First DNF. That's tough.

Race:  Swamp 50k

Date: March 11, 2017

Finish Time: DNF
Distance: 12.9 miles

Elevation gain:  606 ft 

I love running the swamp. I train out there several times a week and so love the difficulty of running several loops of the course. I tackled it last fall at Jacks 50k and was anxious to PR this time. I had a great plan but after my 100 mile race in January I haven't been keeping my miles up. I dropped to the 50k in hopes of an awesome PR for the course. I woke up with a crazy sinus infection and cold 2 days before the race that made it hard to breath or even think. Race morning I woke up and set out to run but knew I should've probably stayed home. Everything just felt a little "off". I went out and watched my pace the first loop (so I didn't go to fast). My goal was 70 (ish) minute loops for the first 3 loops, then closer to 75 minute loops the final 2 (if I couldn't maintain the 70 at that point). Loop 1, mile 1 I rolled my ankle. It was just a twinge I shook it off and kept going. Phew that was close I thought! Loop 1 went well I paced myself with a group that was going about the right pace, came in at 68 1/2 minutes. Perfect! Grabbed some more water and headed out for loop two. 

 Mile 10 I rolled my same ankle again but this time it knocked me to my butt. Ouch, it really hurt. I kept going but had sharp pains to put any weight on my foot. No! I made my way slowly to the finish of the loop at 72 minutes. I stopped, took my shoe off iced and elevated it for 10 minutes. I thought maybe I could shake it off and keep going. After the 10 minutes my foot had swelled so much I couldn't get my shoe back on, it hurt so bad :( I weighed my options to risk really injuring myself, and decided I had to call it. DNF at mile 13 of a 50k. My FAVORITE 50k. I can't believe this happened. I was so bummed, disappointed and angry! I sat there sulking, nursing my foot (with a beer).

I wasn't even sure how to blog about this race, or if I wanted to. I am embarrassed that such a stupid little thing caused me to DNF when I had the "home court" advantage. Thinking about a DNF and wondering if a DNS would have been better... Every race I try to learn something from, I realized I could still learn something from this. I learned through this race that there is a difference between quitting, and deciding not to finish. I decided not to finish but I did NOT quit. I feel like my decision was a smart one, and one that I made not from fear of pride or failure, but one based off weighing my long term options and making an educated decision. Turns out, I fractured my ankle and the force and impact running has could have caused a full break. I'm at 3 weeks recovery now, hoping to be back to running within the next week or two. A full break would have set me WAY back. I am grateful I decided not to finish and to end my run early. 

Once the race was over, I got to celebrate a great friend finishing his FIRST 50k and becoming and ULTRA RUNNER! I sucked up my sulking and celebrated his great success finishing a challenging course!!! Great job to all the finishers that day.

Swamp = 1 - Toni = 1... it's a tie game ladies and gentlemen!

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 :)