When the wheels fall off...

Alright… it’s been a few days since my first 50 miler… and while I might be a Johnny- come-lately to this ultra/ trail running thing, I am no less hooked!! And while I’ve heard you got to forget your last marathon before being insane enough to do your next…. I was salivating to pick out the next before even finishing. For an actual race/run report… hit up my friend Jacob’s blog… http://www.jacobevans.net/2010/11/wild-hare-50-race-report.html  He was kind enough to run the entire day with me and really pulled me along when it got rough. He nailed the details of our day… For me, I’ll go over some of the things that I noticed and experienced. A bit of an overview.

 What struck me the most was just how different the race day atmosphere was to what I experience in the triathlon world… So laidback and mellow. All the runners were there to do their own thing and the amount of support by the racers (since that’s all who was out there) was simply amazing. No pressure! Its hard to explain... but at a tri, there is so much personal pressure emanating from others it can be infectious. Camping and hanging out at the race site helped keep it simple. I was planning on running with music, since it helps greatly when the going gets tough, but ended up forgoing pulling out the Ipod since conversation would have been impossible, and conversation made the day. I very much love technical,  winding single track and hills on an ultra course are fun… you get to walk, should walk, and start looking forward to those hills to being able to.

The biggest surprise was not that it would get hard, and it got very difficult, but how I felt when it did. I was waiting and waiting for that wall to hit and had figured I’d make it to about 30 miles without incident. It took 35 and it was pretty instant, but the sense of relief I felt once the wheels fell off was huge.  Once I knew how bad it would be I also knew I could finish one way or another. Acceptance. I was also hoping for that horrible feeling to pass, which it did for the last 5.  That final stretch was incredible. Everything hurt, but there seemed to be an endless reserve of energy to draw from, including the hurt. I think I would have felt cheated if I hadn’t seriously suffered, but I was quite glad it turned around and we were able to finish off nice and strong. No trudging!!   

There are so many details missing, and it is pretty much impossible to encapsulate the entire experience, so I say pull on some shoes and go out… run way farther than you ever have and feel it in your bones!! It’ll be good times!!