Pigtails....

50K! That's right Pigtails 50K. I did it. I'm wiped, but happy. Time: 7:08:42. Read on if you are interested in the full story.

We met at the Y and figured out the carpooling. Those of us staying for multiple laps climbed into Steve's Yeti. A few others paired up and we were off. We got there a little early, and it wasn't too long before Amy, the other Michelle, Patch and Lesa all showed up. One thing about crewing at, and now running all these local ultras is that I'm starting to recognize a lot of faces and even hook names to them. Van gave us the pre-race instructions - she's a little thing, and she had just completed one loop with TC to mark the course. TC was walking around wrapped in a blanket (it was about 30 degrees out) and Van was standing on a chair, wrapped in a fleece robe. She counted down and we were off.

We started a little bit up hill, then dropped down a very steep section that would come back to haunt us. Jenny, Melissa and I were all running together. We worked pretty hard in that first lap - running the majority of the time, actually using my rolling timer. We walked a couple steeper hills, but for the most part ran. By the end of the first loop (9.6 miles) I realized that my legs were pretty heavy from my over-exuberance in the last two weeks. It has been exactly two weeks since Capital Peak and I learned a lesson - I should have a) got more than 6 hours of sleep every night, and b) I should have gone short and flat last week and maybe not so many miles. It's good to learn lessons though, right? Anyway, we came into the aid station, I refilled my water bottle (Yay! I had managed to drink about 12 ounces on this loop), grabbed a quarter of a pb&j, and we were out. The first lap took us 2:04.

We started loop two expecting to be lapped by the faster runners. We crossed the line for the out and back portion of the 50K, which was kind of exciting to see. This time around we walked a little more than before. Lap two time: 4:17 (so for just that lap: 2:13). Not too bad. At the end of lap two Jenny decided to go out on her own, Melissa decided to stay with me. I warned her I was slowing down, but she was okay with that. TC asked how I was doing and I told him okay, but tired. He told me it's okay to be tired and to eat something - I told him I had just had a quarter pb&j on the trail, but he said to eat more. He told me to walk out onto the trail eating, so we followed his advice. I switched water bottles here - I had gotten down another 12 ounces. Oh, and I forgot to mention I was using the fanny pack and loving it. We got lapped by some runners, but not the steady stream we were expecting. We didn't see any of our running buddies.

The last loop. I'm going to say that we walked and took running breaks. Every little incline was zapping my legs. I know the start/stop was hard on Melissa, but she hung in there with me. After we were done and driving home, I told her that Jenny won't let me get away with that - she keeps me on task. Melissa laughed and told me that she'll be on my case now. We had some good, deep conversation that ate up the middle of the course. I spent a lot of this last lap feeling a little sick to my stomach. About a mile from the aid station, guess who showed up on the trail? Eric and Steve. They came out to run us in - I started divesting myself of stuff - first the water belt was handed off to Eric. A little while later a small bag of sports beans. I don't know why I had to get rid of the beans, but I wanted them out of my pocket. We came into the aid station (which was also the start/finish) - but we were not quite done. We had a 2.2 mile out and back to get 50K. Our time for this loop was: 6:40, giving a loop time of 2:23. We ran to the pavement, then headed right back out. Eric and Steve stuck with us.

We ran and walked and ran and walked. We'd run to a point, then walk awhile, pick a new point and go. The guys were a great encouragement and distraction during this. We finally reached the turn around, and then Eric took off (I don't know how he had it in him to run, but he did) he wanted to reach the car and get the camera to get pictures. Steve kept up a continuous line of chatter while we pushed on. Remember the hill I mentioned earlier - the one I said would come back to haunt us? That was in the last half mile of the course. We slowly climbed up - Melissa a little faster than me, and finally reached the top. It was a short downhill and around the corner to the finish. Eric, Jenny, Van, her husband and one other guy were left - they cheered like mad as we came in. It was awesome! Final 2.2 miles: about 28 minutes. Total time: 7:08.

It rained on us for most of the last loop. I stayed warm till we reached the turnaround on the out and back - then it seemed like the wind was picking up. By the time I went to change I could barely feel my fingers. We changed, piled into the car and went to Starbucks. Oh, the other lesson I learned - I should have drank a full cup of tea this morning. I only had half, and I usually have about three cups by noon. I had a caffiene headache for much of the last two laps.

Eric "the wild man" took another ice bath when we got home. He sat there for 20 minutes. Then I tried to get in. Stood in it, tried to sit, couldn't bring myself to do it. Eric is standing there saying "Come on you're tough, you ran an ultra, you can do this!" I got out. I waited for my feet to stop hurting, I got back in, tried to sit again. Got back out. Took a hot shower instead. I told Eric he has full "I told you so" rights if I hurt in the next few days. I'm going to try a lukewarm epsom salt bath later - maybe it'll help.

So there you have it. The story of my first ultra. I didn't tell you Jenny's story, or Eric's story. You'll have to check their blogs for that!


The photo of the three of us on the trail is courtesy of Amy. Eric took the rest. The gaiters we are wearing are dirty girl gaiters.