My Big Fat Virtual Summer (3 of 3)

Part 3 of the dumb shit I did!

TJM Badger Trail Race Muskie Marathon

Date: Friday, July 17th

I was originally signed up to do the Badger 100, but since the official event was cancelled, I deferred my entry to next year and signed up for the Muskie Marathon instead. I’ve decided that I’m going to do all of the distances at Badger, so I figured I’d start with a marathon so it’s different from my medal from last year (the 50k and 50mi both have the tunnel on the medals). I kind of decided out of nowhere to run this one. I could have given myself another week of training and maybe built up some miles, but I said, “ehhh.” I decided on Wednesday that I was going to run a marathon on Friday and I when I told Tom I don’t think he believed I would actually do a whole marathon out of nowhere, especially given the stupid hot weather.

But I did! I did it as an out and back from the house, so that means you HAVE to finish or you’ll never ever get home, EXCEPT – I didn’t plan it that well so my out was not 13.1 miles, it was only 12ish? My plan was to run to Silver Springs State Park, run around the park a little bit, hopefully see some alligators and monkeys (no dice), and then run back home. It was a HOT day, so by the time I got to about 15 miles, I knew it would be a rough type of finish because it was exposed the whole way. Since I had in the back of my mind that I was going to be doing GSER in a few weeks, I decided to get some good “power hiking” (aka fast walking) training in.

I ended up power hiking the last 10 miles of the marathon, stopping at home at mile 24 to go to the bathroom and grab an electrolyte popsicle before I went out to get it finished up. Good experience and the swag was really nice.

Yeti 24hr Challenge #2

Distance: 50 miles

Date: Friday, July 24th

This was the challenge that broke not just the treadmill, but my spirit/will to live. I also realized during the last 30 minutes of the very last run that I had basically been bonking hard all day long.

I had such a fun time with the first Yeti 24 hour challenge (five miles every four hours for a day, not too bad with 30 miles in all), so I thought adding another 3.5 miles to each run would be just fine. I decided to change it up and instead of doing neighborhood runs, I would do two on trails, two on paved surfaces, and two neighborhood or treadmill runs. It goes without saying that it was brutally hot and humid, but oof, I did not manage myself very well during this whole thing.

I did my first run bright and early Friday morning on the Florida Trail, went home to change and then headed over to Silver Springs State Park (the campground area) for the next run. The trails there are pretty exposed, but I suffered through. I drank a lot of water, but basically felt parched the whole run.

The next one was on the Santos paved trail. Even though it was really hot, my dumb brain thought, “It’s only 8.35 miles, just take a handheld.” Well, that was stupid. I had basically been behind on water all day and then not taking enough for the hottest part of the day just screwed me over. I basically did okay for the first few miles, and then fell apart. This was the story for the rest of the runs.

The fourth run I decided to do at Greenway – I did the 5mi loop and the 5k loop. I also had pizza for dinner prior to the run and I thought it didn’t agree with my stomach, but I think it was more of a revolt in general to the lack of enough nutrition throughout the entire day. Heat saps a lot of energy and I was feeling it.

My fifth run was on the treadmill and was essentially the death knell for it About a mile in to the run I heard a loud CRACK and the belt started running weird. I ended up power hiking the rest of that one on the mostly busted treadmill.

The final one was the wooooorst. So awful. My stomach really rebelled during this one, much more so than the previous ones. I went out into the neighborhood, but had to jump into the bushes a couple of times (thank goodness it was 3am) and realized I would be better off to finish it out on the treadmill where I would be close to a bathroom. Unfortunately, when I got onto the treadmill again, the belt would not stay on track, was going faster than it should have been going, and it was making a horrible sound. I didn’t want to be far from a bathroom, so I switched to doing the last 3.5 miles around the cul de sac. That was misery x10. Every half mile I would switch direction. After one of my bathroom breaks I grabbed a piece of pizza leftover from dinner and a cookie. I ate them while continuing to walk around the cul de sac and within 20 minutes my mood and my outlook on life completely changed. It was then that I realized that I had basically underfueled my entire day and I would have had a much better time of it all if I had done better on eating.

