Keys 100 Race Report

 

Note: I am writing this race report approximately 3 months after finishing the race, but I wanted to capture my experience before I forget the pain and triumph. I think I've forgotten some particulars, but this is a good approximation of events.

 Training

I hate when people call a race a “training run” so I will not do that, but this race was a specific part of my build up for my upcoming journey run at The Last Annual Vol State. 100ks of Convenience included navigation, roads, and convenience store stops, GSER 100k had roads, heavy navigation, and plenty of hills with a monster climb at the end, and the Keys would be my prime time to run on road shoulders of heavily trafficked roads as well as gear test in the high heat and humidity. 

Part of my preparation for Keys included plenty of heat training. I often checked the weather for the Keys and most of the time it was cooler there than where I live. Central Florida does not have the benefit of an ocean breeze, so typically our temperatures are hotter and more chokingly humid than down south, so it was nice to know that the weather would never be as bad as what I was running in regularly. I ran outside at the hottest parts of the day and created my own homemade sauna, aka a space heater in my shed where I spent an hour doing yoga and sitting around in 105-110℉ heat. My coach, Ani Weiss also knows how to build my fitness without wrecking me and I felt very physically prepared going into this race. 

My husband Tom would also be joining me for the duration of the race. We previously ran the entirety of the Badger 100 in 2021 together. It worked well because I slow him down in the first half and he makes me run more in the second half. We were hoping for a similar result this time. 

Pre-Race

One annoying thing about the Keys 100 is that you now have to have a crew (pre-covid there were some aid stations and water drops and runners could visit stores for necessary items but that has gone the way of the dodo). I’m not a huge fan of having a crew because I get crew guilt (more on that later), but needs must. I put out the call to my group of friends that I was looking for and my friend Cheryl agreed and roped her boyfriend Eric to come down and crew. In exchange they would get…uhhhh, a flight and a night in Key West they couldn’t enjoy because they were exhausted from crewing? After picking them up from the Miami airport Thursday night, we made the drive to Key Largo on Friday. 

The race had a livestream of the pre-race panel and since we weren’t going to make it in time, we listened in the car. The instant Bob Becker told a story of a runner who died the previous year a few days after the race because of an electrolyte imbalance we turned off the livestream. We did not need that weighing heavily on our minds right before we took on the challenge.

The day before the race was not ideal as I typically aim to have a very chill day before a race, but due to some issues with school stuff, I ended up staying up later than I wanted to and stressing about that. The morning of the race I briefly contemplated taping my feet, but since I’d had zero issues in my last two races, I figured I would be fine (narrator: it was not).

The whole gang!

Mile 0 to Mile 20

The race starts in the parking lot of Diver’s Direct in Key Largo and it is quite chaotic. Waves of runners take off every three minutes and we had a 5:51am start time which is based on the order in which people register. The elites get the 5:30am start time, which means I never ever had a chance of seeing them. The line for the portapotties was long and I ran up to the start line, still trying to pull up my pants to where they needed to be, as Bob Becker told us, “Go!”

In addition to the 100-mile runners, the race also has relay runners. We discovered pretty early on that it is very easy to get caught up in a relay runner’s pace. I kept looking at my watch knowing that we had to throttle back our speed or risk burning out too early. The weather wasn’t too hot, but the humidity was definitely there. 

As a result, I ended up with squishy shoes. I saw other squishy shoe prints in front of me so I knew I wasn’t the only one dealing with the issue. Tom and I were running a nice pace and I didn’t want to break up the flow by changing my socks so early into the race. RED ALERT, RED ALERT, THIS IS A BAD IDEA. I will also straight up say that for the past two 100k races I’d done, I did zero pre-taping, just globbed on some trail toes and I was fine.

The smart things to do: pre-tape known problem areas, dry my feet and apply more lube, and change socks and/or shoes. What did I do? Nothing. Shae, you absolute turd, you know better.

  

Mile 20 to Mile 40

Around this point Tom started feeling off. He sometimes struggles with running in the heat. Because of that, we started walking more. In the past walking has always done me in at races. Feet move differently in shoes and blisters pop up in ways you don’t experience while running. My last two races had almost all running and minimal walking, so I did not factor in how much walking, especially in still squishy shoes, would impact my feet. 

As the day got warmer, Tom began to suffer more. He had the mental will to continue, but his body said no. Without going into it, it shut him down and there was nothing he could do. Eric and Cheryl arrived to pick him up and I continued on. 

At that point I had to pee, but there was no portapotty; using the bathroom anywhere other than a portapotty or approved store is strictly prohibited and will result in an immediate DQ. I figured there would be one after the bridge I was going over, so I looked forward to that short crossing.

What I didn’t know was that I had started Long Key Bridge, the second longest bridge in the Florida Keys. Long Key Bridge is nearly 2.5 miles long. I tried to pick up my running pace, but at times I was slowed to a walk or had to stand still so I didn’t pee my pants. In my opinion, this was the longest bridge during the Keys. It is one of the few pedestrian-only bridges, so it was filled with groups fishing off the various outcroppings. There were also several garbage cans along the bridge and I fantasized about hopping inside one and peeing. I stopped drinking water in hopes that it would make me have to pee less.

I also spotted this bucket truck, which was literally parked IN THE OCEAN and it had a portapotty next to it. I was mad at bucket trucks parked in the ocean because they could go to the bathroom and I couldn't.

