I’m not sure how or when it all occurred but we decided to sign up for a 12 hour run. Because, you know, running for 3-ish hours so far had been so much fun, why not quadruple the time? I had run my first 5k on May 16th, 2009; the UW Bothell 5k. The Redmond Watershed 12-hour would take place exactly 364 days later. I must be crazy. Confirming the craziness was the fact that we had scheduled a 7 day vacation in Mazatlan and would return to Seattle just days before the event. Do you suppose we trained at all while we were in Mexico?
Everyone getting ready to run for the next 12 hours
Race morning came up quickly. The forecast was for sunny weather; a tad unusual for spring in Seattle. It was a bit chilly when we picked up Nic and by the 7am start it was still what I would call a little brisk. The course included the same trail that the Mud and Chocolate uses plus it added a smaller loop on another trail. The total for both loops was 5.38miles. Our goal was to do at least a 50k.
Nic, doing his special warm ups.
We headed out promptly at 7am. The field thinned out as we plodded along at the back of the pack. My legs weren’t feeling all that good but I figured they’d warm up eventually. I had 12-hours to do so, after all. But my calves were kinda crampy so Nic gave me a couple S-Caps. They felt better but they still didn’t feel great.
We ran most of the first loop. It was our first time on the little loop at the end. It was narrower than the bigger loop. I think we finished the first 5.38 miles in about 1hour, 15 minutes. Not a bad time. We stopped at the well stocked aid station and had some fruit, pretzels filled with peanut butter and a boiled potato with salt and then we went back out for another loop.
The neverending trail
The second loop didn’t go as well. There was a lot more walking. My legs just weren’t getting into the groove. It was ok though, because we had 12-hours to reach our goal. At the rate we were moving we would get 50k in 8 hours. We hit the aid station and had a coke, more pretzels, cookies, fruit and then hit the trail.
Morrie on the trail
The third loop began a downward spiral for me. There was a lot of walking this loop and I found myself walking along, staring at the ground. I felt a bit depressed. Morrie had to stop and give me a hug at one point. I had a blister forming on the outside of my right heel. My legs hurt, from the hamstrings to the outside of my calf muscles. We managed to get back to the start but my mental state was in bad shape. We went to the restroom after this loop. As I sat there and stared at the door I had a weird visual effect. I saw stars moving rapidly toward the center of my vision. Except they weren’t bright like stars. They were more like tiny black dots. We had a peanut butter and jelly tortilla wrap at the aid station and part of a Red Bull and I sat down to put a bandage on my blister.
Blister
Redmond Watershed Preserve
We were falling behind in obtaining our goal. We were sitting at about 9-10 hours for a 50k.
We headed out on the fourth loop. We walked the whole way. The downhills got to be too much for my legs and toes to handle. We even walked backwards in some sections thinking it would provide relief for our legs. Nope. My toes we jamming into the front of my shoes and that was very painful. My hamstrings were about 1/8″ long at this point. The muscles on the front of my calf were screaming. I was finding it difficult to hold a conversation. Finally, loop 4 was over. We spent way too much time at the aid station. Not just after this loop, but after each one. And all too soon we were off for the next loop.
The fifth, and final loop. Nervous breakdown loop. Whatever. I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish this loop, let alone make it to a 50k. We were moving really slowly by now. My legs were burning; my toes hurt and my blister felt like it was growing with each step. I don’t know how we managed to do it but we finished the fifth loop. We pulled into the aid station with just over 2 hours remaining and we were only at 26.9 miles. We needed something like 7 small loops to get our 50k. My hands and fingers were so swollen that I couldn’t make a fist. We grabbed some things to eat and drank some coke.
We had two hours left and at this point we didn’t think we could make the big loop in that time so we opted to run the little loops. We needed something like 6 loops to get our 50k in. We headed out for the first little loop. I was still walking at this point but Morrie did a combination of walking and running. Soon, she was ahead of me but not by far. I came in after the second loop and met Morrie on her way out for another pass. I told her that I thought I was done. It didn’t last long. It was hard to stay at the aid station with everyone encouraging (pushing) you to go out for one more. So I went back out. I had done four loops when this guy came running past me. Turns out he’s some sort of elite-ish runner. He asked how many loops I had left and I responded, “Two”. He said, “You can do it” and I said no, but he insisted. Something happened. I started to run. Well, I started the motion of running. I wasn’t going very fast but it was a bit faster than walking. My blister felt like it had popped but when I got home I found that it had just grown bigger. I was getting a bit hysterical. I wasn’t crying or laughing (yet) but my mind was going.
I managed to run most of the last two loops. I had to walk on the downhills because my toenail was killing me. Plus, there were more people on the little loop now and I kept pulling off to the side to let them go by me. I crossed the line, completing my first 50k, in 11 hours and 42 minutes. Give or take. My legs were wobbly. Some kind woman gave me her folding chair to sit in. Nic was there and was asking me if I needed anything; Coke, cookies, Gu, etc. I said no and as soon as I sat down I started to shut down. I could tell I was going to cry if I didn’t pull myself back so I forced myself into conversation. We talked about chafing and about how good Coke tastes after a run. There was much cheering as people ran out for another loop with just minutes to go. And then the 12 hours was up.
Soon, the woman who lent me her chair needed it so she could leave. It felt like it took me 20 minutes to get out of the chair. Morrie, Nic and I walked gingerly to the car. I don’t remember much of the ride home or the ice bath or the dinner afterward. Can’t even remember where we ate. But I do remember the people at the run were very nice. The recovery week wasn’t even all the way through and we had already signed up for the Vashon 50k. Ahhh, runners amnesia!
What have I gotten myself into?