I had about a mile where I felt good and then I was DONE. This was much, much tougher than the other challenge and I definitely underestimated it. I also complicated it by driving to different trailheads which reduced the time I could have been resting and eating.  Would I do this one again? HELL NO.

Troubled Raccoon Racing Scavenger's Hunt

Date: All of August

This was a wild month of challenges that had no specific mileage goals, but required fun tasks to be done such as running in the rain, doing squats, taking pictures of animals, and all sorts of fun things! I had a lot of fun with this challenge and my favorite was my Minnie Mouse Beer Mile. In one week there were prompts to do a beer mile and one to run in costume so I combined them! It was a great time!

Oh noooo, it happened to me

PB&J 15k

Date: Saturday, September 19

Last year my sister Laci signed up for the PB&J 10k and asked if I wanted to join her. I saw that they had a 15k challenge where you do the 10k and then come back to the start line in time for the 5k. It seemed like a neat challenge and my preferred running fuel is pb&j, so I was in! It was a really fun race and when I got the email that they moved it to virtual, I decided to sign up and make my route. 

After the treadmill died after the Yeti challenge, Tom and I decided to get a semi-fancy nordictrack one that had a built in mapping feature that utilizes Google street view, so I decided to run the actual route (plus a little on the end so it'd be 15k). I had a great time and the swag was awesome, I'll definitely be doing it again next year. 

 

My Big Fat Virtual Summer (2 of 3)

This is part 2 of all of the dumb shit I did this summer!

Possum’s Revenge 69mi

Finish Time: 19:32:00

Date: Friday, June 19th

(DNF, Friday June 5th)

This one took two tries, but I got it done! I had long admired the buckle, but thought it would be years before I could work it into my race calendar, but COVID changed that! I signed up for the virtual as soon as it went live and started plotting my route and how I was going to manage it. I did the Sugar Badger 50mi as a training run for this. I did SB50 on the road, but I wanted to do Possum’s Revenge on the trail. One really, really cool thing is that of the trails I run on regularly, if I did an out and back on all of them, it’s 70 miles. So I would be 100% familiar with the trails and what I would need.

Attempt #1

I really hate asking for help, so my plan was to be fully self-supported. I placed a water drop at mile 25 and planned to refill my food at mile 50 (where I parked) before heading out for the last 19 miles. It did not go great. It was an oppressively humid day and at mile 13 I stopped to take off my socks to wring them out. I was soaked from head to toe and didn’t think about bringing a sock change since I didn’t think I would want it until after mile 50.

I got to my turn around point where my water drop was and I had already been running out of water miles before I got to the next water source, so I couldn’t fathom the idea of leaving behind my jug of water after refilling. And it’s exactly where I screwed up – I took the water jug with me. So now I was having to run with a water jug in my hands. By the time it was empty, the damage was done, my running had fallen apart completely, I had pains I’d never felt before (likely from the imbalance of carrying the water) and decided to quit when I was still 3 or so miles from the car so I still had to hobble my way back to it. I was sick of being soaking wet all day and just OVER the whole thing. I went home knowing that if I wanted to finish I would have to ask for help.

Attempt #2:

At the end of my first attempt, I thought I had injured myself, but the next day I was basically fine. It was a relief for sure. I went back and forth on whether I would try again, but when I did, I was prepared. Instead of doing a single water drop and being fully self-supported, I would be partially self-supported with the same water fountains as before and with my truck, but have two crew points in the first 50 miles where there is no water at the trailhead and then pacer help in the last 15 miles.

My brother agreed to meet me at the Pruitt Trailhead, the 25 mile point, with a cooler with cold water, uncrustables, and pedialyte popsicles as well as a full change of clothes. Knowing that I was going to get out of the wet clothing made it much more bearable. I actually beat my brother to the trailhead by about 10 minutes, so I took the time to air out my feet in an attempt to get them dry before wiping them, applying trail toes, and getting changed. The pedialyte pops were the shit! I first heard of them through some ultrarunning friends, and I will use them for hot runs when I can.

