This was my first FA run; loved it. So generous of people to volunteer their time/money to help us out and to provide all of the fixins! This run took place on the course where our Indiana Trail 100 race will be next month. It consists of a 16.67 mile loop that's mostly on trail and has some rolling hills, nothing super steep. It reminded me a lot of the Hallucination course. It's pretty boring and not technical at all, but it'll do for the 100 miler.
I think most people ran one or two loops yesterday and I wanted to make it a 50 mile day since it had been since Hell last September that I had run 50 miles. Chris and I planned to run it together but because of some miscommunication, that didn't happen; we started at different times.
The official start time was 9am but I started a little before 8am since I wanted to get more miles in. So since I was starting earlier and since this was a FA event anyway, I supplied the majority of my food/water to make sure I had enough. I carried tons of crap on me and then had extras in the car to refill after each loop. There ended up being light aid every 4-5 miles but even so, I got pretty hungry in between. Makes me nervous for the 100 miler- should probably carry food on me then, too, to be safe. Sucks because it's more weight but whatever.
So I had woken up at 3:30am, drove three hours, then got to the parking lot with just a few empty cars in it. I didn't know where to go but a girl pointed out some flags nearby so I just started following them, hoping for the best.
Before the race even started, my quads were already shot from the CrossFit 13.3 WOD I did last Thursday, and then from playing frisbee that night. They felt like they do after my 50 mile races. I was moving soooo slowly but I was determined to keep going. Since there weren't too many hills, I did 8:2 minute run/walk intervals from the get-go and I think I'll stick to that for the race, too.
The first loop went fine except that after I passed mile 14, I got off course and went in a random loop for 2-3 miles. Instead of ending up at the start/finish line, I ended right back up at the 14 mile aid station. I was soooo annoyed. Nothing worse than getting off course and wasting time/energy, especially when I was already struggling to run 50 miles on my own; not running it as part of an official race or anything. For a few minutes I wanted to just say screw it and quit then but I made myself keep going. Turns out that someone had moved the flags for some reason. They were fixed by the time I passed by there again.
One thing that I wasn't used to was that I was completely alone for the entirety of the 53 miles. I didn't even see anyone around me except for a few seconds when a few people passed me. Then halfway through my phone battery died so I didn't have any music out there, either. Ugh.
On the next two loops I kept being afraid that I would hit a low spot and get weak and really wanna quit. I had a mental battle struggling with the fact that I was going so slowly and it would take me forever to finish. But thankfully, I never hit that low spot- I was determined to get the miles in and I did. Finished the 50 miles in about 11:05 and the total run in about 11:40ish. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and no snow; got lucky because today we're getting 5-8 inches...
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