Point Defiance 50K 2015

I ran my first 50K this fall!

It’s something that I’ve been talking about doing for the last few years but the timing never worked out. Either I was out of town or not trained for that kind of mileage.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t trained this year either, but I have recently decided to not wait around for things to happen. Sometimes you’ve just gotta jumpJ (Do as I say, not as I do children).

Josh and Chrissy, along with Baby Michaela came to support me because they’re awesome. Thankfully it wasn’t a super early start time at 9am.

I was worried about running that many miles (I hadn’t run more than 13 in months) and wasn’t sure how long it would take me. I did know I needed to finish the second loop by 1pm or the race officials would pull me. I have never DNF’d and I didn’t really want to start now.

NORMALLY I wouldn’t be the least bit worried, but the effort that it takes to run a certain pace on the road is COMPLETELY different then that same effort on trail, which means the same distance takes longer. I’m also a complete Newbie at trail running and have no idea how to pace myself.

Josh ran with me for the first few miles which was awesome. At first I thought we were going to miss the horrible weather that was forecast…we didn’t.

The sky opened up on us. I mean REALLY opened up!

We were wiping water out of our eyes just to be able to see where we were running.

Despite that, things were looking and feeling good.

At the first aid station (which was stocked with Gu’s, cookies, chips and gross Fig Newtons and many other treats) I grabbed some potato chips because I forgot to pack my salt tablets that morning. I am so out of practice at long runs!

Because I’m super talented I ate them on the run. They were delicious.

As the race progressed I started to experience abdominal cramps. (These were unrelated to the potato chips. I swear.) I was hoping if I just ignored them, they would go away but I had no such luck. They just got worse.

But I was still feeling strong running wise when I finished the first loop.

As I got a few miles into the second loop I could tell things were about to get rough for me. I was starting to feel nauseous on top of the cramps.

I started to try and think of someone who had the endurance to run 10 miles and had the right pace.

Since most of my running buddies have moved the list has gotten much smaller.

But…Running Buddy Amy

I stopped and sent her this text “wanna drop everything and run my 3^rd loop of 10 miles with me at approx. 12pm?”

What she got was a series of texts, most of them random numbers and letters.

I also butt dialed her at least once. It turns out that when my phone is in my hydro pack it opens every single app on it…as well as butt dials people.

But I was in luck because all that gibberish convinced her that she should roll out of bed, grab her running gear and drive almost 45 minutes to stand in the rain and wait for me to run in.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t really think she would be there. I mean, it was really last minute on a Saturday morning.

But to come in after 20+ miles of running in the rain with nauseating cramps and to see her geared up and waiting, was pretty awesome.

Maybe even as awesome as the volunteer who gave me the Ibuprofen at mile 15. She was an ANGEL.

I warned Amy and Josh (who joined me for some more miles of fun) that I would be walking anything that slightly resembled a hill.

If there is one thing Amy is good at, it’s talking, and that was exactly what I needed right then. I just needed something to take my mind off the nausea, cramps and just general discomfort of running for 4 hours and counting. I now know everything about her recent shopping trip.

We were cruising along with about 4 miles to go when my friend Jenna passed me. She had been running behind us for about half a mile and I definitely heard her laughing when I got confused on which way to turn and ended up running in a circle saying “I don’t know where to go!” (Don’t worry, Amy took care of me.)

Josh met up with us again at about mile 28/29, just in time for it to REALLY start raining on us. If we thought it was raining before, we were mistaken. It was like swimming but running. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it rain that hard in WA. Mostly it just drizzles depressingly.

I felt really bad for those volunteers. At least I got to move around to keep warm. They had to just stand there and drip.

I am proud to announce that I didn’t fall once. Not even on that rope thing. Which considering how clumsy I am just walking down the street is pretty impressive.

I am now an Ultra runner!

I was the 8^th overall female, and finished in 5:58 and change.

To quote my friend Blake…”It wasn’t so bad”J