Hard to see, but the portapotty is near the front of the truck

As I said before, the bridge is only 2.5 miles, but you could have fooled me. It felt like ten miles. When I finally saw an end to the bridge, I desperately started looking for a portapotty. There was none to be found. I asked my crew and they told me there was one a few miles up. Nope. I was going to go. I got into the car, closed the door, and did my best to piss into a Gatorade bottle (as a woman, it is very, very difficult especially crouched on the floor of the front passenger seat). Afterwards I felt a million times better, but also bad because now my crew had to be in a pee car, but at least it wasn’t in public? I wiped the floor of the vehicle the best I could, but I’m pretty sure they had to go back in with some paper towels and wet wipes. 

Mile 40 to Mile 60

Five(ish) miles after the end of Long Key Bridge was the infamous Hell’s Tunnel. It is said to be one of the hottest parts of the course as most people arrive in the peak heat of the day and it has foliage on both sides of the bike path, so there’s no breeze at all. I asked for and received an ice bandana, but having it on my back ended up being too cold, so I swung it around to my front for a bit. I had to alternate because it was just too cold/painful to have ice that close to my chest or back. This was the first time I’d ever used ice in a race and it solidified I didn’t like it. I had snug a few stray cubes into the pocket on the back of my shirt, but they melted fast or I removed them after a little while.

At some point in the middle(?) of Hell’s Tunnel, I stopped to do some foot repair. My feet were megafucked. The heel blisters and ball of the foot blisters were going to be a problem. The toes hadn’t yet posed a problem, but they were on the verge of doing so. It was then that I accepted that I’d be walking the vast majority of the race and that was okay. It was going to hurt, but I would get it done.

 

I can’t remember exactly where, but between 40 and 50, I started feeling mega crew guilt. We all know that ultrarunning is a very selfish sport and that it takes up a lot of time. I’ve dealt with really bad crew guilt before and it was one of the main reasons I DNF’d a “virtual” 100 miler a few years ago. I feel bad for the people sacrificing their time and attending to dumb little me. I came into the crew stop, sat on a rock and told Eric and Cheryl that I was having a real bad time mentally. I felt bad for them having to shuttle from spot to spot to give me water and food. I felt bad for Tom for sitting in the car recovering from heat issues. I felt bad because I knew that I couldn’t quit because where would we even stay that night?

Funny enough, that was one of the main things that kept me going. Especially when it got really late. There was nowhere for us to go. It was hard enough finding a hotel for the night after the race, I couldn’t imagine how difficult finding a room for that night would be or how exorbitant the price would be. Some of the things I focused on were: you need to make it through this so you can make it through Vol State, there’s nowhere else to go tonight so you might as well keep going all the way to Key West, you paid waaaaaaaayyyy too much for this race to not get that pretty buckle. Very silly reasons for sure, but they kept me going. Getting ahead of myself though – back to the pit of despair.

Around mile 47ish, I realized that I would be arriving to Seven Mile Bridge about 45 minutes after the time I wanted and I got really bummed. I wanted to get there and be mid-bridge as the sun was setting, but there is no stopping the passage of time, so it was going to be dusk and then dark on the bridge. Knowing there was a McDonald’s in Marathon, I texted my crew to ask if they could get me fries. When I got to the Marathon Garden Club (the location of the 50 mile start), the fries were gloriously hot, fresh, and life affirming. 

It was maybe a mile and a half onto the bridge that the sleepies started to hit. It was one hell of an awful place for that to happen, too. You’d think with the cars flying by going 60+ mph while you’re on a narrow shoulder would wake a person up, that was not the case for me. Darkness starts, I get sleepy. Them’s the rules.

 

The beginning of Seven Mile Bridge

Mile 60 to Mile 80

As I came into Big Pine Key I saw my very first Key Deer. Instant tears! They are a very special kind of deer that only live in the Keys. They are small, some compare their size to a dog but they’re a little bit taller than that. I first learned about the key deer while listening to books from Carl Hiassen, which a friend had recommended. Listening to his books about the wild characters in the Keys got me really excited for this race, and the deer were something I really wanted to see.

Since Cheryl told me that she needed 14ish miles that weekend, I asked if she wanted to pace at the next crew point. That would give her time to get into running gear and mentally prepare herself to endure my company. At the next crew point as I drank a red bull and ate some room temp ramen noodles (noodles soften with water, no need to be fancy and try to acquire warm water in the middle of the night), I warned Cheryl again that there would be very little, if any, running, but she agreed to spend the time with me on the road. We saw a few more adorable deer and I kept up a litany of really dumb stories from my tired but caffeinated brain. We may have done a little bit of run/walk, but I can’t remember. Once she was done with her miles, I started out again on my own.

Late night snack of champions!

I was feeling pretty raw in my undercarriage area and going to the portapotty in the parking lot around mile 75 I discovered something was bleeding, but I wasn’t sure what. Lady zone, thighs, bhole. Take your pick. Something down there had a lot more chafe than I would have liked, so I threw some more trail toes on and shrugged my shoulders. Not much to do but endure it.

I'm genuinely not sure if I felt as rough as I looked there or not.