I headed on back the way I came from and knew I’d be seeing my brother at the 49th Ave Trailhead (around 35ish miles). Since he had a few hours before seeing me, he went to the grocery store and to grab lunch, so when I saw him I ate a couple of his fries and stole a baggie of frozen strawberries from the giant package he’d purchased. The frozen strawberries were so good and juicy.

I got back to the truck still feeling good and moving pretty well, but as I walked into the bathroom at the trailhead to change my clothes, the weather hit. Not only was it a torrential downpour (the kind that soaks you in two seconds flat and you can’t see more than a couple feet in front of you), the skies opened up with huge cracks of very close lightning. Unfortunately, the rest of the trail was more open than the previous sections. Yes, there are tall trees, but it was going to be a lot of fear. I stayed in the bathroom for about 30 or so minutes trying to figure out my options and looking at the radar.

I decided that instead of being soaking wet, afraid of lightning strikes, and dragging my sister and husband through hours of sogging misery, I would change up the plan and finish my miles on the treadmill in our shed at home. I drove home, changed clothes, socks, got into some road shoes, and set up everything out in the shed. My sister, who was going to pace me, brought a pizza and we happily chatted and ate for about an hour and a half while I walked on the treadmill.

SIDENOTE: #CryClub – so I basically always cry at some point during an ultra. I thought it would be funny if I posted in the TJM Nation facebook group for people to guess what mile I cried at. Well, it happened while we were eating pizza. Laci handed me a slice of pizza, I was hungry, but heat screws with my stomach so I was eating in very slowly and no one brought me a plate. I cried because of that. Mile 54 – cried because I didn’t have a plate for my slice of pizza.

By that point, all I had in me was a walk. Though I think if I was outside I could have motivated myself to run in fits and starts (like from one tree or blaze or the next), but on the dreadmill I was simply slogging through as best I could. I listened to podcasts, watched some shows, and generally suffered until I was done. But then I was DONE and it was great! I was very pumped to earn my lovely buckle!

Troubled Raccoon’s Untrained Ultra Challenge

Distance: 52.7k total (13.1, 15k, 10k, 5k, 1mi)

Dates: July 1 through July 4th

Wednesday 1 mile, Thursday 5k, Friday morning 10k, Friday afternoon 15k, Saturday evening half-marathon

So I had originally planned this to be a big old PR fest and I hoped to smash a couple of my own times on these distances, but the fact of the matter is – the weather was just brutal and I haven’t done speed work in months. I was less than 3 seconds off of my mile time, but all of the other distances I decided to take it easy. I am going to revisit this challenge and/or smashing some PRs next year or during the winter when it is more conducive to running fast.

I like the format of the challenge. All five distances must be done in the span of 5 days or less. Some people chose to do the whole thing in one day, some people spread it out over all five days. You can do it in whatever order you like, too, so there’s so many variations on how to tackle this challenge. I think my most memorable run was my half marathon. I did it on the 4th in the evening after helping Tom complete his Battle Miles virtual race earlier in the day. The weather was gross hot and humid, so I decided to keep it around the 1.8 mile loop around the neighborhood so I could refill my handled with water/electrolytes every loop. It was so rough that that is exactly what I did for the entire half marathon; drinking a full 16oz every 2 miles. The worst parts about that run were that someone threw a firework at me and it was extremely smoky near the end. The best part was that my victory in finishing the challenge was celebrated by everyone in the neighborhood setting of pretty fireworks.

Troubled Raccoon’s 24/7 Challenge

Distance: 24 miles

Dates: Thursday July 9th – Friday July 10th

The 24/7 challenge is to run at least a mile during every hour of the day (24 hours) during the month of July (the 7th month, hence 24/7). Additional challenges were to do it all in the span of a week or a day.

A few weeks before taking this on, I had watched a race play out online that was called the Little Dog, Front Yard Race, and like Big’s Backyard, it is a last person standing style event. Unlike Big’s, which requires participants to go 4.167 miles every hour on the hour, this event was one mile on the hour every hour. I was very intrigued by it and was amazed that the event went on for over 10 days. More of a sleep and self-management challenge than a run challenge for sure. I thought I might be interested in trying something like that in the future, so I figured I would do my 24/7 challenge this way. Some people did the 24/7 challenge where they did two miles with one at the end of an hour and the beginning of another so they had more rest time, but I wanted the Little Dog style challenge.

