude in the distance. I slowly walk/run/chased him down, and had a short convo before I broke off into another run portion.

At the top of the meadow, there is a nice downhill that is easy to bomb down, I did and my watch said I hit an 8:45 pace for about 10 seconds and it felt glorious that I was running at a fast for me pace 30 miles into a race. I ran/walked some more and when I got into the open area out of the woods .5 mi from the finish, the air and sun was blisteringly hot, so I walked until I actually saw the finish line and then I started jogging. I crossed the finish line, got a big hug from the RD, was given my medal and hat, hugged my boyfriend and maybe my parents? They had come up for the finish of the race, so we went over to where they had chairs set up and I could change in their motorhome. It was so amazing having my family at the finish of this race, I wish we could have hung out more, but Tom and I had the hunger and wanted pizza. I finished the second loop in 3:43:10.

My final time was 6:56:39. 44/76 overall, 11/19 female. More people had signed up for the 50k, but at least 23ish either dropped down to the 25k, took a DNF, or DNS.


Final Thoughts:

It’s the morning after and I’m feeling great. I have two small blisters, might lose one toenail but maybe not, had some chafing (I used a lot of 2Toms and that saved me from my normal chafing, but had some undercarriage/inner thigh chafing due to a feminine product), and the roof of my mouth hurts everytime I eat or drink something (apparently it’s a thing?). I was expecting to suffer, but around the marathon distance, I realized that my training had been so on point, suffering wasn’t required. I had a lot of things in my mental toolbox that I had at the ready, but didn’t end up breaking out a lot of them (such as gratitude alphabets, mental games for if/when the pain got bad, a ton of phrases ready to repeat in my head over and over, and so on). The only phrase I used during the entirety of the race was one from a podcast where Jimmy Dean Freeman said, “Don’t be an idiot in the first half and don’t be a wimp in the second half.” It helped me run my own race while there were lots of faster people around in the first half, and kept my walking breaks short in the second half and then really pushing when I needed to when my legs were getting tired.

Food/Nutrition:
- Tailwind (600 calories)
- Gu (300 calories - french toast, lemon sublime, campfire smores)
- Mashed sweet potato (250cal? I eyeball the butter, so who knows how calorific I made it)
- PB&J (manna from the gods! On my second loop, I grabbed a quarter piece or two every AS)
- Two sour patch kids
- 2ish servings pringles (grabbed from 4 different AS)
- Fig newton (gross, too dry/crumbly)
- Three cups gingerale

Gear:
- Hoka Speedgoat 2s
- Injinji medium weight socks
- Ultimate Direction Race Vesta (with soft flasks)
- Suunto Ambit3 Peak with HR strap (aka, the best bday gift ever!)

    

 

 

Sweat, Swat, N' Swear 25k Race Report

Where: Inverness, Florida
When: August 4, 2018
What: 25k trail run in the Withlacoochie State Forest (50k and 10k options were also offered)

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1749148873

Goals:
- Under 3:30 [YES]
- Under 3:00 [YES - kinda]
- Have fun [SO MUCH YES]

I first saw this come up on ultrasignup 6 months ago and thought it might be good as a training run leading up to my first 50k (coming up in October!), but hesitated on pulling the trigger. I was several beers in on July 3rd and saw a post on facebook with a promo code for 10% off…SOLD! Drunk me decided to jump on it! I wanted to do the “team” option where I would do the 25k, a friend would do the 10k, and my boyfriend would do the 50k. Unfortunately, the friend fell through and the boyfriend had to be out of town that weekend for work, so I was all alone at this first year race.


Pre-Race

I woke up bright and far too early at 2am to my boyfriend’s alarm. I wasn’t able to fall back asleep until he was gone a little after 3, and even then, I maybe only slept about 30ish minutes before my own alarm went off at 4am. I’m not great at staying asleep at night, so 4.5 hours of sleep isn’t that much less than what I manage during the week anyway. I made some coffee and breakfast, packed a cooler with some drinks and snacks for afterwards, and was out the door by about 5am. I arrived at the Mutual Mine Campground in Inverness at 6:10am, parked, and picked up my bib. I was pinning my bib and hunting for a restroom when the 50k folks began their race at 6:30am.