The sleepies in the night are a killer for me

Mile 80 to the Finish Line and Beyond

The next several bridges and miles are a bit of a blur. Everything looks the same during the night and I knew I was going over absolutely gorgeous places that I didn’t get to see at all. Darn me for not being one of the super speedy runners that gets to see all the pretty stuff during the best part of the day. Oh well, I got to see a very nice sunrise and got the happiness that comes with finally being able to take off your headlamp.

With 10 miles to go and the heat already starting up for the day, I went into my very first store of the race. It was a Circle K and I wandered around for a bit to search out the best breakfast to have; I made sure to stop in the beer fridge and enjoy the chilled air for a minute. I found a sammich and an icee and put my feet up to eat them next to the car. This is one of the many stops I made that were way too long. If I had been crewing me, I would have kicked myself out much sooner every single time I stopped at the crew car. Buuuuut, I knew that my crew was very nice and they didn’t have the heart to kick me out really fast, so I took full advantage of all of the rest time they allowed me.

I met up with the crew at Dion’s with a little less than five miles to go; Tom was dressed back in running clothes and was ready to go! It reminded me of when he paced me at Long Haul in 2020 when my feet were bad. This time my feet were worse, but I was moving better than I had then. I even ran in teensy little bursts here and there, much less than he wanted, much more than I felt like doing. 

We got to Smather’s Beach and ran along there, hoping and hoping our turn would be coming up quick. Several people who had done the relay or finished the race cheered us on and told us we were close to the finish (not quite the truth, not quite a lie). We hit that final turn and ran through the inflatable arch at the finish where I was presented with a medal and a buckle! It was beautiful! My final finishing time was 29:22:20. It was a long ordeal, over the time I wanted, but it is what it is.

 

And then all I wanted to do was sit down. Sit down. Right now. The award ceremony for all of the races was happening right then, so the tent was extremely crowded, which did not help the way I was feeling. I went from sitting down to, “I need to lie down NOW.” So there I was, in the sand, holding my buckle, and entirely all of the people around me who seemed to be in great spirits and showered. 

For some reason I was not having it and I wanted to leave. It meant that I totally neglected getting a photo under the finish line with the Mile 0 sign and running into the water at the beach like I had envisioned during the night. Getting into the hotel afterwards was a whole ‘nother cluster that I won’t go into; I should have gotten over myself and stayed at the finish line for a while, but hindsight is 20/20. 

Conclusion

The Keys 100 is absolutely incredible and absolutely awful. Would I do it again? Fuck no. Am I glad I did it? Hell yes. If you’re looking for a good challenge, I highly suggest putting this race on your list.

I think I could have run a lot more, but I didn’t really have the mental will to do so. The thing I always hear and should have said to myself, “If it hurts to walk and it hurts to run, then run.” I’ve beat myself up a lot in the last few months about not running this race more. I definitely could have had a much better finishing time, but I’m actually pretty grateful for the learning experience I did have. I learned that even with blistered, horrible feet I can finish a race and that I am capable of walking it in for 50+ miles. My feet were peeling and still healing going into Vol State, almost two full months later. 

Another part of this race that happened all throughout was talking to people. I enjoy talking to people at races. New people, old friends, whoever. At this race, I found several people who were repeat Keys finishers. I asked every single one WHY. Why would you do this crazy thing again? I got the full gamut of answers – “I don’t know.”  “The finish line is great!” “I really like to suffer.” “I’m very dumb.” 

It’s always interesting how people are drawn to certain events. Like the call of Vol State and Heart of the South. Why are those so interesting to me? Why would I want to do either? Well…I’m dumb. I like to suffer. I don’t know. The finish line is a relief and beautiful. At the time I didn’t understand the repeaters. I do now. They couldn’t ignore the call of the Keys much like I can’t for other events.

Great Southern Endurance Run DNF

Distance: 100 miles (made it to 58)

Date: Saturday, August 15th

It’s almost two months since the DNF and I’m still processing things. I was very excited going into this – a 100 mile journey through Atlanta starting at Kennesaw Mountain, going through downtown, up Stone Mountain, and then back to Atlanta proper. I knew going into it my feet would pose a problem. I keep learning lessons about how my feet react to walking vs running and I seem to get blisters when I walk more than about 7 miles – running 50 has posed no problems, but walking? Blister factory. I am fairly certain shoes are a big part of it and I also think that strategic taping could also help and that’s something I need to solve before Badger 2021.

Though in all honesty, I did not DNF because of my feet. They may have been cause for me to DNF later, maybe even as soon as 5 or 10 miles down the road from where I stopped, but when I stopped at approximately 58 miles, it was because of my mental state and not because of my feet. They were just really good scapegoats for the mental beating I was giving myself.

I’ve heard many people say that running and ultrarunning are very selfish sports. I agree a million percent and one thing I hate to do more than anything is inconvenience people or ask for help. That event involved both. I somehow got my husband and my dad on board to give up time to travel with me up to Atlanta. The plan was to get in to Atlanta midday, relax, go to sleep early, and then start at 3am on the top of Kennesaw. Only that’s not what happened. There were several wrecks on I-75 and a 6 hour drive turned into an 8.5 hour drive.

