Jacks 30k

Race: Jacks 30k
Date: October 22nd, 2017
Finish Time: 3:21 hours
Distance: 30k
Overall Total Climb: 148 ft
Elevation gain: 13 ft

Wow, my legs are tired! Yesterdays 50k kicked my butt. My body is very tired today, my lungs hurt and my chest is tight... this is going to be a tough race! With that said, thanks to my Altras and my Wiivv insoles my feet feel great, everything is just tired.

I slept OK that night, and didn't eat breakfast before heading to the race this morning. The race start for the 30k was 10:30am. This trail is local for me so I knew exactly what to expect going into it. Pretty easy 5 mile loop trail, with one tough portion that lasts about .75 miles long. I'd run it 3 times, then head back down the road to the finish line. I got this. As I took off running my whole body was telling me to stop. I couldn't breath. My skin hurt and my arms were tired, my legs felt like they had 20lb weights on them, everything was just tired. I carried on, entered the trail and started going. I decided to run as much as I could before I started integrating walk breaks, take it easy and try to loosen my body up some. We hit Cloud 9 (the tough .75 mile section of the trail) around 2 1/2 miles in. I had no problem running up the hills, but I could NOT run down them. I was nervous just walking down them! The muscles in my legs didn't want to work on the down hills! Hilarious. I did what I could and just took it easy, trying to run as much as possible. By the time I finished the first loop my body was feeling good and I was running more and more. My chest still hurt and felt tight so I was trying to be careful with that since I've never experienced anything like that before. As I finished my first loop I grabbed a couple avocado tortilla roll ups to try and satisfy the hunger I was starting to feel. It worked and I continued on! It was so hot and humid out my KT tape wasn't staying up on my calf. I was soaked. 

Heading out for my 2nd loop I was feeling pretty good overall. There was an aid station half way through the loop (just after Cloud 9) that had water/Scratch. A friend of mine was working the aid station so we chatted for a few. I was so excited to be half way done... already! After I left that aid station I struggled for the next 2 miles or so. My chest hurt a lot, so much that I was only running about 15-20 second segments, then taking 5 second walk breaks. I was wasting so much energy doing this, but couldn't seem to push myself to last any longer. I finally made it back to the beginning of the loop. One more loop? I feel good! I can do this! My body was loosened up and I was back to running, just having a lot of chest pain. I guess this is normal? Tired lungs? Not sure, but as I continued I ran more and more. Anxious and excited to finish my race. This was one of the hardest runs I have done. Such tired legs from the day before and pushing through. I breezed through the last aid station and had 1/2 mile to go to the finish line. It started pouring rain on me. Complete downpour I could barely see where I was going. It was exhilarating! I finished with a time of 3 hours 21 minutes. Not my fastest 30k but considering how tired my legs and body were, I was proud of myself for pushing as hard as I did!

The Race director Dawn was awesome. She always puts on very organized races, with well marked trails and amazing aid stations. She is out there from beginning to end cheering for people, encouraging people and making sure everything is taken care of. This is my 2nd year in a row running Jacks and I hope to make it an annual event.

I accomplished what I set out to do for my 100 mile training. This weekend I wanted to run my two long trail races, and push myself to not maintain a slow easy pace, and I did it. Now, to eat, sleep and recover!

Gate2Gate 50k

Race:  Gate2Gate 50k
Date: October 21st, 2017
Finish Time: 6:32 hours
Distance: 31.44 miles
Overall Total Climb: 1112 ft
Elevation gain: 848 f

"The northern portion of San Felasco is home to miles of high-quality single-track mountain bike trails, open fields, and rolling hills. Our course incorporates all of these stunning characteristics. After the first 5 miles of the course, runners will transition into the double track hiking and birding trails of the southern portion of the park. The southern portion of the race will follow the blue trail loop back to the connector between the northern and southern areas of the park as runners return to the start.

Runners competing in the 25k will complete the circuit once and 50k runners will complete the circuit twice."

I signed up for this race and Jacks 30k as my back to back long training runs for the week. 100 mile training involves a lot of long runs, every once in awhile it's nice to have aid stations set up and that race atmosphere to mix things up! I went into this race with a goal to come in between 6-6 1/2 hours. I wanted to push myself without killing myself since I knew I had another race the next morning. I didn't do any research and just assumed it was a semi-flat Florida trail race. BOY WAS I WRONG. This course was all rolling hills. Up 100 ft, down 100 ft. Up 75 ft, back down 75 ft. We took off and it was sing track trail at the beginning, then after a couple miles it opened up so people could fall into their own pace. Their website states the course is about 60% double track, 40% single track and over 80% being well shaded. I agree with this! The course was beautiful, and a fun course to run, but it was much harder than I expected. I ran the whole thing solo, and seldom saw other people on the course. I was worried with 300 people signed up between the 25k and 50k that the trails would be very crowded but this wasn't the case. The first 2 miles or so seamed pretty congested, but everything opened up not long after that and I was able to fall into my own groove. 

