Waking up this morning was not fun. My legs hurt, my feet hurt. I had blisters all over my feet from the 50 mile. I had made the decision to try out a new pair of shoes for running ultras. What I didn't anticipate happening was the toe box not being wide enough to support the swelling of my feet. Result: one huge blister from my pinky toe rubbing the toe next to it. I was to tired the night before to do anything about the blisters so I just went to bed that night. Now I'm sitting here trying to lance all my blisters, and dress them in my special blister dressing kit that includes, but is not limited to: moleskin, second skin and athletic tape. After having successfully dressed my blisters it was time to choose shoes to wear for the race. I wan't going to wear the same shoes from the day before. A) they weren't wide enough and B) they were still wet from leg soaking in the creek post race. I found a suitable pair of shoes, finished packing the truck and we headed out to the start.
I wasn't feeling great. I knew today was going to suck. Flat out suck. At the start we started moving. My knees hurt, my legs hurt and most of all my feet hurt. Luckily though the work I did on my blisters kept them from hurting. I found myself in a pack of pretty quick runners (quick being relative because we had all just spent the last 2 days running ultras in the mountains). The longer I found myself running the more I wanted to stop not for any other reason than I just wanted to stop running.
I hooked on to Jenny's heel and I forced myself to concentrate on her shoes and not lose site of them. I was feeling like I could maintain her pace, but only if I didn't think about anything or look at anything. Jenny was wearing her new brown 3 Days of Syllamo socks that came in our swag bag. I can't remember anything else cause that's about all I could force myself to do was stair at those socks.
Jenny was chasing a top 5 female finish, so she had to run a strong race today to keep her place or steal it from someone. I couldn't remember I just ran. Eventually we caught up with my friend Stu, who had fallen during the 50mile and was hurting pretty bad. I could tell he was hurting cause I caught up to him. He tried to hook on my heel but he couldn't hold on. At this point I started to feel better cause I caught Stu and passed Stu. I NEVER do that. Nearing the 5 mile mark I started to finally losen up. I could relax. I could talk, I could look around and not feel like I was gonna fall over or lose pace.
Next thing I knew we were at the unmanned aid station. The unmanned aid station was about the halfway point. Here Jenny stopped to fill up her bottle and I kept running. Here is where things finally came together for me. This next section was technical and mostly downhill (slight down hill grade). Jenny never caught up with me after this point. The decent down the rocks was exhilarating and rejuvenating. I passed a handful of people and spotted just over a hill top my friend Travis. Travis is a great ultra marathoner and also podcaster/gear reviewer for iRunFar.com. Travis was having a hard day. How could I tell? I caught him. It was nice getting to run with Travis, he was able to successfully latch on to my heel and we ran the rest of the course together. Walking the up hills and running the downs, the flats and the slightly-uphill-till-we-realized-that-we-were-running-uphill-and-decided-to-walks.
As soon as we reached an aggressive down hill decent we knew we were almost done. We raced down this hill, where the photog was waiting to get nice shots of us as we cruised down the rocky-rooty leaf covered terrain. She mentioned that it was less than half a mile to the finish. Usually hearing that brings such good feelings and emotions and I'm able to pick it up for the last half mile and really push the tempo to the finish. For me I hit a wall. I was done! Travis yelled at me told me to catch him he said "You pulled me for half this race, the least I can do is get you to the finish line!"
I gritted my teeth, stared at the ground and tried to push back any feelings of pain and doubt and lunged myself forward. Catching up to Travis I stared at his feet, looking at his Montrail Rouge Racers we raced the last half mile. Soon I could hear people. I could see the parking lot. Next we were on the paved road. Almost there! We ran along the road up to through the trees and into the clearing where the finish line stood. Not wanting to slow down I continued trying to push my tempo all the way across the finish line.
All said and done I was really really pleased with my racing on the third day. I wasn't sure what was left in the tank. I had to run a really smart race. I think I did. I used the people around me to help carry me through sections of the course that were difficult (mostly difficult mentally).
I can't wait for next year!