At 8pm I was attempting to fall asleep and I got the call from Trena – there were going to be protests at Stone Mountain the next day, which meant the entire area would be closed to visitors. In an attempt to be able to do the whole route, we had to push the entire endeavor from a 3am start to a 9am start so we would go near Stone Mountain when hopefully any violence/protests would be finished. This meant that we would be getting no pre-dawn reprieve from the sun and we would be finishing much later on Sunday than anticipated; both my husband and dad had to be at work on Monday morning so the finishing time was important.

I started with that weighing pretty heavy on my head and it only got heavier and heavier as the day went along. Yes, my feet hurt, my pinky toes turned into giant blisters and burst in my shoes around mile 26 – when you have a group of 4 people you only go as fast as your fastest person and I didn’t want to be the one who held us up with a foot problem so early. Also, we basically didn’t run at all after about mile 10 which stamped my ticket into BlisterLand. Going through areas of downtown Atlanta were cool, I really enjoyed the belt line and all of the art along the way, definitely my favorite section of the run. Despite the blisters, I was in a good mood for the most part.

I think my mental state really started to shift when nighttime fell and I started doing the dreaded ultra math. I kept thinking, “We’ve been at this for XX hours and we still have at least XX hours to go if nothing goes wrong and we don’t slow down (not likely). That’ll have us finishing at XX, which means we still have to drive home and then dad and Tom won’t be able to make it to work tomorrow and I did this and I made them come and I bet they hate me for making them hang out and sleep for an hour at a time in a car on random streets. Why did I do this to them? Why am I such a bad person? How could I be so selfish?”

I felt so damn bad that I was doing this to them and slowly wrecking my feet over the miles. Every single step started to hurt. I think my brain amplified my foot pain to be much more unbearable than it actually was (evidenced by the fact that I ran the next day. Although a month and a half later, my blisters were still healing, so my poor feet definitely did take a beating).

Again, even though I had a physical issue, I stopped because my mental game was weak. I didn’t want it bad enough. I couldn’t stand the idea of inconveniencing my people and making them miss work to crew my dumb ass. They never once complained and only wanted to help me finish, they were in a great mood and were having adventures of their own.

I know some people regret races after they DNF them - I’m two months out and I still think I made the right decision, but I made it for the wrong reasons. I saw what I needed to see on the journey and I had a great adventure. Quitting at 58ish miles is okay with me, but I hate the fact that I quit because my mental game wasn’t strong enough and I was too worried about things outside of my control. We started 6 hours later and I let that screw with my head. Now I know I have a huge, gaping hole in my mental game, and I hate it, but glad to know it’s there so I can remedy it in the future!

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.

My Big Fat Virtual Summer (1 of 3)

So with all of the race cancellations and everything that has gone along with this crazy global pandemic, I did a LOT more stuff than I thought I would. I did three different 24hr challenges, an “Untrained Ultra”, a marathon, a 50k, a 50m, and a 69m (where I got my first virtual DNF that I chased away with a virtual finish!), a DNF that I’m still processing, and a fun month-long scavenger hunt. I’m going to go in chronological order and discuss all the dumb stuff I did!

Aravaipa Strong 50k

Date: Friday, April 17th

Finish Time: 6:23:07

Compared to many of these challenges, this one was one of the easiest. It was still relatively early into the ‘rona, barely into the hot season, so it was a pleasure cruise compared to some of the later challenges. This was one of my first really long runs where I would be leaving from home and being self-supported the whole time. There was also sidewalk pretty much the whole way except for about a mile of it. I used gas stations to support myself and had a nice time. Nothing super interesting to report. I had a pretty good finish time considering not being very efficient when I stopped to restock at various gas stations.

Yeti 24hr Challenge

Distance: 30 miles

Date: Thursday-Friday, April 23rd-24th

This challenge was an interesting one, but the thing I was most interested in was the super cool shirt design and the fact that it was providing work to The Opportunity Center. So I signed up and decided to keep it to my normal neighborhood routes and a couple runs on the treadmill if the weather was bad.

This was a LOT of fun. I started after work on Thursday and no run lasted more than an hour, there was plenty of time between each run, so it wasn’t like I felt pressure on the time and I could rest. I also realized that it really doesn’t take much time to get ready for a run. The first few times I was standing on the corner of the block just waiting for the time to tick over to the top of the hour, but by the end I knew that it really only took me one minute to get my things together and another minute to walk to the end of the street to begin. It was like I was just going out for a short run each time and I never felt the cumulative effect of all of the miles. I would 100% recommend this challenge to anyone and everyone.

Sugar Badger 50 mile

Finish Time: 11:07:06

Date: Friday, May 1st

I had grand plans for this and well, they didn’t pan out. My original plan going into it was going to be to “Put the sugar in Sugar Badger” by stopping at several dessert places along the way as my method of fueling. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and I was basically miserable for 35 miles of the run, but hold up, I’ll get there.

I first stopped at an Ocala classic – Tas-T-O Donuts for a glazed cake doughnut and had a very weird encounter. I bought my doughnut and I wanted to take a picture in front of the iconic sign. After I took my picture a guy who was ordering at the window said something along the lines of, “Oh that’s original, taking a picture of the fat man buying doughnuts.” I didn’t hear him at first and asked him to repeat it, so he did, and I was just flabbergasted. How is this dude so self-involved and self-conscious about his own behaviors that he would call out a total stranger for taking a picture of their food and a sign with a phone that clearly wasn’t even pointed at him (it was pointed UP at the SIGN and the ordering window wasn’t visible because I was holding up a doughnut). I waited until he left, got a new pic, and then went off down the sidewalk.

