April 2018 Monthly Running Challenge

Race report is going to take a while. That was some epic *kitten*.

My 3 year old is wandering around saying that he has two moms, the other one is named 'Screwshoes' and we both run, although he doesn't know why.

@garygse Congrats on your finish and AG place!

@7lenny7 Bummer that you didn't finish but dayummmm for making it those two loops. I have a friend near St. Paul and she posted pictures of her shoveling FEET of snow. Even attempting 50 miles in those conditions is beyond my comprehension.

@MNLittleFinn I am so glad this happened for you. I feel like there aren't even words to express the awe I have for what you accomplished in the conditions in which you accomplished it.

It's truly an honor to have the help and support of ALL of you to inspire us to keep on running.

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I raced yesterday, too! It was my first 25k and first time racing past the HM distance AND my first race on trail. Since my HM in December, I've been doing my long runs on trail and my normal weekday runs from my home on the road. The last three weeks or so, I've been able to squeeze in some additional trail time while my son is at soccer practice because he practices right next two a few really good trail systems in my area. In hindsight, putting in these extra miles on the trail was invaluable to race day.

Anyway, while my training schedule has been pretty on-target, my diet hasn't. Race training weight has definitely crept on and it has been incredibly frustrating. I've had a tremendous amount of work stress and just haven't been my best, if that makes any sense. Regardless, I've kept my focus on being prepared for the race.

I live in Denver and the race was in Colorado Springs, about an hour and a half south of me. It was a 7:30 am start time, and while we could have made the drive from home the morning of the race, we decided to grab a hotel in town. Hubby and I were also able to turn Friday night into somewhat of a date night, so that's always a plus.

Somehow in my head, I figured I could do this thing in 3-3.5 hours. I realize now 3 hours was a very, VERY ambitious goal, especially when we woke up and realized there was about two inches of snow blanketing everything and winds around 30mph. So, instead of sporting my capris and t-shirt, I was bundled up in full-length lined pants and my winter running coat. Wasn't super thrilled about that because my capris have great pockets where I was stashing my snacks and my long pants don't have those, which necessitates the coat pockets to hold that stuff, but I'm not the boss of weather, so I just adjusted my expectations a little bit, told hubby we were definitely looking at something closer to the 3.5 hour range, gave him a smooch and went on my way.

I started in the middle of the pack and quickly settled in with a herd of runners. Whenever I am standing in the chute waiting for the race to start, I always have what I call my "Amy Cuddy moment." For those of you not familiar, Amy Cuddy is the woman who gave the Ted Talk on body language and has helped popularize "power posing." I love that Ted Talk, not because of power posing (although I do think that it works), but her story about not wanting to be an imposter that "fake it until you make it" is really more about "fake it until you become it." I wondered if I was standing in that chute as an imposter, or if I really was a trail racer.

Somehow I ended up being the one a group was pacing behind, which was fine for me. I made sure to tell them that it was totally fine to ask to get by when they were ready. Very few of them did, and once I got through my usual sluggish first three miles, I really started to pick up my pace and left most of that group behind. I did get the joy of seeing a woman blow a few really perfect snot rockets and I made sure to let her know how impressive that was. Then I wiped a bunch of my own boogers on my sleeve and went on my way.

There was nothing exceptionally remarkable about miles 5-8 of the race. There was some climbing, there was some technical spots. I went fast where I could and reminded myself to stay mentally alert to avoid tripping or falling. There was a gal in a bright pink jacket with headphones who had paced behind me for a while but gone ahead on a stretch of straightaway terrain. She was definitely faster than me on flatter ground, so I just took a breath and went the pace I knew I could sustain rather than try and keep up. The heat of having a heavier coat on was becoming more noticeable, so when I reached aid station 3/4, I took a moment to remove my vest, take off my coat, and thread it through my vest. The girl in the pink coat was just leaving the aid station as I arrived, so I knew I was still hanging in there. Some point shortly after that, I passed a woman doing the 50k. She told me I smelled good as I zipped on past.

Within about two miles of more technical and incline terrain, I had caught up with the girl in the pink jacket. It was then that a few things occurred to me. What I may lack in my "easy terrain" running, I make up for with my ability to tackle incline and technical ground. I am far more willing to run uphill and navigate rocks and roots and drops at a run rather than stopping to walk. I am in tune with assessing an incline and knowing if it's something I can run or something I need to power hike. I'm not an imposter.

