February 2018 Running Challenge

February goal: 88 miles

2/1 - 4.0 miles
2/4 - 9.2 miles
2/7 - 4.4 miles
2/8 - 4.3 miles
2/9 - 4 miles
2/11 - 8.2 miles
2/12 - 4 miles
2/14 - 4.2 miles (intervals)
2/15 - 5 miles
2/18 - 9.7 miles
2/19 - 5 miles
2/22 - 3.2 miles
2/25 - 10.1 miles
2/27 - 3 miles

78.3/88 miles completed

It was another beautiful, sunny, 66F day for a run, so I ran at lunch. It is hard to believe that I was running today to make up for a day last week that I missed due to icy weather. I only got 3 miles in. I both love and hate running at lunch. I enjoy it especially on days like today when I won't be able to run after work because of prior commitments, but I really only have about 30-35 minutes to run and about 3 miles is all I really have time for. I'm still not sure if I will reach my February goal or not. I have 8.5 miles on my training schedule and I need 9.7 to hit my goal. I will probably just just by runs tomorrow and Wednesday and see how I feel.

Brrrr, it's gotten COLD here! I've been freezing the entire day whenever I stepped outside. When I went for a run this evening, it was -7°C (19F), "real feel -21°C"(-6F). The difference between true and felt temperature seems crazy, but I'm willing to believe it. Thanks to the icy wind (or rather gale, wind speed 43km/h, gusts of 69km/h). Apart from twigs breaking off trees all around me, the wind even managed to steal my hat at one moment!

I know some of you run in colder temperatures, but I'm not used to them. I dressed in an insane amount of layers to motivate myself to go out at all (as in short sleeved top + long-sleeve fleece + windproof jacket + down vest...). I halfway expected to be too warm, so I planned to run two loops of 4km each. I realized pretty soon that while all those layers kept my upper body cozy warm, my gloves were not performing as well. My phone wasn't happy either and went from 67% battery to 0% before I even finished the first loop. That's when I decided that a short run was good enough
It's supposed to get even colder in the next couple of days, so I'll get to try again with different gloves (and maybe the phone somewhere in between all those layers).

MichSmish wrote: »

sarahthes wrote: »

Elise4270 wrote: »

@polskagirl01

My understanding is that "woo" means malarkey.

It does but I'll use it ironically sometimes. Like an eyeroll on a really bad pun.

someone woo'ed my mileage post :laugh:

That's sad. I wonder if that gets inadvertently selected when scrolling on mobile. I've seen others that make no sense to "woo".

The woo doesn't belong in our thread. Unless we're swooning over shoes, others mileage, a frozen beard, that one guys legs...

So, the race last Saturday...I'm still processing it in my head. I hated it, and yet, I loved it. For the same reason.

I wasn't fast, but I finished. It wasn't my longest, but it was my toughest.

The race was the "Psycho Wyco, Run Toto Run" It was a 10.35 mile loop for race distances of 10M, 20M, and 50K.

I don't know if it qualifies for the term "epic" or not, but if not, it was damn close. The weather the week before set this race up to be quite the adventure. They had snow and ice for several days leading up to it, rain the night before, and at the 8 am race time, it was only 34°F, so the ground was just starting to thaw. The word for the day was "mud". Mud, mud, and more mud! The saving grace was that the rain stopped about 10 minutes for the start.

So first you have the mud from the rainfall the night before. Then you get even more mud from the ground thawing during the race, then the runners running loops around the course mix up the mush even more. The entire course was on chewed up, poorly drained, horse trails. In many parts the trail was a ravine so there was no drainage at all and it was a common sight to see rivers of mud flowing downhill once the ground started thawing.

The first loop was hard enough to run because of the mud. The second loop was just insane! I'd guess we had mud for over 75% of the course. Thick, greasy, slimy mud. Ankle deep or deeper in many parts. Being a hilly race, it was quite tough going uphill, and downright treacherous going downhill.