My next stop was about 4ish miles away at another doughnut shop. It was a place I had never tried before, so I asked the person working there what their recommendation was and I ended up with an amazing cheesecake doughnut. It was about a mile later that I realized I wasn’t feeling so hot. I wasn’t sure if it was the doughnuts (I do not eat doughnuts on the regular) or what, but I kept on going. My next stop wasn’t for another 10 or so miles, so I thought I’d be better by then.

By the time I got to the Wawa about 2 miles from the next stop (mile 25ish), I knew I wouldn’t be getting a dessert at the next stop. Instead I got some gingerale and kept going towards the place and turned around instead of going in (because I had planned my route very efficiently and I didn’t want to have to add mileage at the end).

My next stop was a racetrack where I got some water and a blue slushie. I very briefly considered calling someone to come and get me, but by that point I was about 30 miles in, realized my pain and nausea was due to my uterus, and figured I may as well keep going and get it done. I had already been majorly suffering for 15 miles, so what was another 20 miles?

I headed to downtown Ocala to stop by Stella’s where I got a baklava and another gingerale. I sat on a park bench in the shade just off the square to eat my treat and drink the gingerale. I was in the final 15 miles of the run and decided to skip the last planned dessert stop. It was going to either be a place that made fancy cake or an ice cream shop, but I was so nauseous that neither option sounded appealing.

By the time I got to about the 40 mile mark, I was over it. I wanted to be home, I felt like crap, it was hot, and I was just done. I was drinking my water like crazy at this point and I ran out of water with about 5 miles to go and there were no convenience stores or anything else like that between there and home unless I backtracked a couple miles and I didn’t want to do that. Luckily, my husband was home from work by then so I called him and he met me about 3 miles from the house to do a full refill on my water.

Finishing the run where I started it over 11 hours before was a great feeling. I’d had a bad day, but I made the best of it and still think I had a pretty fun time, even though a lot of it sucked. But the Sugar Badger swag was worth it! I love that medal and shirt design!

Long Haul 100 Race Report

Where: Cypress Creek Preserve, Land O Lakes, Florida
When: January 18-19, 2020
What: Long Haul 100
Finish Time: 29:17:16
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/3026543743/overview

It has now been a little over a week since Long Haul 100 and I think I’m finally ready to put my scrambled thoughts into words. It seems surreal that I completed it, but also the race did not go how I was expecting so it has really thrown me for a loop as far as processing the experience so maybe sorting my thoughts out into a race report will help me figure it out in my own head.


Training:

Training went fairly well. Last year I had it in my mind that I would probably want to do Long Haul and after my 50mi in Wisconsin went well, I was seriously considering signing up. Rather than just jump into 100mi training, I gave myself a test of doing Gate2Jacks; if I survived that and still wanted to run afterwards, I would sign up for Long Haul. The Monday after those races I felt pretty good, so I signed up!

For the training itself, I used the Relentless Forward Progress 50 mile peak plan and the 70 mile peak plan. Someone else suggested combining them so you do a minimum of the 50mpw plan with a maximum of the 70mpw plan so it allowed some flexibility when real life came calling. I mostly hit all of the 70mpw mileage until the TUDC 50mi where the pounding on the road did a number on my ankle and I had to essentially take a full week and some change off of running. In all, there were only two weeks of the entire plan where I did not meet or exceed the mileage, so it was pretty solid training.


About the Race:

The course is made up of ten 10 mile “loops.” They call it a loop, but in reality it is made up of a set of out and back spurs. Spur 1 is 1.5ish miles out, Spur 2 is 2.5ish out, and Spur 3 was 1ish out. It also started with a 1 mile run on pavement from the parking area to the main hub as a way to spread everyone out so the first spur wasn’t too congested.

I added the “ish” to the mileage because the course was long. Spur 3 was eliminated from the last loop about 10 hours into the race (announced via a whiteboard near the timing mat at the start/finish). The timing crew put on their tracking site that the race was 102 miles, I had a final total of 103.79 miles, and I heard others had up to 105 miles, but someone going off trail to visit their tent during the race or going off trail to use the bathroom or even choosing the least efficient line on the course would account for that extra bit.

The cut off for the race is 32 hours, but this year it became qualifier for Western States for 2021 and in order to qualify a person would have to finish under 30 hours. The biggest benefit of the race for me was that I would never be more than 2.5 miles away from my crew and my stuff. Spur 1 turnaround had a hydration and “shot” aid station, Spur 2 turnaround had a full aid station, and Spur 3 had a timing mat at the turnaround.


Weather:

The weather this year ended up being absolute perfection. Last year there was horrible rain in the night and made everything muddy and miserable (so miserable that the RDs changed the race from 12.5 mi loops to cut out areas that were still flooded/super mucked). The weather was in the mid-sixties at the start and only got to about 82 with a heat index of around 86 or so, low humidity, and at night it didn’t get below 60. I changed into a long sleeve when it got dark and then during the coldest part of the night I put on a sweater. I didn’t need the gloves or the heavier sweater that I brought. For people who do not live in the south, it was very hot for them during the day, but it was great for me. Though if the night had been cold, I would have suffered a lot while I’m sure they would have thrived.