Miles 10-12 I spent behind the gal in the pink jacket. She had fallen on a slippery spot and I think hit her tailbone pretty hard. It slowed her down a bit and made her more tentative, so when there was a good place to pass, I went on ahead of her and wouldn't see her again until she crossed the finish line. At mile 13 I was at the "top" of the park and knew there would be little if any more uphill running. The last two+ miles were mostly downhill and traversing the area to get back to the finish/start line. That doesn't mean they were easy and that tightness in my hamstring and calf from earlier in the week was definitely letting itself be known. My lower back was tensing up and I had to visualize the training runs I would do back near home so I could manage in my head the distance I needed to finish. I imagined the lake I've run past on my 3.5 mile runs and seeing the moon reflect on the water. I imagined the wall along the golf course where I use the brick pillars as guideposts for my made-up fartlek speed drills. I imagined the feeling of turning into my subdivision and knowing I was less than a half mile from home and practicing my "finish strong legs" and "dig deep feelings."

Then I saw hubby. He found me on the course on his mountain bike using the LiveTrack from my Garmin and was hanging out with the course marshals cheering on the runners as the came into the final quarter mile. I handed him my coat so I could finish a little faster and lighter. I looked at my watch and was three minutes from a 3.5 hour finish, and I blazed toward the finish. I still don't know how I went as fast as I did. My last half mile was just as fast as many of my first half miles on the road. I barely even remember running it other than questioning as I crossed the finish line how I was even able to run that fast at 3:29:20. Under 3.5 hours!

They handed me my medal, cut off my timing chip, and I met up with hubby. I ate a few slices of the most delicious Cara Cara orange I had ever tasted. Hubby went to go and try and figure out how I placed while I laughed at him because there was no way I was even a contender for anything at that time. Besides, we had to get back to the hotel, change, and get back to Denver for my son's soccer game. The wind was wreaking havoc with the Internet, so we'd have to wait for the overall results online anyway. No biggie. I was ready to change from race mode to mom mode anyway and it's not like I won or anything. Lol.

We got back to Denver about 3 minutes in to my son's soccer game. My sister had brought him to the game and she asked how I did. I said I did awesome, I finished within the time I wanted, but the full results weren't available yet (the 10k was posted, so I knew the 25k wouldn't be far behind). I cheered on my son, and while he had a great game, they fell 0-2 to their opponents. After the game, hubby reminded me to check the results. They were posted.

I came in 69th (because of course) of 113 total racers.

I came in 21st of 47 total women.

I came in 1st of 8 women in my age group.

I'm not an imposter.

Some quick notes i put down this morning. I know its not all 100% accurste, since my memory is foggy.

Weather: rain to dry, to thunder to hail, to sleet to snow and wind with gusts to 40mph
Trail: started ouyt muddy and icy. Became snow clogged and slippery.

Before: hooked up with andy and jim. Got a pic of the iron range contingent.

Lao 1: some real nasty mud on the trail. Ice in thr Hobbit woods. Rainy. Felt kind of slow but actually clocked in just over 4 hours.

Lap 2: hooked uo with another runner. Weather got better, but trail conditions worsened as ice melted and the trail got slick and soupy in many places. Took it easier but was still sub 5. Had

Lap 3: slower still as the rain stsrted agsin, and it got dark. Thunderstorm came rolling as we were in the ridgeline. Very cool to see, but a forebear of what was to come. Left my running companion at AS4. Slower lap, just under 6 hours

Lap 4: picked up rick and trudged. Some running but not a lot. Left shin started hurting. Rain stopped for a while, but then snow started as ot got colder. Still sub 6.

Lap 5: rick was indesoensible. I was hitting a lot of low points. Really felt like i was crashing at times. Did poorly with nutrition, which did. Not help. Didnt feel like going out for lap 6, with the nasty blowing and falling snow.

Lap 6: went solo. Rick and Jim talked me out of taking a DNF and I am very greatful. Trudged a lot. I might have run like 200m out of the whole lap. Blowing and falling snow from the storm really pelted me a lot. One foot in front of another. Theres the campground, theres the finish line.

After: got my buckle and medal, put my name on the poster. I'm done. Almost falling asleep infront of the woodstove as i take my shoes off. Family is here. Now I can sleep.

Sometime during lap 2 or 3, I saw @7lenny7 at the AS he was volunteeting at. I r
can't remember what time it was. All I k kw is that it was cool to see hime.