Azalea 12 hour endurance run

Azalea 12 hour endurance race

Race: Azalea 12/24 hour endurace race
Date: November 12th, 2016
Finish Time: 8 hours, 02 minutes
Distance: 40.18 miles
Gain: 1518 ft

Amazing race swag from great sponsors!

The Azalea 12/24 Hour and 50 mile race took place at Ravine Gardens State
Park located in Palatka, Fl. The course was a 2 mile paved asphalt loop (USATF Certified). I didn't read the part of the description that said "includes difficult inclines and declines that will challenge both your physical fitness and mental fortitude". Woops. I did some math and figured I'd probably get 50-60 miles in 12 hours on a paved trail in cool weather (since I got 51.5 done on a trail in 100+ degree heat)... Boy was I wrong about everything. We started at the highest point of the Ravine, ran through the parking lot by the beautiful historic entrance of the park, then we winded down into the Ravine, and back up to the top. Along the route we got to see beautiful scenery, wild life, and historical landmarks including outdoor
amphitheater, Court of States, and other original structures dating back to the 1930s.

Best aid station volunteers EVER!

I planned to use this run as a fuel training run. With 2 mile loops it would be easy to try new and different things to see how I felt while out and about. Without distance restraints I knew I had more leniency with my pace to try different things without worrying about time cut offs.

Training Objectives: #1 I really wanted to work on eating more while running because I typically don't eat or drink very much except water. #2 I also wanted to work on keeping my aid station stops very short (which requires advance thought and preparation while tired). #3 Lastly, was trying something different with listening to an audio book to try and pass time. I normally don't listen to anything while running I just run but I thought maybe a podcast or audio book might be a good option when I am bored on long runs or struggling with the mental side of things.

Beautiful Azaleas

My little aid station tent setup

Pre-race gathering

My husband and I planned to get there 45 minutes early to give us time to pickup my packet, start setting up my little "aid station" and prepare for the race... so we got there at 6:15am. Apparently I didn't read the race information well since #1 I thought it was a flat course, and #2 the race started at 8 NOT 7. Woops again. On a positive note we had prime picking for tent location for my aid station and parking since we were SOOO early :) 

Winston (the RD) did a really great job having everything so organized, and Mike Melton did the timing for the race and he of course is on of the best! The race started promptly at 8 am and I was off. As soon as I exited the parking area and started on the asphalt trail my first thought was "Oh Crap..." right off the bat we went down and up a hill and I realized, this was going to be a tough course. Sure enough, it was a tough course! Imagine doing 2 mile hill repeats for 12 hours... OH GOODNESS. It was going to be a LONG day! The first mile of the loop was kind of like rolling hills, there was a bathroom on course (not an outhouse, a full amazing bathroom). There was a slight uphill section around here that I used as a planned walk break. I'd wanted to try the method of running 1 mile, walking 1/10th and this worked out perfect since it was uphill anyway!  The 2nd mile was more difficult, you had a 1/2 of mile or so downhill with a steep 'S' turn before heading up hill for another 1/2 mile or so. This stretch was miserable, my feet took a pounding going downhill, and my legs took a beating going back up! I picked up my phone after loop 1 (2 miles) and started my audio book. I listened to it for 3 1/2 hours and I will say, it was awesome! By then I was roughly 20+ miles in and mentally needed a break up in the run. Justin joined me around the 4 hour mark for a few miles and this was such a breath of fresh air! Justin joined me for 2 loops (4 miles) and he took a break and Jason joined. Jason and Jess arrived at our little aid station and Jason and I ran 4 miles then Justin joined us for 2, then Jessica joined us as well! It was fun having everyone there to chat a little, but I was really starting to struggle. 

My hips were feeling the elevation, along with my knees and Achilles. I wasn't sure how much longer I "should" go on. I had to keep in mind this was a training run, and I had more training to do so I didn't want to overdue it and require a longer recovery which would result in less training... such a hard call but I decided to call it at 20 loops, 40 miles. I had walked almost all of my last 2 miles when I decided to hand in my chip rather than continuing the mostly walking with a little running routine I was settling into. I knew I could walk all night but I think my hips would end up requiring so much more recovery than I am willing to give them at this point in my training cycle. As I am still recovering from the Jacks 50k 3 weeks ago, my left hamstring is super tight and my hips are hurting pretty good ANNNNND I have a 6 hour training race next weekend I'm hoping to get another 50k in. It's that crazy time in my training cycle so I'm anxious to see how my body handles everything.

I turned in my timing chip as I passed through and Mike (the timing guy) was in shock! "You've been so consistent" he said. I knew my muscles were taking a beating from the elevation, and I didn't have a lot of recovery time so it was in my best interest to stop. 