Prep & Crew:

For this race, I was going to eat whatever I wanted to and force stuff down even if I didn’t want to. I listened to so many podcasts and kept remembering Scotty Kummer saying something along the lines of, “No one ever complains about eating too much during a 100 miler.” So the goal was to take advantage of the aid stations if the food they had appealed to me and also use what I brought (tailwind, huma gels, GUs, pringles, cookies, and body armor).

My crew consisted of my dad, my fiancé Tom, and later my sister Laci. Laci would pace me from 60-80 and Tom would pace me from 80-100. Tom and dad had a tent and chairs they would set up at the main hub after the race started. In my head, we were Team Keep Fucking Going. Before my mom died, she said to my dad, “Keep fucking going,” and we have held that in our hearts as our family motto. Kyle was able to use my mom’s many notebooks to make her writing into a font and he created the text. Dad has it tattooed on his arm. I made myself a tech shirt and regular cotton shirts for my crew. The shirts were a pretty big hit with other runners even without knowing the emotional significance of it. It was for us, but I’m very glad it helped other people, too!



Miles 1-12ish

Nothing too much during these miles. Just having fun and trying to slow down in the beginning. I worked out a system with my crew that I would have one handheld water bottle and each time I came in from a loop, they would switch it out for a fresh one. They were putting tailwind and water in them and changing out the gels in the front pockets. Also, their placement at the hub was PERFECT and a huge benefit to me. Most of the people who sent up tents at the hub set them up off of the paved section of Spur 2 which required a walk up and down about 5’ of hill/berm. My crew set up along Spur 1 so I never had to go up or down any hill no matter how small and if I needed something I would tell them before I did Spur 1 so they could have it ready by the time I completed it and headed to Spur 2.


Miles 12ish-40ish

Around mile 12ish I started running with a woman named Tammy. She was freaking fantastic! She has done a lot of great races and we talked about everything under the sun. The miles simply flew by and I discovered that during my prep for this race I had read her race report that she did for Long Haul almost a decade ago! Small world!! A woman named Brandy also ran with us for a bit and it was fun cheering each other on. I also got to meet Susan Donnelley and chatted with her a couple times during the race. She is amazing! Around 40 something Tammy and I broke off from each other because her dad had arrived with cake and I wanted to keep going and doing my thing. I felt bad since it was really nice to run with her, but I know you have to run your own race.


Miles 40ish-60ish

I got my waist light from the crew since night would soon be falling. I figured I’d use my waist light for a loop or two and then when it got super dark, I would also use my headlamp.

Sometime around mile 44(?) I realized I may have had an issue brewing. I thought I had something stuck in my shoe, like dirt or sand. Sections of the trail were very dirty/dusty and there was sugar sand in a few spots. I made the grave error of not even thinking to bring or wear my gaiters. This is essentially what took my race from a good fun time to physical torture. In checking my shoe, I didn’t see or feel anything inside of the shoe and realized it was most likely a blister forming on the pad of my foot. Poop.

When I came into my crew after 5th completed loop I was ready for some type of audio distraction. I knew I had an episode of Ten Junk Miles to listen to and funnily enough, Tom already had my headphones out and was turning on my phone because apparently he just *knew* that I needed a distraction. I had one more loop before Laci would be joining me and I was already in distance PR territory, so that felt cool.

During that loop a blister grew, hurt, and popped. The emptying of that blister was such a relief and the pain there was instantly gone. If only that could have happened to my other blisters on both of my foot pads. I think during my 5th or 6th loop I started taking advantage of the libations offered at the “shots” aid station as a sort of pain killer or, as I called it, “Go go juice.” In all, I did do four shots throughout the race and they were very mentally helpful. I also brought beer just in case I had a thirst for one mid-race, but I never did.


Miles 60ish-80ish

I picked up Laci and switched to caffeinated gels. We talked and she got me through the miles. She did exactly what I asked of her (not letting me take breaks I didn’t need to and asking me if I could try running a little bit). I did do some running until the pain from the blisters on my feet really started wrecking me.

Around mile 70 is when the pain hit its stride and I knew there would be zero running from that point on. At mile 75 I took off my shoes and socks, wiped my feet down with baby wipes, then Tom tried to do some taping to hold the skin from my wrecked feet in place, and I changed my socks and went back out. It didn’t help; too little too late. At the aid station on spur 2, the volunteers offered cup noodle and I accepted. They had a kettle and stove there to make hot foods, so I took the cup of soup and went along. We picked up another runner who was also having similar feet problems that I was having and whose headlamp battery was dying. We kept him with us until we got to the main hub. I think I had a quesadilla after that loop or maybe the previous one? Those were my only two hot food items of the whole race.


Miles 80ish-98ish

I drank a cotton candy Bang energy drink once I got back to the crew area and Tom went out with me. He took the rest of the Bang since I wasn’t able to drink the whole thing and we went out at a snail’s pace. My feet were wrecked. Every single step I took was painful. I know people drop out due to pain like this, but (forgive the cliché saying) – I didn’t go that far to only go that far. I was finishing this race and I didn’t care if the last 20 miles took me a billion years.

