The Everglades Ultra Ultimate Girls Weekend!
Thanks to my AUTEC friends, I was whisked off the island and enjoyed several days in south Florida.
Christine, Lisa, Mollie and I began our journey to the Everglades on Friday afternoon. We arrived at the race headquarters at the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve fairly early so we picked up our race packets and headed to our hotel. We stayed in Everglades City about 15 minutes from the race. After settling in and unpacking our over abundance of food, we headed back to the race site to hear a brief going over the race details and possible wildlife encounters.
After the brief, we headed back to the hotel to cook a pasta dinner to get some last minute carbs before the race. We ended up in bed pretty early so we could be rested for our events. To my surprise I slept fairly well, considering the early morning and long day looming over me.
My race, the 50 mile, began at 6 am. Lisa's race, the 50K, would start at 7:30 am and Christine and Mollie's race, the 25K, kicked off at 9 am.
Since my race was so early, Christine had to drive me out there by 5 am. Lisa volunteered to come early as well so that Christine would have time to nap or relax before her 9 am start. It was quite chilly for a Florida morning with temps around the 50s. When we got to the race there were a few minutes to mill around and look at our competition. I also dropped off two drop bags for later in the race. (I would have had a third but it needed to be dropped of the day before and I forgot to bring it with me when we went back to the brief.) By the time I had scoped out the donuts and ate half of a banana, it was time to load onto buses to take us to the start line.
Thankfully the bus was warm so I stayed on it right until the start. Since it was so early, it was pitch black out. I was glad that there were other runners so with our headlamps it didn't seem as scary to be running through the swamp in the dark.
The race started off on a nice stretch of dirt road before turning onto a trail with a minefield of cypress knees. I can't say for sure but I think there were about 10 miles of this trail with about a billion cypress knees. And when the knees finally died down, it switched to cap rock. Seriously, the first 25 miles is the hardest trail I have ever ran on!
Even though it was hard, all of the park is beautiful. Plus the trails carried us through several types of ecosystems - swamp, pine forest, prairie. The weather warmed up but not too much - maybe 75 with a nice breeze and cloud cover. I didn't see much wildlife...although it was probably watching me with my head down, looking for cypress knees. Anytime I would look up, I would trip. I only dove to the ground 3 times, 1st bruising my knee, then scraping and swelling my arm and then another time on the other elbow.
Probably the funniest thing is that during one of the falls, one of my Vega gels exploded in my handheld pocket. So for the rest of the race, every time I went to get something out of the pocket it was covered in date paste. And since it is a handy pocket I kept using it so by the end of 50 miles I was a sticky mess!
I was pretty happy with my pace for most of the race. Because my training didn't go as planned I had to do essentially the same training I did for my 50K. My longest run was 1 hour on the elliptical, 15 miles running and 1 more hour on the elliptical. I knew all along that my cardio would be fine but that the last half of the race would be hard. I started the race with a .9/.1 run/ walk schedule. I tried to keep the run between 10 -12 min/mile and the walk to be as close to 15 min/miles as I could. This strategy worked well until the high 20's. The last few miles to the 50K mark were tough to maintain that ratio. After I had made it past the 29 mile mark, I had to shut off my GPS watch to save the batteries. I tried to keep a 10/2 min run/walk pattern for a few more miles but eventually abandoned that to just do what I could. For the first 29 miles my average moving pace was 12:38. Overall, I maintained a 14:39 pace which isn't bad considering all of the walking I did at the end.
My hips had started feeling sort of painful by mile 10 because of all the dodging and weaving in the cypress knee jungle. However, by mile 25, the hips were ok but the quads were hurting. At this point in the Huff 50k, I remember thinking how impossible it would be to do another 25 miles. I felt the exact same in this race. After mile 30 or so, it hurt my quads to run, but hurt my hips to walk. I also found that if I walked too long, it was harder to run again.
During the last long 20 miles I definitely began to think that my husband is right - that I might be crazy. Why would anyone sign up for such a crazy race? And then to do it under-trained. There was a small period of time when I questioned whether I could finish. But I kept pushing.
The last aid station was 4.2 miles from the finish. I called Christine and Lisa when I made it there so they could know when to come to the finish. It just so happened that they were already there because Lisa had just come in 20 or so minutes before I called. That last 4 miles was the LONGEST 4 miles ever!!! It didn't help that it was on a long flat straight road but I'm so glad that it wasn't full of cypress knees! Looking back, I should have ran more on the road but since it hurt so bad, I didn't want to overdo it. I still managed to run/ walk but at that point I was probably only running 50' at a time (and yes that is feet). Thankfully right before the end there was a curve so I could start running before everyone could see me :)
Christine, Mollie, and Lisa were there cheering me on. Mollie even videoed me running through the finish which was cool. I was impressed that my form didn't look too bad considering the fatigue and pain.
Lisa was hobbled by a sprained ankle which she had done at the beginning of her race - and she still finished her 50K. Christine and Mollie were the smartest in the group and enjoyed their 25k "spa race".
After cooling down and taking some pictures, we headed back to the hotel. After cleaning up we ate left overs and went to bed. I think we were in bed by 9. What party animals!
On interesting thing I learned this time is that I now know what the maximum level of pain that my quads can get. They were just as sore from the 50K as the 50 mile - they didn't get worse this time. At least I won't be afraid of getting more sore next time.
I'm so blessed that I had this opportunity. It was a great weekend with awesomely crazy friends. And I thank God that He gave me the strength to persevere.
One of the guys that I saw out on the trail had a shirt that had a great verse on the back: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 It is so true!
