Recovering from UROC was no jog through the park. Ok, well a
rather slow and painful jog through the park. Things took much longer than
anticipated. Rather neglecting the fact that this is the longest distance race
I have run (in one running) to date, I majorly underestimated exactly how much
it could and would take out of my legs. I had taken a couple of weeks off after
Bandera completely from running, and then only remembered my injury rather than
how I was feeling as I picked back up on training. So I guess I will have to
admit that with JFK on the back of my mind and knowing that my fitness was not where
I hoped it at this point, I probably rushed myself back into running too soon.
I had also agreed to pace Josh Finger in for the Grindstone 100 mile that next
Saturday and needed to confirm that I was good for running in 20-35 miles with
a probable front runner for a slamming finish! So I went for my first run 4
days later on Wednesday evening at the Delaware Running Co weekly run.
Unfortunately for me, only fast guys showed up on this particular weekly loop
up to the Reservoir for a few loops and back. At this point the soreness in my
legs with walking and stairs had faded, but my legs screamed in rebellion for
the first couple miles of that run. Just burning aching stiffness everywhere.
It was not pleasant. But a couple miles in the unpleasantness faded a bit and
by the end of the 5 miles I was very happy to stop running, although my legs
did feel much better and looser than when I started. Thursday I rode my bike
and felt great that morning, then decided to try the legs for a run again in
the evening, and felt slightly better but still pretty dead. Plus my ITB was
bothering me quite a bit, but would loosen up further into the run, so with
that, I decided that I would be good enough to pace Josh in for Grindstone, or
for at least 20 miles of it.
Friday evening Alan and I made the drive down to the Blue
Ridge Mountains once again in hopes to see the start of the race. I had talked
him into accompanying me for the journey by reasoning that this would be a
great opportunity to get trail volunteer hours for a Western States app! We had
just made the drive back 5 days ago but it felt like much longer ago than that.
I had been in touch with the MD from the medical team at who we would volunteer
with the night of the race start. So we met up with Josh and his friend Matt,
who was his training partner for the race and also running. I could tell that
they were both really ready for this. They had both been down from PA a few
times just to run parts of the course and had even been attempting to acclimate themselves to
running at night, starting many of their long runs at 6pm, just as the race
would start. So at 6pm they were off, with Karl Meltzer and a few other guys
taking the lead. They looped back after 1.5 miles and we got to see the leaders
again, with Josh not too far behind. Then they went off into the night, Josh’s
wife and matt’s wife went to eat someplace quick before going to meet them
again at the next aid station. Alan and I went to get some pasta at the first
pizza place in town we could find (and it’s in the middle of nowhere so it
wasn’t easy!) then we went out to the aid station where we would be
volunteering at around the 16 mile mark. It was around 8:30 when we got there
and Josh had literally just passed through, so we missed him there. It was a
few minutes before the herds of little bobbing head lamps started filing in
from the darkness. It’s always a fun experience to help out at the aid stations
for a 100 miler. The most medical attention anyone needed was a few hot spots
and blisters to take care of, so I mostly just worked to figure out the
contraptions on people’s camelbacks to fill them up and get them going again. I
have to say that I really hope I do not smell as bad as most of the people that
came through that aid station at that point, and if I do I am even more
grateful for my crew to help me!! All in all it was a great experience,
especially getting to shoot some with David Horton, a legend ultrarunner
working with us at the aid station with a clipboard checking everyone in, who
seemed to know everyone by face and by name without glancing at his sheet or
their bibs.
After a few hours of volunteering we went back to the hotel
for a few hours sleep before I would be up to pace Josh again. I woke up at 3AM
to a text from Josh telling me he had dropped out. He was ok, nothing hurt,
just was not feeling it tonight so had decided to call it at mile 33(ish). I
was glad that he was ok and was just a little disappointed that I wouldn’t be
able to run the course, until he told me that I should pace Matt, who did not
have a pacer and who could use one. So we went on as planned, arriving to the
mile 65 aid station around 6:30am and I started pacing Matt who came through
just after sunrise. I was expecting a lot of hiking at this point in the race,
so I was surprised at the pace we were moving at most of the time. If we
weren’t power hiking up a rocky mountain, we were moving at a decent pace on
the “flats” or hammering down some rocky descents. On the climbs, we were
moving swiftly and my heart rate was up the entire time, and on the descents
Matt would occasionally drop me, especially if it was really technical and I
would have to catch him when it leveled out again. I thought back to how my
legs felt on the rocky descents at UROC and I was astonished how well his legs
could handle this stuff at this point. We talked a lot about running and racing
and people crazier than us. Despite the technicality that was a bit out of my
league on some sections, I was really enjoying this trail, the beautiful
leaves, the climbs, the rocks, the roots the everything of this place. He told
me the women’s CR was something like 23 hours held by Sandi Nypaver..hmmmmm,
you know….Interesting, but no 100 milers for me yet! “Have you ever heard of Hallgate?” Matt
asked.
“Maybe..what is it?”
