I ran the Mt. Hood 50 miler on Saturday, July 30th.
The night before, a group of us runners met up at the Ice Axe Grill for burgers and it was really nice meeting and visiting. I had a huge hamburger with fries and ate the whole thing. After, a friend and I went for a short walk.
I did not sleep much at all the night before as predicted and my alarm clock never did need to go off, I was up way before 4 AM and out the door at 4:30 to the race site, about 30 min down the road from the hotel.
Prior to starting, I thought to myself, "I really don't want to run for the next 12 hours" But that is exactly what happened.
Starting off was cool, but not bad and it was fairly light out to see the ground. All the runners that started at the early start were sure quiet in the wee morning hours. And, I was really feeling good the first 1/2 of the race, which was 28 miles. It was an out and back, 14 miles out, then back. I forced myself to eat a peanut butter power bar, but it took me a good 1 1/2 hours to finish it. After that first powerbar, I really didn't eat much. I was craving oranges, which were gone by the time I reached the aid stations. During the first half, I met up with a lot of people that I knew and it was fun to chat with them. I did meet up with Stephanie Duncan somewhere during the first 1/2 and we ran together the whole remainder of the run and it was a lot of fun.There were some beautiful views of the mountain, just you couldn't look at it for long because the trail was narrow and on a cliff. Sure death if you fell. Oh and bad place to go by the people coming back from the out and back. Oh well.
At the 1/2 or 28 miles, I stopped at my drop bag, changed my socks and noticed my feet were already black, I re-filled my camelbak, got more supplies and headed for the Honey Bucket. I met up with Stephanie and we headed out again, but not feeling so fresh this time around for the remaining 22 miles. And we started walking the hills, where as prior, I was running up most of them.The remainder of the run was a blurr. It was hot, lots of dust was flying up. Stephanie and I chatted a lot and complained a lot. We started joking by telling people that our goal was to finish last and tie for it. But we quickly realized we were not going to be last. We then just started counting down the miles to the next aid station and the next. The 2 mile hill at mile 43 was brutal. I tripped at least twice during the race, but never fell. I did get a huge blister on my toe and one my toes may be black. I'll have to take off the polish to check.
I was feeling better towards the end, guess I got a second wind. Stephanie and I were both talking about how at our last 50 we sprinted to the finish line. I said to her prior to finishing that I didn't want to sprint and she said she didn't want to either. But just before the finish, I said "Stephanie, lets sprint!" So we were giggling at the finish. It says on the race results that she came in 1 second after me, but we were tied! We were not competing with each other. Although, I was happy to be done I think I could have gone further.
I think what really hurt me was that I was constantly craving those oranges and nothing else, but when I got to the aid stations, they were gone. I had to rely on Gu's, which I don't normally eat. I drank plenty of water, I thought. But only went to the bathroom once. During the entire race, I ate 1 1/2 powerbars, a cliff bar, few oranges, other snacky food, but not much really. I had a lot of those salt caps, which have always helped prevent cramping in my legs.
After finishing, I had about 1/2 of a hamburger and diet Dr. Pepper.
When I got back to the hotel, I took a shower. It took about 10 minutes to get all the dirt off of my feet, even had to soak them for awhile. It then took me 1 1/2 hours to eat a can of ravioli's and 1/2 of my Subway Sandwich. I took 3 pain killers throughout the night and a sleeping pill. I didn't go to bed as early as I would have liked, 10 PM. But only because I took such a long time to eat. I woke up quite a bit during the night. I even got up twice to eat more. I ate a banana and a powerbar. I had to pee a lot also.
In the morning, I just put on sweatpants and a sweater and headed down to the lobby only to be surprised by how busy the lobby was. I looked horrible, eyes were all puffy and I was not awake. I ran into another runner and we chatted for a few minutes. I stayed down at the lobby for about a hour. I drank 2 cups of coffee, 3 cups of apple juice and ate 2 hard boiled eggs, a muffin and an orange. But again, took me forever.
When I got back to my room, I had another 5 hour energy drink, but almost took a nap on the couch. I then ate a banana and the 2nd 1/2 of my Subway sandwich. I took a shower, dressed, put my makeup on and left.
I'm doing okay. I do think I will recover nicely, just need a good nights sleep. I'm not that swollen or achy.
So, even though the Mt. Hood 50 was a harder race than my first 50 and took 2 hours longer, it felt easier the 2nd time around.
50 miles 11:50:49. Overall place 119/171
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