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!  

 

 

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 :)