Justin ended up doing 8 miles, Jessica 8 miles, Jason did 15 miles (making 31 for the day) and 40 for me. I am pretty sore and feel like this was the hardest I have ever physically pushed my body and my mental capabilities. I cannot believe how hard that 40 miles was. I was proud of this run because I achieved the things I set out to do. #1 eating - I consumed more than twice the calories I typically eat on my long runs. In total I started with breakfast of an english muffin with 1/2 a banana and BCAA vitamin shake. Then over the course of the run I also consumed 1/2 banana, 4 slices of watermelon, lots of grapes, 1 pickle spear, 1 large pack of Justins Chocolate Hazelnut butter, 1/2 avacado rollup (this was AMAZING), 2 small Gatorade, 8 (or more) 16 water bottles, about 6 oz of coca cola, and 6 salt licks. I also drank a CleanShake Protein shake as soon as I finished the race. #2 aid station stops I had 22 minutes of "non moving" pace which were aid station and bathroom stops. In 8 hours and 40 miles I am very pleased with only 22 minutes of stops! and #3 Audio Books I listened to my book for over 3 hours and my equipment worked well and the book was awesome!

My hips are a bit sore along with my quads and hamstrings but overall (day 2) I am feeling good! I am not experiencing the crazy fatigue I normally experience, just sore from the elevation. I think the combination of consuming more calories/salt and the BCAA vitamin shake and the protein shake at the finish really helped! Getting all this figured out really gives me confidence for my 100 mile race in January, so nervous but excited.

Southernmost Marathon - SOMO!

Southernmost Marathon - SOMO
Wow. What a week we had leading up to Somo. We ended up having to evacuate due to Hurricane Matthew so all of our travel plans got changed. Originally my kids were supposed to bounce between grandparents for this race, but because of the seriousness of the storm, I ended up bringing our friend (who also nanny's for us as needed) along so we wouldn't miss the race. I basically didn't run all week between work and storm prep... which was all so stressful! We spent all day Wednesday putting up our storm shutters, packing and preparing to come home to no power (dry food storage/water ect).

Putting up shutters at
our house

Putting shutters up at my
grandparents house

The Category 4 hurricane covering our state

 We left Thursday morning to head west and spent the night in Naples. Normally a 4 ish hour drive took us well over 10 hours because of traffic.  After a very long night watching the storm and trying to keep in touch with family who stayed behind, we left Naples Friday morning to head south trying to miss the storm. Got to Key West around 6 pm, picked up our packets and checked into the resort.

Race: Southernmost 1/2 Marathon
Date: October 8th, 2016
Finish Time: 2 hours, 44 minutes
Distance: 13.1 miles
Gain: 376 ft

Originally there were 12 of us going down to run this race, 3 running their first full marathons, 1 running her first half, 1 trying for a BQ after a long summer of training... a lot of excitement for this race (pre-hurricane Matthew). Only 4 of us ended up running the race, the all stayed behind to care for their loved ones, or homes. Race morning my husband and I woke up, and decided to drop to the 1/2 marathon. It had been such a stressful week we both decided we wanted to just have a nice easy fun run with friends. My best friend (Jess) was running her first 1/2 and I trained all summer with her so it was really exciting to actually be able to run the race with her. I had two complaints about the start of the race...

Justin, me and Jess at the start line!

1) There were only about 8 outhouses at the start line for everyone to share. I feel like there should have been quite a few more.
2) When we sang the National Anthem, there was no flag to salute. Found this a little odd.

Jess' husband Jason was running the full so he took off promptly at 5:30 am start time. The 1/2 started at 5:45 am giving a little room between the full and half marathons. This course was beautiful but Key West is extremely hot and humid. This is coming from a group of us who LIVE IN FLORIDA. I couldn't imagine running this race if I had traveled from somewhere not humid already. I would have died, pretty sure! LOL.

We took off at a nice and easy pace at 5:45 am. It was dark and none of us came prepared so we tried to stay behind people with headlamps or flash lights! Justin started the race really strong, I thought he would end up taking off and leaving us in his dust! He didn't but I kept waiting for it to happen. We hit the southernmost point around mile 3 and they had a photographer there grabbing everyone's pictures as they ran through, that was exciting.
 
I remember Jess saying she was excited we hit mile 6 (about half way) and she hadn't walked at all yet. This aid station was pretty cool, they had lots of cool lights and loud music playing. The sun was starting to come out now, and the sunrise coming over the water was gorgeous. As the sun came up, it was getting even hotter... which was unimaginable!

We got to the 1/2 marathon and marathon split (mile 8) and Jason was sitting on the ground there waiting for us! He decided to bail on the full and finish the half with us. He was in the lead of the marathon group but realized by mile 6 he wasn't enjoying himself and knew he would slow down as the sun came out, and we have all had SUCH A STRESSFUL week.

