Okay, That Was Hard

Last Saturday, Tim, Grant, Spencer and I headed down to Orange County to run the Rocky Road 50 miler. As you know, I haven’t done much racing recently, so I was pretty stressed about this event. But, since I haven’t run a 100 miler in two years, and I’m planning to do one next month (gulp!), I knew it had to be done. I picked this race because it was within driving distance, and it was supposed to be a runnable course (you know how much I like runnable courses, even if they are trails :)). Anyway, when we arrived at the race site Saturday morning, it was raining with a forecast of thundershowers and 40 mile per hour winds – yuck! As we all know, though, what’s an ultra without a little adverse weather?

As we milled around waiting for the start, I checked out the other runners. It was a nice size group, not too big and not too small. The 100 milers were already out on the course, having started at 6:00 a.m. At 7:05, the 50 miler started and off we went. I’m always a slow starter, but this time I made sure to really take it easy. I knew the course was hilly, and I knew I was pretty anxious, so my heart rate was high from the start. No sense in causing more stress before the first hill!

I hung back and chatted with a guy named John who was running his first 50. He was super jazzed and it was great to run with someone so enthusiastic. When you’ve run a few of these, you know what’s coming, so it’s always nice to run with someone who can keep your mind off that for awhile. We chatted about his training, our kids, his expectations for the race, and the course. It was great!

The first thing I noticed about the course is that it was already pretty muddy in a lot of areas. If it continued to rain, and runners kept going back and forth over the muddy trail, we were going to have a big mess in a few hours. This mostly came true – lots of mud – but thankfully, it quit raining pretty early on. The course itself was a 7.5 mile out and back (15 total) to be run 3 times, and then a 2.5 mile out and back to get us up to 50 miles. The course description said we would have a net elevation gain of 4000 feet, but Catra Corbett said it clocked out at 6000 feet – and I felt it.

Did I say I picked this course because it was runnable? Yes, it was runnnable, but dang, it was hard. I went into the race with the goal of running sub 8:00, but after the first 7.5 mile leg, realized it wasn’t going to happen. The course was very up and down, some of the hills being very steep. But since I planned to run the thing, I felt guilty for walking the ups, so I made myself run them. It was sort of the worst of both worlds – a “runnable” course, but if you were smart, you would know better. That is how I ended up with bloody shoes. Always pigheaded, I refused to revise my plan and just kept runnning up and down. The problem was, on the steep downhills, they had rows of sandbags across the trail to prevent erosion. So, about every five feet, you had to leap over a big “speed bump” going downhill. It was fun, but hard to relax into the descent, and really tough on my feet. I ran the last 30 miles with my feet bleeding, but I was afraid if I stopped to fix them I would never get back on the course.

Anyway, at the first turnaround, I was fifth woman, which suited me just fine. I had changed my time goal to 9 hours, and I was concentrating on having a smooth race. But as we headed back out for the second loop, I realized that I had moved up into third place. I knew I had passed a super nice woman, Suzy Degazon, a professional ultra triathlete, who was cheering for everyone as they went by, but I couldn’t figure out when I had passed the other woman. I turned my attention back inward, as I was starting to feel the effects of the hills. Then, at mile 22.5, I passed the second and first women who were running pretty close together. I was shocked. I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I really didn’t want to be in the lead at this point. Being chased for 27 miles is no fun! I much prefer to chase people than be chased 🙂

So, round and round we went, both women (who I later learned were Emilie and Lindsay from San Francisco – super good runners and super nice) high-fiving as we passed each other on the out and backs. I don’t know about them, but that was a stressful way to run. We kept seeing each other, me knowing I needed to hang on if I wanted to win, and them knowing they needed to speed up if they wanted to win. It was tough!

By the last loop, my feet were in agony. My only goal was to finish – and there were moments when I thought I wasnt’ going to be able to. I just kept running, trying to keep a rhythm and not give up. Finally, at 9 hours even, I made it in – first female, fourth overall. Both Emilie (2nd) and Lindsay (3rd) finished strong and looked solid throughout the race. I have to say, as painful as it was, I was glad they were out there so we could push each other to do our best. I really wanted to quit, but knew that I couldn’t. But next time, I want to do the chasing!

All in all, it was a great race, very well organized by RD Charlie Alewine and his wife, Debbie, along with Co-RD Rob Cowan. There was tons of support, great aid stations, and a very cool Rock trophy at the end! First place male and female also got a free pair of Montrails and a pair of Recofit Calf Compression sleeves – totally cool! I can’t wait to try again next year!

Happy Running!

Tagged as: 50 miler, blisters, Catra Corbett, compression sleeves, Coto de Caza, Dirt Diva, feet, injuries, Los Angeles, Montrail, Orange County, Pasadena, Racing, ReCoFit, Rocky Road, Run With Us, Running, sports, suzy degazon, Trails, ultra running