In the weeks leading up to McNaughton, I started hitting a low point with my running. I should have been in the best shape of my life, but the miles were seeming more difficult. Physically I felt fine, but I was having trouble keeping focused enough on my longer runs and I was getting easily dissappointed. I chalked it up to burnout, but I also believe the stress of upcoming life changes (starting medical school, David's job search, getting our house ready to sell) were getting to me as well, and that played a part in it. After having worst long run of my life 2 weeks before the race, I contemplated dropping out of it. I sought the advice of a fellow runner and veteran 50 miler I knew from my hometown, and he said "I imagine you can run 50 miles, but you might miss the fun." I decided an attitude adjustment was necessary if I was to complete 50 miles AND have fun doing it.
One thing no one could possibly tell me that I lack is determination, so two weeks later I found myself at the start line of the 50 miler at McNaughton. I was so happy that Stan was there, as someone who runs my pace and was a veteran 50 miler. I decided I would try to hang with him as long as possible. Since he was going 100 miles instead of 50, he had some serious pacing skills.
In terms of the actual race, the course was fairly difficult-many stream crossing rendering constantly soaked feet, massive hills, and a fair amount of mud. It was a ten mile loop that was to be repeated 5 times. Stan and I stayed together the whole race (or the first 50 miles of his race). I really enjoyed the company and conversation. We were joined by Stan's friend Jason during the last ten miles, and he was a riot! Granted we had already ran 40 miles he continually reminded us we were only allowed to walk the uphills. Some may have found him to be a slavedriver, but as for me, I thought it was hilarious! Consequently my last ten mile loop was faster than the previous two, and I was thankful Jason pushed me on my last loop. I finished in around 12 hours and 33 minutes. Finishing was a beautiful moment for me, especially since my husband was at the finish with a look of amazement on his face. I was pleasantly surprised to find out the next day that I came in 4th place overall for women. It looked like there were about 17 women that finished, but I imagine several more than that started. I was maybe secretly a bit proud of myself:)
How my body felt during and after the race was very interesting for me. I had relatively no muscle fatigue during the race. However, after about 40 miles I was having some serious issues with my feet. About 38 miles in, I began to feel like there were large glass shards between my first and second toe on my left foot. Since we just went through a stream crossing, I thought it was possible. I stopped in the mid
dle of the trail to take my shoe off and found a massive blister had popped, and whatever was inside of it was oozing down my foot (sorry for the graphic description). I was just happy for no glass and I'll be damned if a blister is going to prevent me from completing the race this far in, so I put my show on and tried my best to ignore the pain. Luckily there was a designated "foot doctor" on staff (her husband runs lots of ultras and she fixes his feet all the time). I took my shoes off after the fourth loop for her to have a look and her response was "Yeah, they're pretty bad" and "looks like you're getting some jungle rot." What the heck is jungle rot? I didn't know and I didn't care. I trusted her with my feet, and she fixed me up enough to go the final 10 miles. I owe her a big one. That night after finishing my muscles began to cramp up badly and I had trouble sleeping. Thankfully I found myself to be mobile in the morning.
One week later, I find myself no worse for wear. I still managed to run about 30 miles in the week following the race, and my muscles feel pretty much recovered. Five toenails are black and will be gone soon, and the blisters continue to heal. I had some intermittent loss of appetite this past week, but that seems to have mostly disappeared. I find myself oddly drawn to completing a 100 miler this summer, and usually once I set my mind to something, no one stops me.
Reflecting back on the experience, I have an overwhelming sense of thankfulness. I am thankful to Stan for the company and Jason for pushing me on the last loop. I am thankful to the foot doctor and volunteers at the race for staying there to feed and hydrate the crazy all day and all night runners. I am thankful to everyone at the race because all I received the entire time was unrelenting encouragement. Thankful to have met a new friend, Kazumi, who is a fellow ultra-runner AND physician (and a mom to boot!). I am even thankful for the people who looked at me and doubted to my face that I could do it-it made the finish all the sweeter. Mostly I am thankful to my husband because he is the one that puts up with my running schedule on a daily basis. He doesn't complain when the alarm goes off at an obnoxious hour and wakes the both of us up so I can go running or when we have to eat dinner late because I am running at night, too. He doesn't seem to get annoyed with the disgusting appearance of my feet or my complaints about how sore I am. He is always my biggest fan and support system, and I am forever greatful:)
The money thats raised from this race goes to support groups and breast cancer screenings for people at high risk who can't afford it as well as continued breast cancer research. Reason enough to do the race again.