Best Friends

Power walking up the last bridge :)

We were so surprised to see him, but excited for him to join us! The 4 of us ran the last 5 miles together, and crossed the finish line together. It was awesome. Jess had an initial goal to finish between 2:15-2:30 and that was before we knew how humid it was going to be. We crossed the finish line at 2:31. So impressed with her pushing through! It was really cool to have trained together for the last 5 months and we all got to run the whole race together as well. It's a race I won't forget!

The course was great, we crossed a few bridges (that was the only bit of elevation change we had), we ran along the water almost the whole time, the sites were beautiful, we got to see the Southernmost point buoy around mile 3 and water stations every 1-2 miles (with ice cold water and gatorade that wasn't super diluted, which was needed for how hot and humid it was)...

I would NOT recommend it as a first marathon or half I believe you will be disappointed because it was so hot and humid it makes the race so difficult. I would recommend it as a runcation with friends. We won't forget this experience anytime soon, and have already talked about heading down to do it again (with no time goals... just a fun run with friends :D) We enjoyed the rest of the weekend in the keys including a sunset boat cruise, the aquarium, lots of pool time at the resort, site seeing, key lime pie and great fun with family and friends.

Masters of All Terrain Trail 1/2 Marathon

Masters of All Terrain

We are on the left behind the lady in blue. The guys are in grey, Justin with
a hat on... My head is popping up behind their shoulders!

The course was crazy!

The 1/2 marathon started at 7 am, it was 75 degrees at the start of the race but warmed up pretty quickly. We left the house at 4:45 am to meet up with Jason, Jessica and Terry; and headed out!

Race: Masters of All Terrain
Date: September 11th, 2016
Location: Little Big Econ State Forest
Finish Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Distance: 13.1 miles
Gain: 64 ft

Start line!

Many bridges!

I decided to run this race with my husband, I needed the "time on my feet" for training and I knew I wasn't in "race condition"... it's also been quite a while since we got to run a race together so this was a great opportunity! The course was great. The first 4 miles or so were wide and pretty boring/flat. It was wide so made for a little less bottle necking at the beginning.

More beautiful trails

Wide tracks were nice for
passing and getting passed! 

Nothing really eventful happened during this time. We hit the first aid station (and skipped it because we had our handheld bottles) around mile 2 (ish?). The next one was around mile 4 and we stopped here to refill. Justin tripped leaving this aid station: Face Plant #1. He was ok and able to shake it off and continue.

So gorgeous!

 We then hit a narrow, single track section of trail that was beautiful. It ran along the water weaving in and out of the woods.

It was fairly technical with a lot of roots and stumps. We really had to watch our footing through here so we didn't trip! We ran through sections like this until 7.5 miles where we hit aid station #4 (which we hit 3 times #3, #4 and #5 due to the loops) and went into another wide section of trail. We ran this next out and back hitting some narrow single track trail on the "loop" part of the out and back where racers were coming and going opposite directions. This area is where Justin had Face Plant #2! He used a lot of energy trying not to fall, and having to catch himself when he did fall but managed to not get hurt - thank God! We had one section of about 30 feet (that we hit twice) that was really muddy and wet. There was no avoiding it! 

Some parts had a lot of roots to navigate

We crossed 4-5 bridges throughout the course each way

So much MUD!

Pretty trails!

We got back to the aid station #5 around mile 10 and had mostly wide track back to the finish line. This was the only stretch we hit some sun on, the rest was all shaded. The course was cut short due to some flooding so surprisingly we crossed the finish line at 11.44 miles (I then kept running to make the full 13.1). Yes, I'm that guy.

Justin, Me, Terry and Jason all completed the 1/2 marathon.
All 3 guys PR'd for a trial half and did amazing.

Justin had a HUGE PR at this race, we calculated his average pace the last few miles and totaled it up, he would have finished around 2:55, the last Masters of All Terrain Trail 1/2 Marathon he ran 3:15. I'm so proud of him!  Everyone had a great race, this course was awesome. It was a bit technical in parts, all shaded, had well stocked aid stations with great volunteers, and the course was very well marked. Only downside or negative I have was having to share the single track with runners going both directions. Although most trail runners are very courteous and aware, some are oblivious to other people on the course, or have music playing far too loud which was dangerous when coming both directions. Also that the course was cut short. I know it happens - but it was still such a bummer!

Dirty legs!