The sky started to lighten as it neared 7am and the 25k start time. As 25k folk, we would follow the white flags for the first 3ish miles and then pink flags in a loop until we hit the white flags again (50k people would follow white to pink to orange, then after the orange loop, would hook back into the pink loop and white again). The RD informed us that the course was a little long (it ended up being 16.8 miles), so I would be running my farthest distance ever in this race! I also mentally adjusted my goal in that I would be happy if I got to 25k in under 3 hours, but wouldn’t beat myself up if I didn’t finish the race under 3hrs.


Miles 1-5

There were about 40ish people doing the 25k, and when we started it was a nice little line for at least the first half mile before people started breaking apart either in singles or smaller lines. I ended up being in a line with 2 ladies and a guy going at exactly the pace I wanted to be (based on how I felt, I was tracking via strava with my phone in my vest. I didn’t monitor my pace during or know my splits until after the race). I decided to stick with them until they broke away or I had to.

We kept up in our quiet line with the only words being random callouts of, “Log!” when there was a log or limb across the trail. We breezed by the first aid station around mile 3, but then the two ladies leading our group split off on their own, possibly around mile 4. I asked the guy if he was good with me sticking with him for a bit because I was enjoying his pace, and he said it was fine. We continued on, the only communication was him sticking out an arm when there were logs/limbs on the trail.


Miles 5-10

One of the ladies from before caught up to us and we made small talk for five or so minutes before she pushed on ahead at a faster pace. Around 8:15am, the guy I was running behind slowed and said he needed to eat, so I went off alone. Fifteen minutes later, I decided I really should give eating a go as well, so I ate half a clif bar and sucked down some more tailwind because my fingers were starting to get puffy. I stopped to use the facili-trees and then came across some other 25k ladies. We all stayed within about 100ft of each other before coming up to the second aid station (unmanned, just a jug of water on a picnic table near mile 10ish). I dumped the rest of my packet of tailwind into my bottle and filled it up.


Miles 10-16.8

At this point I was still having an awesome time. I had brought headphones in case I wanted music or a podcast, but I really didn’t need it. Nature and running sounds were enough for me. The course is through Florida forests, which usually have very rain forest like sections as well as pine scrubs; this was mostly pine scrubs, with maybe a mile or so of palms and lush green growth. Time seemed to slow down a little between AS2 and AS3, but I eventually did arrive at the aid station and was rewarded with some ice cold water for my (now empty) bottles and a couple sections of clementines that were to die for.

I walked out of the aid station and kept fussing with my one of my bottles because a piece of ice had gotten stuck and I couldn’t get any water out. I finally fished out the ice cube and started derping up the trail again. I came across a guy and he said his borrowed apple watch was way off (it said he was at mile 15 already) and asked what mile that aid station actually was. I had checked while I was there, so I told him it was at 12.9 and yay, we had less than 4 to go! He informed me that he was in the 50k, so he had a bit more than that. I was in a ridiculously awesome mood, so I said something that was probably crummy to hear and said, “Oh, that just means that you’ll get to enjoy this beautiful weather for longer!”

The weather was really amazing though! We had started when it was maybe only 77 (95% humidity, but it is summer in Florida, so of course) and at 9:30am it was probably only in the mid-eighties, so I was doing fantastic.

I came across a woman around mile 14(?) who was standing at a fork in the trail. She asked, “It’s orange for the 50k, right?” I said, yes, pulled out my phone and showed her the picture I took of my trail course. She went right to the orange loop and I went left to the pink loop. I hit back to the white loop where there were only 1.7 miles to go and put on some music for the last part of the race. With the end in sight, I stopped my music and raced into the finish area where I picked up my finishers t-shirt. I finished in 3:12:46, 18th overall and 5th female for the 16.8mi 25k. I did make my goal of getting to the 25k point under 3 hours, so I’m happy I sort of accomplished that goal.


Post-Race

I really thought I was going to feel a lot more beaten up, but I didn’t! I changed, drank lemonade vitamin water, and ate some boiled peanuts at the finish line while watching more people come in. I felt so, so good. I did have some new chafing areas though, so I applied some SNB to those spots and will make sure I get those areas for future long runs and races.

Overall, it was a really great time! I enjoyed the course, the people, and had a wonderful day. This race gives me a lot of confidence as I start to get to the scary parts of my 50k training plan. This was a first year race and if they do it again next year, I will definitely sign up!

