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!
