Broke the 30 barrier!

RUN 33 miles in 8 hours, Greensfelder

I'm both happy and nervous about how this run turned out. I finished, I broke the 30 miler 'barrier', it's done. But was I fast enough, did I eat enough, did I drink enough, did I manage it right?

In other words, has my training prepared me for the race. Like the ultra running quote goes, if you wait until you're ready, then you'll never sign up.

Well I'm signed up. And ready or not, I'm going to this race!

Quick run-down: I ran the 50K route planned by a local group for an April race. I wanted to save it to run with TV, but he was busy at the Berryman today, his loss ;) I had my trail maps marked, with studies of the trail switches and mileages. The weather was warm with light rain. My stomach was giving very few issues all week. My back feels great. I had the whole day ahead of me!


Once on track, I was feeling good. Here's the plan I used:
Nutrition: eat every 40 mins, no matter how it feels. I used EFS, powerbars, and rice balls
Hydration: sip whenever it crossed my mind, and drink more when eating
Pace: be able to breath with no effort
Hills: walk the ups and the technicals. and mud
Perks: a ginger chew every 10 miles and jelly beans as desired
Progression: one trail section at a time, in the race it will be one aid station at a time. Today was Deer Run/Eagle Valley to Eagle Valley to Deer Run/Declue to Eagle Valley/GreenRock to Overlook to Beluah to Declue to Dogwood. Except I had them in my head as yellow/blue to blue to yellow/orange to blue/GR to....etc...

First loop 17.4 miles just under 4 hours: The first 5 miles were very broken up by having to map the turns. Looking at the list of trails to run, it's evident how I was getting confused, but it was run, stop, map, stop, walk, run, map... Thankfully I had the iphone to point me in the right direction! Without the sun, I was taking the wrong north/south direction! So I added at least a few tenths of a mile in these initial miles. (When I looked again at a map later in the day, I found that one point of my confusion was the re-routing of the norther end of DeClue with Eagle Valley resulting in a blue/orange run that wasn't on my map!).

And I thwacked my head on a fallen tree or branch around mile 2-3...the leaves obscured a lower-hanging section, I was ducked down and moving slower but BAM and OUCH! I had a headache for about 10 mins, but after that only worried about what I could have done to my back hitting the top of my head like that.

I only saw a handful (if that) of runners all day, mostly horses and poop. Not one bike either! I figured that everyone was racing Berryman. This weekend is what I've called Opening Day weekend -- so many races on the calendar -- so most all friends were out of town too.

 Felt great, surprised myself, and felt strong. No fade like I'd sometimes get as I approached the 20 mile point. I hit the truck and had some rice balls, only 3 at only 40 calories each, so not much more than a regular feeding. I mention this because I'll come back to this later. I'm somewhat disappointed with the time this loop took to finish.

Second loop, 15.6 miles, 4 hours: Since I didn't get lost on this loop in the beginning (and used a stick leaning against a trail marker to help with this!) (and BTW the stick explained A LOT about how I was getting lost in the first loop) so I was feeling very confident the first miles. I was having fun too, even though my iPhone battery was too low to play more podcasts. This threat of 'silence' scared me at first but I'm thinking now it was better to run without the noise of a podcast??

The fun continued even on the Beluah trail, that horse-torn mud fest of hills. I was saying Be-lu-ah to De-Clu-ah. This continued to be amusing until about mile 28. I was eating jelly beans and starting to hate them, I was spitting them out in the end. Around mile 25 I realized I was focusing too much on the finish, a mental problem I've been having in these long runs. I'd get so focused on 30 miles 30 miles 30 miles that when the Garmin read that number it was like a switch turning me off -- nothing over 30 miles at all seemed possible. Today I was in a position to run 32, 33, 35, whatever. I had trouble deciding, and that's a problem too.

So I told myself, as I heard in a first loop ProYou podcast: don't think about yesterday, don't think about tomorrow, think about RIGHT NOW and what you need to do to be ProYou (terribly paraphrased). I was not thinking about the miles I'd already done. I was avoiding the miles left to go (tomorrow). The choices I made were in the moment, even though what I'd do 'tomorrow' depended on now. I stayed ProBee, if that makes sense. What I am I doing right now to be ProBee? Good nutrition. Good pace. Good effort. Walk if needed. Drink if needed. Smile. Sing. Airplaine and 'wheeeeeee' though the switchbacks. Arms up to celebrate each mile. This all continued to be amusing until about mile 31.

My mood swung up and down a lot after that point. It seemed to correlate with the up and down hills. I "let" myself walk more, and really I shouldn't be saying that. I needed to walk more. I'd already decided miles ago that even trying to run a rocky, muddy, technical, stutter-steppy area wasted more energy, especially mental energy. For some reason it really torques me to slip and slide and stutter step on rocks. I've learned to calm down and just relax about it, much to my mental health benefit!

I'd given myself the option to cut Dogwood out if I was short on time or energy, but I was too determined to stop. The biggest think my mind started to focus on was the fact that my doggie was being left home for a 9-9.5hr day, and I doubted whether that was real or an excuse cooked up by the part of my mind that wanted to quit. Either way, I needed to get this done.

At mile 32.5 I was back at the parking lot and at 7hrs 52 mins. Run to 33! Out n back on the road, wow it felt weird to run a smooth surface! This drug on....longest half mile....and the camelbak emptied at 33.8! DONE! With muddy feet, disgusting probably horse poop covered shoes, happily sweaty face (no more cold!), a terrible thirst, some hunger...I broke the 30-mile barrier!

And before I forget again -- my back felt just fine the whole run. Even with the K Tape that I thought would bother it.

So mixed good and bad, with the good way out-weighing the bad. I learned a few things for the race:
1. Gaitors!
2. Change of socks if it's muddy?
3. Chamois butter, even with comfy shorts would be nice
4. Eat more! More solid stuff like the rice balls in a drop bag? Potatoes?
5. Eat more than sugar, try some solid with fat or protein? Not much, just some
6. Toothbrush in drop bag
7. Walking is OK. Very OK. More than OK. Let's say it's required
8. 100 miles will be a terribly long way....
9. If the 100 miler is broken into 3 segments like I'm planning to do: first 31 out, next 31 back, then 38 out-n-back...this is a very terribly long way...
10. YIKES! Get positive!! I can do this!!!