You know when you're fairly out of shape and struggling to find motivation to run, so you sign up for a tough 50k that's only 5 days away? If you nodded yes, then either we're already good friends or we should be. If you shook your head no, then you're probably reading this because you love me in spite of this fundamental difference in our personalities, and I appreciate that!
Prior to yesterday, I had gone four months since starting an ultra, and five months since completing one. After (mostly) healing the IT band syndrome that caused my drop from my last race, recovering from mild colds, and rising above general laziness, I finally got back to running some. I ran a few 30-45 mile weeks with a couple long runs in the 20-25 range, the last of which I bonked hard on. I think this might have left a bitter taste in my mouth for running, and traveling for Christmas provided lots of easy excuses, so I posted a couple weeks with mileage totals in the single digits. And then I came back home, and still didn't feel much like running.
There was a 50k that weekend in Columbia that I had gone back and forth about running for awhile. I originally intended to train well enough to race it, but didn't get back to running soon enough for this. Since I could drive to Columbia, run the race, and drive back in less than a day, I decided to go ahead and run it in an effort to inspire myself back into a running routine. I was determined to stay very conservative, walking one minute for every ten run for the entire first lap.
It was still dark when I got to to the race, and I was confused enough about where things were that I decided to do without a drop back at the halfway point (the course was two laps of a trail 15.5 mile loop) and just carry everything I needed for the whole race. It was a little warmer than I expected, so I wore a light jacket without winter hat or gloves to cut down on what I would have to carry later. The jacket would last less than a mile before I tied it around my waist; it was very warm for January. I stopped by the restrooms and enjoyed a giggle over the 25 men waiting for their bathroom while the women's line had only 2 people (and a man in one of the stalls). I wish I had had a camera to snap a photo which I would caption “Justice.”
This was a pretty big race with 180 participants, which meant that when we hit single track about half a mile into the race, there was a long line of us all forced to run the same the pace. I ended up letting lots of runners pass so I could keep my promise to myself and start walking early. This resolution was tested a lot during the first nine miles of the race, which are among the easiest I've run in a trail race. Luckily, I partnered up with a woman named Jackie, who was running her first 50k. We chatted along the way and kept each other from going out to hard. The pleasant company and short distance between aid stations meant that stations kept surprising me with how quickly they popped up. Towards the end of the loop, she stopped for the restroom (what my dad calls the “Big Green Door”) and I went ahead and started picking up the pace, just slightly for now. We were in the more challenging part of the loop, but I was especially worried about a section which was rumored to be the hardest part of the course. I asked a man I was passing when this part was coming up and he told me we'd already passed it. It's amazing how taking it easy makes hills seem manageable!
I headed out for the second lap at 3:08 and was feeling great. The rules I made for myself about walking only applied to the first lap, so I was eager to see how many people I could pass on the second lap. There was another man who was moving up steadily through the pack who I started running with. Turns out I had run with him before—it was Mark Nowling, also from Charleston. He had run the first lap with a friend and was now cutting himself loose. After a couple of miles, I let him go: our pace was too slow for him and probably too fast for me. I kept chipping away at the runners in front of me and now enjoyed the benefits of a bigger race: I could almost always see some one in front of me and ended up passing about 35 people during this lap. I wasn't feeling as great; various injuries gave periodic surges of pain. Even though it was January, it was hot (70s) and the bare trees provided almost no shade. So the regular heat-associated nausea and dizziness were popping up, but none of my maladies ever were significant enough to slow me down much.
As I hit 25 miles, I realized that I had a shot at negative splits, but it would require me going pretty hard for the toughest part of the course. I had never achieved negative splits before in an ultra or even a marathon, so I definitely wanted to try for it. I knew I was going to be close as I came up on a woman around mile 29 or 30. “Are you Jordan?” she asked before I even caught up to her. It was Janice Willey, whom Mark had connected me with on facebook but I had never been able to meet. As much as I wanted to chat with her, I still had to shoot for my negative splits. “You go run your race!” she cheered for me as I ran ahead. I put in one of the strongest last miles I've done in an ultra, and crossed in 6:14:15, beating my split by two minutes.
I ended up 78th overall and 8th female. Janice was two minutes behind me and Jackie crossed in another half an hour—45 minutes ahead of her goal. Mark was 30 minutes ahead of me, all of which he made up in about 12 miles. Also, big congrats to my friends Howie, Maggie, and Tyler who all ran their first 50k at Salem Lake in smoking fast times. Of course, they're always smoking fast.
I was happy with the day—it was the furthest I've run in five months and a good springboard to get me back to training (maybe with Janice? Who knew there was an ultra runner in Charleston the same pace as me!) Thanks for reading and happy trails!
-Jordan