I only fell twice but I saw others do some pretty impressive rolls and face plants. Thankfully mud makes for a soft landing. The first time I fell was about the 15 mile mark and soon after that I started getting muscle cramps in my inner thighs and other support muscles. You can't stretch those out because when you try to stretch out one side, you cause the other side to cramp up. I had forgotten to bring pickle juice too. Finally I stood tall and just willed my muscles to stop cramping. That seemed to work, kind of.

Oh my god, the mud... I had dry socks in my drop bag but with the mud and three river crossings per loop, there was no point. For this race I wore my least favorite shoes, the Salomon Speedcross 4. They're too narrow for me, and they don't breath well, but for mud, they are awesome! I just made sure to lube up my foot well and wear a very thin sock.

Going into the race I didn't know how my IT band would hold up. At the 2.5 mile mark, I was already starting to get sharp pain and I thought there'd be no way I could run two loops. I got into a rhythm where I'd run (plod?) until my ITB would start to flare, then walk for quarter mile. This worked pretty well. The pain came and went, but only a few times was it so sharp that I questioned going on.

The second loop was the crazier loop with so much more mud (have I mentioned the mud?). I finally decided that I wouldn't try running at all when there was deep mud and of course that meant that I didn't run much at all that second loop. With 3 or 4 miles to go, it hurt to run at all so I just gave up and power walked it in.

With 2 miles to go the rain started back up again. It was getting miserable(er) My toes were numb, my feet were tired of being wet, and my hamstrings were throbbing from carrying all that extra mud weight with ever step. I was really, REALLY glad I didn't sign up for the 50K at this point. The thought of another 10 miles of that *kitten* would have been hard to take. As I got close to the finish I couldn't wait for it to be over. Oddly, though, when I finally did cross the finish line I was a bit sad I was done. The adventure was over. I wish I would have signed up for the 50K now.

The race was very well organized. The parking and shuttle system were easy, pre-race check was easy, the aid stations were plentiful and VERY well stocked. So well stocked I spent far too much time there. But what could I do? The second AS had a bottle of Fireball. I don't really care for Fireball but hell yeah I'll take a shot! At the next station they had Jameson Irish Whisky, tequila, peppermint schnapps, and some fantastic homebrew. I had a shot there and two small cups of beer while BS's with the partying volunteers. That actually gave me some good motivation for the second loop knowing I could hit the 'bar" again. At the end of the race they had some incredible homemade chili and craft beer.

On a normal day, with no IT band issues, I'd guess I could run this course in 4 hours. Before the race I was guessing 5 hours. It took me 5.5 hours. The first loop was 2.5 hours, the second loop was 3 hours. Based on my Strava statistics, I walked 60% of the course and spent 18 minutes hanging out at the aid station. I was feeling pretty dang slow so I was surprised to find out that I finished in 45th place out of 90 runners in the 20 mile event.

I don't know what the dropout rate was for the 20 mile, but the 50K race saw a 50% dropout rate!

Swag was pretty great. I got a great hoodie, a buff, beer glass, and a medal. While I'm not one who cares much about medals, this one is pretty cool. The full race name is "Pyscho Wyco, Run, Toto, Run" which is a reference to The Wizard of Oz. The medal has a tornado which actually spins.

I loved this race, misery and all. I love the group which put this on, I loved the atmosphere, and I loved the timing with my training schedule. This is a race I plan on running every year. Barring injury, I'll be running the 50K next year and beyond.

I'm going to have nightmares about the mud, particularly the constant "slurp, slurp, slurp" sound with every, single, step.

Sorry for the long post, I actually deleted a bunch of what I wrote and it's still too long. I'll post my photos in a followup post.

The race featured pro photographers on the course and they got some great shots. The photos at the end...I have no idea who those folks are, but I think they captured the essence of the mud very well.

Last post on this... my video race report. That sound will haunt me for a long time. No need to watch it all. You'll get the gist of it in 5 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=la___y56HD8