Many times I begged Tom to let me have a quick little lie down on the trail and he said no. He DID let me take a couple of sitting breaks. During Spur 2 when it gets to the .5 of pavement before the hub, he let me set there for exactly 60 seconds and I am fairly certain I cried with gratitude. I started envisioning finishing the race and as soon as I did I was planning on collapsing on the grass and not moving until someone dragged me away and that was a comforting thought.

As it started to become dawn and we were hitting the 24 hour mark, I was about 89 miles in, so I knew I had about 13ish more miles to go. I told myself I was going to call the Ten Junk Miles bonk line and I pretty much told them they lied about how 100 milers are fun and that I hated them and also loved them? I think? I’m not 100% sure what all I said.

I didn’t get overly tired too much like I expected I would and I definitely did not have hallucinations of any sort. I did get *extremely* emotional though and cried quite a bit. Not full on tears, but just maybe 10-30 seconds of pouting. Tom also told me that during the last 10 miles he would make a face and once I laughed at it, another time I cried at it, and another time I did both. Many times I did say I wanted to quit, but Tom knew I wasn’t serious and I knew I wasn’t serious. There would be no quitting, even if I had to finish on my hands and knees (which, umm, probably not the greatest attitude to have? But I have a desk job so I wasn’t putting my livelihood at stake at all, just my comfort).


98ish-Finish (102 or something like it)

Since we didn’t have to do Spur 3 on the last loop, I came in from Spur 1 and Tom had decided to ask my dad if he wanted to join us for the last 5 miles. My dad has had hip and back pain, so I wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to walk the 5 miles with us, but since I was going at a glacially slow pace, it seemed very do-able for him. It was a long, hard slog and I felt like I was barely moving, but at the same time each step hurt so dang bad that I hesitated every foot placement on the trail. After what seemed like a thousand years we hit the turnaround aid station…and there were no volunteers there. They did leave behind all of the food and water and supplies and another runner had told us to check off our bib# on the sheet to verify we had come through the aid station. Tom and dad let me have a little break here, so I sat in a chair to be sad for a few minutes contemplating if I was going to make it the last 2.5 miles to the finish.

We got up and started our very slow journey to the end. After a thousand years, we reached the road section which was .5 miles from the finish line and it started to sprinkle a bit. Tom asked me if I wanted to try running and I took a couple very painful quick steps and said no, so we plodded along. Laci joined up with us at the juncture of the spurs about 0.1mi from the finish line and with the actual finish line in sight, I was able to run (I felt like I was flying, but I’m sure I wasn’t, lol). Dad handed me the small travel urn of mom’s ashes that he keeps with him and I crossed the finish line with several of the most important people in my life: Tom, Dad, Laci, and Mom.


The aftermath:

My feet were (are?) so, so wrecked. They were still draining blister fluid over two days later and now I am slowly clipping off the super thick dead skin. They were very, very deep blisters. Both of my pinkie toes also blistered fully. I know other people have a problem with this and I’m still unsure of the solution. It’s because my little toe tucks in too much to my foot. It does it when I’m barefoot, so it might just be a thing that happens to me all the time. Most of the time toe socks help it, but maybe it won’t for this distance.

I had ZERO chafing. I used SNB on some parts that usually chafe and reapplied to a couple spots twice, but I think good quality clothing and lack of high temperatures and humidity is what kept me in the clear. The only unknown in the clothing department was my purple shirt I made two days before the run. I bought it on amazon for like $7. I had never, ever run in it before and it worked out great! Other than that, I wore XO Skin socks for the first 75 miles, injinjis for the last 25, HOKA Clifton 1 shoes, a Brooks Juno bra, new balance lasercut underoos, and my absolute favorite Skirtsport Lioness Skirt Capris.

I had Monday off for the MLK Jr holiday and took Tuesday off of work as well. I didn’t run on those days, but Wednesday I ran slowly on the treadmill for about a mile and a half and Friday I did a nice chill 5 miles on the trail. I think I’m mostly back to normal now and have several weeks of rest/no structure until I start training for the Badger 100 in August.


Emotional aftermath:

Going into this race, I had very much expected to find “my highest highs and lowest lows” based on so many stories from other runners. That’s what I was seeking and well...that’s not what happened. I think the main reason I’ve been having trouble processing the whole race is because I thought it would be emotionally and physically different. There was some mild emotional roller coaster bits in the last 30 miles, but not as much as I expected. All of the pain I felt physically from my poor blistered feet still pales in comparison to depths of the pain I’ve felt from my worst flares of endometriosis (pain so severe I could barely even walk or get out of bed). No emotional turmoil during those 100 miles were ever as strong as the depression I’ve experienced throughout my life and the grief over my mom’s death. Basically, I’ve endured worse. I feel mild regret that I didn't push myself harder to run more in those last 30 miles, but it seemed impossible at the time. Maybe that's a bit of the mental game I'm missing, putting the pain out of my mind more than I did.

I’m already signed up for the Badger 100 in August and the experience will be different. Just by the nature of the course, conditions, and tidbits of wisdom I have hopefully gained it will be a whole new experience and I really hope to find something a bit *more* inside of myself.


Some photos courtesy of A1 Ultra Events, some from my dad, and the one of Tammy and me from Susan Donnelly.

Also, I did take some photos of my feet the day after and yesterday (a week and a half later). Small thumbnails so you can avoid them if you like.