So final stats: 45th out of 67 total
12th out of 18 females
Thanks to my AUTEC friends, I was whisked off the island and enjoyed several days in south Florida.
Christine, Lisa, Mollie and I began our journey to the Everglades on Friday afternoon. We arrived at the race headquarters at the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve fairly early so we picked up our race packets and headed to our hotel. We stayed in Everglades City about 15 minutes from the race. After settling in and unpacking our over abundance of food, we headed back to the race site to hear a brief going over the race details and possible wildlife encounters.
After the brief, we headed back to the hotel to cook a pasta dinner to get some last minute carbs before the race. We ended up in bed pretty early so we could be rested for our events. To my surprise I slept fairly well, considering the early morning and long day looming over me.
My race, the 50 mile, began at 6 am. Lisa's race, the 50K, would start at 7:30 am and Christine and Mollie's race, the 25K, kicked off at 9 am.
Since my race was so early, Christine had to drive me out there by 5 am. Lisa volunteered to come early as well so that Christine would have time to nap or relax before her 9 am start. It was quite chilly for a Florida morning with temps around the 50s. When we got to the race there were a few minutes to mill around and look at our competition. I also dropped off two drop bags for later in the race. (I would have had a third but it needed to be dropped of the day before and I forgot to bring it with me when we went back to the brief.) By the time I had scoped out the donuts and ate half of a banana, it was time to load onto buses to take us to the start line.
Thankfully the bus was warm so I stayed on it right until the start. Since it was so early, it was pitch black out. I was glad that there were other runners so with our headlamps it didn't seem as scary to be running through the swamp in the dark.
The race started off on a nice stretch of dirt road before turning onto a trail with a minefield of cypress knees. I can't say for sure but I think there were about 10 miles of this trail with about a billion cypress knees. And when the knees finally died down, it switched to cap rock. Seriously, the first 25 miles is the hardest trail I have ever ran on!
Even though it was hard, all of the park is beautiful. Plus the trails carried us through several types of ecosystems - swamp, pine forest, prairie. The weather warmed up but not too much - maybe 75 with a nice breeze and cloud cover. I didn't see much wildlife...although it was probably watching me with my head down, looking for cypress knees. Anytime I would look up, I would trip. I only dove to the ground 3 times, 1st bruising my knee, then scraping and swelling my arm and then another time on the other elbow.
Probably the funniest thing is that during one of the falls, one of my Vega gels exploded in my handheld pocket. So for the rest of the race, every time I went to get something out of the pocket it was covered in date paste. And since it is a handy pocket I kept using it so by the end of 50 miles I was a sticky mess!
I was pretty happy with my pace for most of the race. Because my training didn't go as planned I had to do essentially the same training I did for my 50K. My longest run was 1 hour on the elliptical, 15 miles running and 1 more hour on the elliptical. I knew all along that my cardio would be fine but that the last half of the race would be hard. I started the race with a .9/.1 run/ walk schedule. I tried to keep the run between 10 -12 min/mile and the walk to be as close to 15 min/miles as I could. This strategy worked well until the high 20's. The last few miles to the 50K mark were tough to maintain that ratio. After I had made it past the 29 mile mark, I had to shut off my GPS watch to save the batteries. I tried to keep a 10/2 min run/walk pattern for a few more miles but eventually abandoned that to just do what I could. For the first 29 miles my average moving pace was 12:38. Overall, I maintained a 14:39 pace which isn't bad considering all of the walking I did at the end.
My hips had started feeling sort of painful by mile 10 because of all the dodging and weaving in the cypress knee jungle. However, by mile 25, the hips were ok but the quads were hurting. At this point in the Huff 50k, I remember thinking how impossible it would be to do another 25 miles. I felt the exact same in this race. After mile 30 or so, it hurt my quads to run, but hurt my hips to walk. I also found that if I walked too long, it was harder to run again.
During the last long 20 miles I definitely began to think that my husband is right - that I might be crazy. Why would anyone sign up for such a crazy race? And then to do it under-trained. There was a small period of time when I questioned whether I could finish. But I kept pushing.
The last aid station was 4.2 miles from the finish. I called Christine and Lisa when I made it there so they could know when to come to the finish. It just so happened that they were already there because Lisa had just come in 20 or so minutes before I called. That last 4 miles was the LONGEST 4 miles ever!!! It didn't help that it was on a long flat straight road but I'm so glad that it wasn't full of cypress knees! Looking back, I should have ran more on the road but since it hurt so bad, I didn't want to overdo it. I still managed to run/ walk but at that point I was probably only running 50' at a time (and yes that is feet). Thankfully right before the end there was a curve so I could start running before everyone could see me :)
Christine, Mollie, and Lisa were there cheering me on. Mollie even videoed me running through the finish which was cool. I was impressed that my form didn't look too bad considering the fatigue and pain.
Lisa was hobbled by a sprained ankle which she had done at the beginning of her race - and she still finished her 50K. Christine and Mollie were the smartest in the group and enjoyed their 25k "spa race".
After cooling down and taking some pictures, we headed back to the hotel. After cleaning up we ate left overs and went to bed. I think we were in bed by 9. What party animals!
On interesting thing I learned this time is that I now know what the maximum level of pain that my quads can get. They were just as sore from the 50K as the 50 mile - they didn't get worse this time. At least I won't be afraid of getting more sore next time.
I'm so blessed that I had this opportunity. It was a great weekend with awesomely crazy friends. And I thank God that He gave me the strength to persevere.
One of the guys that I saw out on the trail had a shirt that had a great verse on the back: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13 It is so true!
So final stats: 45th out of 67 total
12th out of 18 females