Long rocky uphill/downhill

I passed the only porto-potty on course at mile 4 (and again around mile 12), and the first aid station around mile 5. They had a 1970's VW van out there playing music, it was a great pick me up. I didn't stop here to refill my water or anything and just continued running. The next aid station was around mile 8 (the half way point of the course). I had about half my bottle still so decided to continue through and not stop. This was a mistake. By the time I got back to the VW aid station again I was on empty and borderline dehydrated - already! I filled up my water and took in some electrolytes and continued. The 5 miles between that aid station and the finish line/50k turn around involved about 2 miles of single track, and 2 miles of power lines with rolling hills. I hit the power line section with no water and it was a long, hot portion of running. The 2 miles felt like forever. I hit the finish line area to turn around in 3 hrs 5 minutes. I wanted to be done and just wait for my husband to finish. I didn't, I turned around after a few minutes of regrouping and headed back out.

Long uphill climbs in the sun

I headed back out and around mile 20 I passed my amazing husband who was at mile 12 approaching the 25k finish line. This was his longest trail race ever and he was smiling as I passed him on the trail! I felt so proud and excited for him! He was looking strong. This gave me some momentum and I powered on! This 2nd loop felt so much easier than loop one did. I think I knew more of what to expect and made sure my water intake and salt was on point for the rest of the race. There was one hill that was probably the biggest on course and it was all rock. It was a hard climb up and tore up my legs coming back down.

The end of the loop you are running in single track trail, and it comes out onto the main dirt road. You run down the road to the start/finish line. Right before I came out of the trail I stepped on a big pile of spanish moss (I was too tired to try and jump over it). The moss was covering a stump and I ended up tripping. I couldn't save myself and went down! My 2nd time EVER falling on a trail and I did it 0.3 miles from the finish line! Gah! I was so frustrated, not only about falling but I landed in more of the nasty spanish moss, and was covered in dirt. My quads were on fire, and my legs felt like jello but I finished. 6 hours 32 minutes. I was darn proud of that time after being on the course. The coolest part was running into the finish line, the Race Director Patrick was standing there with his arms open ready to embrace you with a hug, and personally give you your medal and 50k finishers hat. This was really cool! He made you feel so important for finishing the race in that moment. We hung out for a little while after the race. They had food trucks out there and music playing, everyone was just hanging out talking about the race ect. After a bit we decided to head home. After all, I did have another race packet to pickup!  

 

 

Hurricane Irma = Cancelled trail races

I live in Florida so hurricanes are always a risk, but not usually a problem. Unfortunately for our beautiful trails, they became a problem this year. Hurricane Irma came barreling through our state and ripped our beautiful trails apart. We had a few get washed out, landslides that took out trails, pavement collapses and so much debris. Unfortunately, not only does that affect my weekly training runs, but several of my upcoming races have now been cancelled. That means I am left scattering to find a last minute race to register for, or doing more solo long runs. I love planning my long runs around races because it gives me the race atmosphere (I can practice having race adrenaline but not taking off too fast, and practice at running my own race while out running with other people). Also, they provide aid stations which just makes life easier to not have to stress on where to refill my water, pickup food ect.

Long story short, I had a few of my big races cancelled and I am going to have to improvise. Bronzeman 12 hour endurance run (which was an overnight timed run over sand dunes). And also Azalea 12 hour endurance run (very hilly pavement run, I ran this race last year and it kicked my butt so I was really looking forward to tackling it again). The beauty of Ultra Running is you have to learn to be adaptable when your conditions change, so I just consider this more training! I'm searching for a few more races to add to my next 2 months of training, but if I don't find anything I "love" I'll just have to take it solo!

On a brighter note my new training plan for food is working out well. I've been training and doing long runs without increasing my calories too much before, during or after my runs and by eating the "right" foods I have been able to manage my hunger levels and not overeating. I'm down 5 lbs, my goal was 20 by race day in January but I'd honestly be super happy with 10-12! So far by eating the right balance of carbs/protein before and after my runs I haven't needed to overdue it with calorie intake. I think that is where I ended up gaining weight last year during training. I'm hoping to go into this next race stronger and lighter than last time... it's getting close! 3 1/2 months!