 

 

Tallahassee Ultra Distance Classic 50 Mile Race Report

Where: Wakulla Springs State Park (20ish mins south of Tallahassee)
When: December 14, 2019
What: 50 miles
Finish Time: 9:45:08
Place: 10/12, 2/3F**
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/2933114456


Pre-Race:

This is a race I would have never, ever had signed up for if it wasn’t for Tom. Tom was looking for a good 50 mile race that played to his strengths. He likes road running, prefers the weather a bit cooler, and he doesn’t mind loops. TUDC 50m fit the bill well. The course utilizes 3 miles of road at Wakulla Springs State Park and is a large event for the Gulf Winds Track Club each year. Most of the people doing the race were signed up for the 50k and the marathon, but about 30 silly gooses were signed up for the 50m.

I had originally signed up for the 50k, but decided to bump it up to the 50m once I realized that it was perfectly timed with a 50m race in my Long Haul training plan. Since the course is basically out and backs to make a 10k “loop” repeated 8 times, it would be ideal training for the potential monotony (and ability to drop) that I’d experience with the 10 out and back repeats of Long Haul. I changed my registration and got nervous considering I’d have to beat my previous 50 mile time by almost 10 minutes just to finish under the cut off. I knew I’d be using almost every minute of the 10 hour time limit.

After a very chill day in a hotel near the race, we woke up the next morning bright and early to scarf some breakfast and head over to Wakulla Springs State Park. People doing the race typically set up their own small aid station/drop bag areas near the race start or in the parking lot leading up the start/finish/timing mat. We didn’t know exactly where to set up, so we put our cooler and chair just past the main aid station (which was a great setup, I liked it better there than where other people had their supplies set).

The 50k and marathon people start at the actual start line and the 50 milers start about a quarter mile or so from the start. Five minutes before the race start, our group was hustling over to make sure we got to our own start line. We barely made and it and the person escorting us was saying, "Do not start yet, we aren't there." It was pretty amusing, but we got there and the race started.


Loops 1-4

One neat thing about this race is that participants are allowed to have pacers in the form of buddies running with them or someone on a bike. I saw several marathon folk running totally hands free since they had a cyclist pacer to hand them water and nutrition. The only downside was one cyclist was so tuned into their runner that they were encroaching on other runners going to the opposite direction.

There isn't really much to post about the first four loops. I was feeling good due to the cool weather, but kept my pace comfortable. There was supposed to be a portapotty on course, but it was nowhere to be found; there were full restrooms at the start/finish so that was good with me. I ran with a few other 50 miler folk for a few miles, but pretty much the whole thing was by myself. I usually refuse to listen to music or podcasts until I'm well over halfway through the race, but by the 3rd loop I knew I definitely needed it earlier than usual. I told myself to get through the 4th loop and I'd be allowed to grab my headphones and get some podcasts going.

Just an observation, not a judgment - For about 20ish miles I ran near a woman that had absolutely zero shame in peeing out in the open. She had a skirt sport with the "pee flap" and so many times during the race she would barely step off of the course and start relieving herself. At one point she was literally one foot off the course and I made sure that when I came back through that way to avoid the tiny puddle she left behind. I've never seen somebody so driven and focused that she would let loose in front of so many strangers. I'm cool with nudity, but I still have a lot more hangups about that sort of thing.


Loops 5-8

Around loop five is when the course started to empty out. Most of the marathon and 50k folks were done and going through the start/finish area was a bummer because all of these people had their medals, were drinking adult beverages, and enjoying that post-race glow. At no point did I consider dropping down or quitting, and I'm really proud of that. I had one moment during the 7th loop where I felt a bit sorry for myself, but it literally lasted all of 30 seconds before I got over it. My head was really in the game for this one. Just keep running!

I also got to see Tom a lot during the race and it was cool that we could basically check in on each other every hour and a halfish because of the way the loop was. Oh, and speaking of the loops, this is a great race to run with just a handheld. There were three aid stations, one of which was water only, and they were well stocked. At one point the on course aid station had black olives and I scarfed a few of those, they also had some nutella sandwiches and they were perfection at 30 miles into the race. I ate aid station food as well as several of my gels and a picky bar; fueling went really well for this race.

As I stated before, I knew I would be using nearly every minute of the 10 hours, and with about a mile and a half to go, I switched from podcast to music (I should have switched to music earlier, tbh) and cruised into the finish 15 minutes under the cut off. Everyone at the finish line cheered for me and then I realized there was a wedding going on about 200' away from the finish line and the couple were doing their vows. Whoopsie!


The Aftermath

I loved this race, but if I could go back in time I'm not sure if I would have done it. This was the first time I had run more than 26.2 miles on road and my longest road runs in preparation for this race were a couple twenty milers and an 18 miler. I ended up with poroneal tendinitis that had me unable to run for a couple of weeks. The smart thing would have been to do more road training and getting used to the pounding OR be smart like some of the other 50 milers and run close to the edge of the road or in the middle of the road. I didn't even think of it and I'm fairly sure the camber of the road is what did me in (along with the camber of the road at my work's parking lot, which is where I had done several speed workouts in the weeks leading up to the race).

Though the race and the organizers were so, so lovely I can see going back there, but maybe for a 50k instead.

**While there were about 30 people signed up for the 50 mile race, over half of the people dropped down to either the marathon or the 50k during the race.