I started at 11am on Thursday. It was pretty hot and I was sweating a ton by the end of each mile and by about mile/hour 4 or 5 I knew I needed to revise my strategy in how I was dressed. I realized I was going inside and just sitting in a wet shirt for 45-50 mins and it was unbearable. I showered after the 8th hour and then started rotating between two shirts. I would wear shirt 1 for a mile, immediately take it off and then put on shirt 2 right before going out for the next mile. Because of the humidity here in Florida, they never got dry, but they did get slightly less wet.

Through the wee hours of the night I struggled to stay awake and would set my alarm for five minutes before the hour just in case I fell asleep (anytime I did nod off, I would immediately spring back up thinking I had slept through the beginning of the hour). In the last 8 hours the chafing got pretty bad. I had been taking off my shirt, but not my pants, so for the last several hours, I had to air stuff out and I applied desitin to deal with the pain of the chafe.

Since I was only doing one mile in each of the runs and the weather stayed great all night, I was able to do all of them outside around my neighborhood and none on the treadmill. I also kept up a pretty brisk pace for me and my very last mile was my fastest mile. All in all, a really great challenge, but it showed me that I will definitely NOT be participating in a Little Dog Front Yard challenge in the future.

Tomoka Marathon Race Report

What: 26.2 miles
Where: Ormond Beach, Florida
When: March 23, 2019
Finish Time: 4:46:25
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/2234447525


Pre-Race: 

In my mind, I was sure I was never, ever, ever going to do a road marathon. I liked the trail. Nice, soft comfy trail and running on the road was not my style. Road running was too stuffy and times were too important, so I couldn't possibly want to do a road marathon. But then I read Marathon Whisperer Denise Sauriol's Book, "Me, You, and 26.2" and I warmed up to the idea. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Also, Tom was told that if he got a qualifying marathon time he would be invited to the Lincoln Marathon as part of the Florida National Guard Marathon Team. So we found Tomoka and it seemed like a great fit since it was scenic and only an hour and a half from home.

We had done Long Play 33 1/3 Trail Race just two weeks before and I had done the Santos Epic 50mi bike ride the week before, so I had a lot of confidence going into the race - no matter how hard it was, there was no way I wasn't going to finish. We arrived at the race and I naturally got a bit stressed about the parking. It was hugely crowded and we ended up parking quite a ways from the race start. We did make our way to the start area, did the standard portapotty waiting, kissed each other goodbye to find our pace groups.


Race:

Tom went up to the 3:30 group and I went back to the 4:45 group. My last experience with a pace group was at a beach half-marathon where the pacer went much faster than her pacing time, so I wasn't too bothered if I fell behind or didn't stick with them the whole time. After the race Tom told me the story of the 3:30 pacer - he was a minimalist runner in sandals and the "fwip fwip" sound got to Tom after the first mile or two, so he went on ahead of them because he could not imagine listening to that sound for hours on end, lol.

The pace group was really nice. I think there were about 20 of us together and the miles flew by with everyone happily chatting and running. About 3 miles in, I realized I had to pee. So I started keeping an eye out for unoccupied portapotties at every aid station. I finally realized I couldn't take it anymore around mile 8 and spent several minutes waiting at an aid station for one. I didn't catch back up to the pacing group and that was fine.

The aid stations were really great, every 1.5-2 miles, water and gatorade; a couple had orange slices and gels. I elected not to carry a handheld, so I just stopped at each one and drank a cup of both drinks and went along my way. I did bring headphones, but didn't start using music until I was about 20ish miles in. I didn't necessarily need it, so I listened with one ear bud so I could still chat to people around me in between bopping around to the music.

I felt great the entire race! My fastest mile was actually mile 23 because once I realized we only had 5k to go, I got a huge rush of energy and excitement. The course was absolutely gorgeous and very flat except for one part - the bridge. In the last mile of the race there is a bridge, and right before the bridge there was an officially aid station with beer! I had a beer from some lovely folk and then tackled the bridge.

