Mental Note #2: Don't try to keep mental notes 12 hours after finishing a 50K
The day was heavenly. It was my 4th running of the HAT run in Havre deGrace, Maryland and I was so happy! After a well documented horrible winter, my lucky long run streak continued with the most fabulous weather and trail conditions. It was as if someone had flipped a "spring" switch and suddenly all the months of snow, ice and freezing temperatures were long gone. The smell of onion grass was strong as we ran through the first field area. I was already planning the logistics of losing my light jacket, long sleeve shirt, and gloves at our first pass through the pavilion at mile 4.
I met my wonderful running buddies at 6:30 and we began the drive to the Susquehanna State Park. Once again Coach assured us getting there in plenty of time (with 90 minutes to spare....WHAT??) but that was okay since he has heated seats in the back and they were oh so cozy!
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| We'll never forget you, old Team Bus (but damn, those heated seats are sweet!) |
This was to be my last long run before Umstead and that fact kept me so happy throughout the entire day. This was a double loop course with an extra 3+ loop at the beginning, and I am beginning to think I kind of like multiple loop runs (good for me since Umstead is 8 loops repeated)!! There is something nice, comforting even, in knowing what comes next and it certainly makes the course easier to break into manageable sections. Point to point does have the advantage of an adventure, so I guess there are arguments for both. But on this day, after 10 weeks of running 20-30 miles every weekend, comfortable and predictable was exactly what I needed.
Once I stripped down to the bare minimum of shorts, and a sleeveless tee shirt, I felt perfect well past 23 miles. Cruising along, I made sure to bomb the downhills, since Coach reminded us they were a gift and not to get all ultra-shuffle-y on them. Eating, drinking and taking s-caps were the order of the day, and I followed my same nutrition plan that has been serving me well throughout the winter. There was one point where I took an s-cap that didn't make my tummy too happy, so I quickly chased it down with a banana and walked for a bit, and felt much better. Since the aid station soon followed, I asked for a cup of ice, and chewed on that as I walked the steep uphills. This worked perfectly and I will have to remember to make sure my crew has plenty of ice for Umstead! An absolute highlight of this trail is this glorious tree:
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| Creative carvings for sure.... |
It reminds me of the Tree of Life from Disney World, so I knew I would have to stop and get a picture.
I debated taking other pictures, but really, I was having so much fun in the moment that I didn't want to spend any time behind the lens of the camera when I could see all that was right there in front of me. The river was beautiful, small hints of spring were evident and the trail was just in such great shape that running was much easier than in a lot of late stage 50Ks, especially when 350+ runners have already traversed it twice. So I left my phone in my pack and just kept going!
Coming up to the finish was so nice, and as I collected my glass, towel, and really sweet neon yellow hat, I was reminded that this was it...the hard stuff was done.
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| Sweet HAT swag |
Holy Shit, after training for 6 months, I have almost made it to the starting line of my first 100. And this realization, plus the normal "after Ultra high" made it nearly impossible to sleep that night so I decided to just get up (way too early) and grade college essays. Looking back later in the day at the comments I made on student papers, I can't figure out half of what I wrote. I wrote "aslo" instead of "also" and "inprotant" (which I can only assume was meant to say "important".) Hopefully I have recovered enough to make sense in this post, but just attribute any errors to "ultra brain!" 12 days to UMSTEAD!
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