Then he went on the tell me about the crazy 100K starting at midnight
held in the middle of December out on these trails by David Horton, the legend
ultrarunner and endurance athlete who I had met at the aid station. It was part
of the Virginia Beast Series races and considered to be one of the hardest ultras
within the eastern region. Conditions on the trails at that time of year were
usually pretty rough. Afterall, he told me, a couple of years ago people’s
vision was severely impaired because their eyeballs had frozen a couple of
years ago and they had to stop at the aid stations and wait by the fire to try
and thaw them out. My initial thoughts were holy crap that race does sound
crazy. Especially the staring at midnight part. But Alan would love it since he
loves late night trail runs and usually is the one talking me into them ever
since we went to the Midnight Love Run on the horseshoe trail starting at Jens
house a couple of years ago. I was told Horton essentially handpicks the
runners from the application based on previous races, but maybe I’d tell Alan
to apply anyways..although the race would definitely kick his ass. Then, the
more I fell in love with the trails out there, the more I considered applying
myself…
After about 13 miles of pacing we met up with Josh and the
wives at an aid station and Josh asked if I would be up for him pacing Matt
starting at the next aid station for the last 13 miles. At this point my legs
were definitely feeling it, even with our easy pace. Something had never really
come back into them since UROC, so I was ok with calling it a day 7-8 miles
later. And by those 7-8 miles my legs were pretty done. They just felt really
drained and I was glad to hand over the pacing duties to Josh. We went back to
the hotel to grab a quick shower and headed to the finish line to see Matt
finish. He crossed the line in 20:55, with a 5th place overall
finish, and which may be a new masters record for the course! So although it
wasn’t my original pacing plan, I was happy with the short trip’s turn out, and
Josh seemed to be satisfied with his decision to drop out since it just wasn’t
his day, and went on the race Tussy Mountainback 50miler a few weeks later with
a rocking 6:11 finishing time and 5th place overall.
After Grindstone I took a pretty low-key week as far as
running because I knew it was what my body needed. The thought of losing fitness
during a crucial time in preparation for JFK half killed my mental sanity at times,
but I knew I would be pointlessly driving myself into the ground if I didn’t. And I don’t know exactly what possessed me to
do this, but when my crazy friend Dave Ploskonka sent me the early application
for Hellgate this year, I applied immediately, and found out a few days later
that I was actually accepted to run it! Well this was going to put a whole new
spin on training this season… I was only running a few miles every other day
and picked up on biking and swimming mileage for the week. I felt good when
crosstraining, but something in my legs just felt like lead every time I ran so
I always cut myself short. I went to New Orleans for a conference the following
weekend and decide to give myself the time off from running completely for a
few days, but even the following week my legs did not feel normal. Every time I
thought I had had a half decent run, the next day I would feel like death
running at 9 minute pace. Not good. It was now 3 weeks after UROC and I still
had dead legs and I was actually getting genuinely concerned. It had never
taken me this long to recover before! I was frustrated. I went out to French
Creek trails with Steve to run with some of the Pacers, who I had not seen in a
while the next weekend. They said there were plenty of options to cut the
planning 3 hour run short, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to bail
if needed. But I joined them for the whole 3 hours (including a couple stops,
etc) , which amounted to about 16 miles of good hilly rocky trail. I like
running with the Pacers because although I might be faster than most of them if
it came down to a speedy road race, they continually kick my ass on the
technical rocks, which forces me to bit the bullet and suck up my fear of
falling flat on my face when handling rocky descents and traversing “rock
gardens” to keep up with them. I am beginning to recognize technical rockiness
as a significant weakness keeping me from being a true well-rounded
ultrarunner, so have tried to convince myself to take the bruises and twisted
ankles that will undoubtedly come with forcing me to pick up some speed on
these sections of the trail. The only way I can improve is to bring my body
through the motions and try to establish some type of gracefulness on these
sections. Ok, we I at least hope that I can move faster than 25 minute pace on
those sections!
The Café Gelato 10 miler was the next day, and I had really
been up in the air about doing it. My legs still felt like death and I knew my
time would be slow, so I almost didn’t want to show up to run it in front of
the entire running community, most of whom know me as crazy ultrarunner girl
who can run somewhat fast when she wants to. But the race was only $10 for
students, and the sweet long sleeve DRC shirt you got was worth 4Xs that, so
like a sucker I was in. At the start of the race I went out with some people I
run with from Coach Fischer’s Tuesday night group, and I was comfortable, just
chatting about this and that. I told them about my last race, my seemingly
horrible recovery, and Hellgate, frozen eyeballs and all that was now quickly
approaching. Yes, they continue to think I am completely insane J We were running at
7:50 pace and I was excited that this felt pretty comfortable for me right now,
considering the 9 minute/mile death march I had been going at just a few days
ago. And what was better for me was that I felt the pace was no longer forced,
like it had been before, but my legs were moving naturally and smoothly again.
My body was responding well today, but I knew today was not the day to push
anything, so I just enjoyed myself out there on the smooth trail with good
company and had fun. Eventually our little group split up, with Tara picking up
the pace, myself picking up maybe a little bit, and everyone else falling
behind a little. And despite me holding a consistent and comfortable pace
without kicking in the end for a hard fast finish, it brought a small amount of
happiness to my race to see that I could still some chick guys at the end who
likely went out too hard J
I finished in 1:17, and surprisingly won the $50 gift card to the restaurant
that came with winning first in my age group, which is especially interesting
and rather humorous as I finished in 1:12 last year in this race and got 3rd
my age group hahah. Wherever, Ill take it!
I can be convinced to run 10+ miles for almost anything, including my new DRC shirt :-)
The week following the race about a month after UROC, the
life finally seemed to come back into my legs and I was feeling pretty good on
my attempted interval workout early in the week, pretty good on a progressive
20 mile run mid week, and still good for a shorter tempo run at 7 minute pace. I
was able to get in lots of good quality running this past week with some higher
mileage, and just in time for peak mileage week for JFK and the Halloweeny 50K
and Marine Corps marathon back-to-back training run weekend! UROC may have put
me out for a while, but I have since bounced back and am training happily
again. And although I have come to accept that I am not going to run my PR at
this year’s JFK, I am going to be happy and enjoy the experience of running on
the woods of my own backyard with 1500 fellow crazy ultrarunning friends. There
is next to nothing in this world that can be more awesome than that. As for
Hellgate, well I really may be banking on my mental toughness to get me through
that one ;-)
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