I love trail running

This was my first real test with training for my next big challenge - 100 miles! I ran the most miles ever this week capping out at 71.4. These runs included back to back miles days of 11/15/13.1 (trail half). I ended the week feeling great. My fueling has been spot on, my Achilles Tendon is a bit inflamed a little bit so I am icing extra and doing more of my PT exercises. All and all I feel great. I'm not real sore but do feel the fatigue in my legs and body. Excited for the day off tomorrow (Monday). I need to work on getting a little more protein post run, and just ordered Tailwind so I am anxious to try that out on my next long run. 100 miles with a smile! That is going to be my goal... along with finishing of course :)

Masters of All Terrain Trail Marathon 2016

Masters of All Terrain

The marathon started at 7am, which was a pretty late start for a June marathon in Florida. The temperature reached 92 over the course of the day, and when we started it was 100% humidity. Blue skies for days which I normally love, today... not so much.


Race: Masters of All Terrain
Date: June 11th, 2016
Finish Time: 5 hours, 09 minutes
Distance: 26.2 miles
Gain: 279 ft

The Start

Jessica was running the 5 mile course, Justin ran the 1/2 marathon, and Jason and I ran the full marathon. We all started out together at the back of the pack, Jason and I quickly weaved through people making our way through the pack. The trail started out on a gravel/sand road, we stayed on this for the first 3 miles. We ran over a bridge past a beautiful waterfront and continued down the gravel road. We passed 2 aid stations during that time! 

The Jungle

We turned onto a trail here and ran a jungle trail for around 2 miles. It reminded me of a deer trail being very narrow and lush. I loved this section, it was my favorite. Very thick coverage of trail, with potential for water crossings if it had been rainy. There were hills through here and a lot of thick brush and a stream where we could hear an alligator. I liked to sing "In the Jungle the Mighty Jungle the Lion Sleeps Tonight..." through this area. It was so fitting. We came out of here about mile 5 crossing another aid station, then... ran right into the sugar sand.

Going up the deer trail

So hot... keep smiling!

Tip-toeing around the mud

Small patch of mud

The Sugar Sand

So they warn you before running this race, you will encounter roughly .25 miles of sugar sand along this course. Not worth training for right? WRONG. It must have been a typo because we ran roughly 2.5 miles of sugar sand, mostly UPHILL with no trees providing shade. It was horrible! Such a rough section to run. We powered through, continually passing people and moving forward

The Woods and Knee High Grass
We turned down a trail and hit knee high grass. We ran in this for awhile into the woods! We hit a few patches of soft sand here, lots of tall grass and this woods. It was an area we kept our eyes out for bear (the same place that 2 bear cubs were spotted climbing a tree later in the day)! We were only here for a few miles.

 The Burned Woods
The last 2-3 mile stretch of trail had been recently burned so it was very dry, sunny and even felt hotter than it probably was. The trail part was pretty cool but the burned area messed with you mentally! LOL. It was a cool section if it wasn't so hot out. Just a trail through the woods, seemed like it went forever (see the panorama picture at the bottom). Both times that we ran through this section were equally difficult for different reasons. The first time we both had to use the porta-potty SO BAD and there were no bathrooms on course, we were hot, tired, thirsty and had to pee! Jason ended up losing me on this trail by passing several people, and I ended up moving aside to let faster people pass me as I powered through. When we came off this section we ran through a wood gate where people were cheering and you could here the finish line music playing. We literally had to RUN THROUGH THE FINISH LINE and then continue on to run the loop again. I was done. Jason was long gone as I ran through the finish line, Jessica was there waiting... and I was done. But I wasn't. I found out Jason beam-lined straight to the porta-potty so I headed that direction where we met back up. 

I was tired, and hot, and had been pushing myself to run faster on that difficult terrain that I would have if I had been running by myself. Jason convinced me to keep going, telling me exactly what I needed to hear. "You are going to kick yourself in the butt if you stop now, you need to keep going, you committed to running this." Yes, yes I did. All those things were true. We started off to run our second loop. By mile 15 I got my second wind and felt amazing. The second loop was soo much easier than the first loop. I am definitely a distance runner not a fast runner. We took the second loop a little slower and I felt so strong. The humidity went down but the heat went up for our second loop. We also got a little breeze for that second loop which was so nice! Jason pushed me through the first half, and I was able to return the favor pushing him through the second. We are a good team! #runningbuddiesrock

Coming into the finish line for real, 26.27 miles-being the most accurate marathon course I have run to date!

Ya that's right, those are some BIG cheesy happy smiles.

 We finally crossed the finish line with the official time of 5:09:57. I know it was a very slow time, but I am so proud of it for how tough the course was and how hot the day was!

We ran a strong race, on very difficult terrain, on a very hot day. This has been one of the hardest races I have ever ran! Gosh I feel amazing having completed it! 

On a side note, Jessica ran an awesome 5 miles and completed her first trail run. Justin paced himself and finished his first trail run half marathon strong. We all had a great race day with a lot of ups and downs! Now, we head off to World of Beer to re-hydrate and have lunch!