 

 

Beach Running “Championships” Half-Marathon Race Report

Where: Cocoa Beach, Florida
Date: May 5, 2018
Distance: 13.1 miles


I don’t know why this race is called the Beach Running Championships. There are no qualifications that registrants have to meet, but I guess it sounded neat for the t-shirt, so here we are! As a slow, non-championship type runner, I feel kind of silly when I wear the race shirt, but it’s white and super lightweight, which makes it great for running in the heat and sun.


Training:

 When my boyfriend and I signed up for this race we had high hopes that we would become Beach Running Pros™ and make it out for at least 5 beach runs before the race. Welp, that didn’t happen. We made it out to the beach once. We left home later than we wanted, so when we finally got there at noon it was hot, busy, and the tide was coming in. I think I managed 5.5 (very hungover) miles before we packed it in. Life then got in the way and we never made it back out to the beach until race day.


Pre-Race:

 We stayed at a hotel a quarter mile from the park where the race starts, so we walked over, made a stop at the porta-potty and went onto the beach. There we learned there were 1300 people running, but only 200 of those were running the half (the other 1100 were doing the 10k – we even saw a couple people pinning their 10k bibs to their jeans, yikes!). I found the 2:20 and 2:30 pacers (my goal was to finish under 2:30) and my boyfriend left to go to the bathroom again. My decision not to try to go to the bathroom again would haunt me the entire race.


Miles 0-7.9

 The first two miles breezed by pretty nicely until I noticed I really did have to go pee again. I remembered that the website had said that since porta-potties couldn’t be on the beach itself, they would have signs directing people to off-beach parks where there were restrooms, so I decided to start looking for one those as I ran.

 I believe it was around the 4.5-5 mile mark I started to see a couple people going in the opposite direction. Knowing my boyfriend is a speedy runner and his HM time is pretty close to the times of past winners of this race, I started to count how many people passed by. I saw 9 people go by before I saw him running towards me; we did our typical, “WOOOOOOO!” and high five that we do when we cross paths running at races and training runs. 

Mile 5 is when the shore started to get rough. It was more slanted and covered in seaweed than the previous miles and there was a lot more dodging of incoming waves. So far my feet were still dry, so I was still making an effort to run up the shore when big waves came in. The turnaround was a beautiful sight! I had unexpectedly started my ladytimes the day before and had been cramping pretty solidly, so I was very eager to get this race over with. I also hadn’t seen any of the promised restrooms and I was desperate to pee. The sound of the crashing waves didn’t help at all. With the mile 8 marker in my sights, my bladder finally gave out.


  Miles 8-13.1

 Yep. I peed myself. Full on, streaming down my legs into the bottoms of my shoes, peed myself. I felt 100% better and 100% worse at the same time. There was literally nothing I could do but get myself the remaining 5.1 miles back to the finish line. Since my shoes were already wet, I let some of the waves hit my feet. Better salt water than urine, right?

 I felt great for a mile and a half (yay empty bladder!) before the super intense cramps from my ladytimes started (boo endometriosis!). Oh well, I told myself, as long as I keep going, I’ll eventually finish this thing. Around mile 10, I saw the 2:30 pacer with her group of 3 ladies pass me by and it was totally demoralizing. I tried to keep them in my sights, but they just kept going. I literally saw my goal jogging away from me while I walk/jogged(hobbled?) my way to the finish.

 A half mile from the end of the race, I saw the 2:30 pacer sitting on the beach, enjoying a bottle of water while wearing her race medal. Again, totally demoralizing to see her completely finished and cooling down. But wait! I checked my phone and strava said I had only been running for 2:24. Was there hope for a sub-2:30 finish?! I would like to say I picked up my pace and sprinted like I hadn’t just run many miserable miles, but that isn’t quite the case. Instead I mentally banned walking and shuffled my way to the finish line to meet my goal!

 I enjoyed a couple mimosas, cheered for my boyfriend when he got an age group award, cursed the pacer who finished almost 10 minutes earlier than she should have (I checked the results later), and basked in the glow of having finished this race even though it was personally hellish. Will I ever do this race again? Nah, running on the beach isn’t for me, but if you want a neat experience on a beautiful beach (and have a solid bladder) I say go for it!

 Final result 44th female, 105th overall at 2:29:19. My boyfriend ended up 7th overall and first in his age group with a time of 1:38.