Once I crossed the finish line, there was post-race beer and pizza! Also, Tom killed it and got 2nd place male in his age group. We lucked out by having great weather - cool with very low humidity. I read a couple other race reports where it was brutal heat and humidity, so I'm unsure if I would do the race again unless I was purposefully running it with someone else for funsies. I had a ton of fun during my race and if I had been focused on getting a good time I think this would have been the day to kick butt!

 

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.

Gate2Gate Trail Run 25k Race Report

Where: Alachua, Florida (5mi north of Gainesville)
When: October 21, 2017
Distance: 25k

For the last five years, I had been playing roller derby and going on long skates on rail trails, so running wasn’t really a thing I did except as part of the warmup for practice or maybe a 5k on my treadmill once a week as cross training. When I met my boyfriend, I was introduced to trail and outdoor running and enjoyed running for the first time in my life. As a formerly obese person and non-runner, this was a revelation. This was fun, there were pretty things to see, and what? People ran longer than marathons and he wanted to do that someday??

After a month of dating, he talked me into running a half-marathon, so I signed up for one that was going to take place the evening of Friday, October 13th (which gave me about 3.5 months to train). Fortunately, it was cancelled and instead we discovered this neat trail race an hour away that looked great. They offered a 25k and a 50k, so I signed up for the 25k and my boyfriend signed up for what would be his first ultramarathon!

Training went well and a couple weeks before the race we attended a course tour run (we had intended to go to one a few weeks earlier, but it was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma). It was a no drop run, so there were plenty of breaks and it was a perfect confidence booster for me, because I was essentially running the same distance I would be doing in a few weeks!


Race Day:

The air was misty and there was a great excited energy in the group of runners. At 7:30am, the 50k folk went off, and 30 minutes later we were sent off as well. The weather was gorgeous. Low 70s, I believe it was only 50%ish humidity (the high was 85° that day). Perfection. Even though there was a lot of excitement, I kept an eye on my pace and made sure I didn’t go out too fast.

One thing that threw me off was that the first aid station wasn’t where it was supposed to be (due to damage from the hurricane, some access roads weren’t available). I only knew that because I had gone on the course tour, but it was a short ways down the trail. The miles were nice and chill, I had elected not to bring headphones at all (which I would curse myself for later).

I saw my boyfriend a couple of points during the race and he, “WOOOOOO!’D” at me (think Ric Flair) and we high fived both times, as is our custom when we see each other during runs. I got to the aid station at mile 7 and was feeling pretty dang good. I ate half a clif bar, re-filled one of my water bottles and kept trucking.

It wasn’t until mile 12 that I started to feel it and slow down. I settled into a walk/run pattern for the last several miles and was leap frogging with another runner doing the same thing. As most of the course is single track, we kept saying, “See you soon!” to the other person, because one person had to move out of the way for the other to pass. Eventually she found her second wind and left me for the last couple miles. It was at that time that I decided I needed some music to get me through the last push. I pulled up a song on youtube I’d been singing in my head for the last 5 miles and listened to it (no headphones, just out of the speaker). It helped. A few minutes later I exited the trail onto the final quarter mile push and crossed the finish line to receive my medal and a hug from the race director.

I had 4 goals for the race:
Finish – YES
Not DFL – YES
Under 4 hours – YES
Secret goal of 3.5 hours – YES (3:25:08)

I sat on the ground for about 10 minutes before I made my way back to the car to grab a couple camp chairs and the cooler with drinks and snacks my boyfriend and I had packed that morning. I spent the next hour and a half waiting for my BF to come in. He ended up finishing his first 50k in 5:20:37 and was 5th overall! We sat in camp chairs, watched others come in, and recounted our race stories to each other while drinking some fantastic beers from Swamphead and eating some premium quesadillas from a food truck

It was such a fantastic race, event, course, and everything else I could have ever wanted in my first trail racing experience. Once registration opened for the 2018 race, I immediately signed up…but for the 50k. Eeek! Can’t wait to get back out there and test my mettle.