A gorgeous Cuyamaca morning at the starting line of trail half marathon.
Family photo, minus Pirate Man and Scabby Knee's Daddy
Loving the dirt.
The camp site stage for Scabby Knees
First off, NO POOP stops, no cramps...yea! I owe it all to Let'srun.com(ha, ha...runs)AND all of you for your awesome advice and great comments.
I took a 4 oz dose of IMODIUM about a half an hour before the start of the race and NEVER felt the cramps, never had the URGE and the body worked it's magic. I don't know if this "plan" would work for everyone but I'm back to my "regular" self this morning and planning on using the miracle liquid for my next race.
THE RACE:
This was a low key event so when I say race, I should say that it was basically a trail run for MORE than 13.2 miles with lots of other people. I tried to keep the pace up there and push the hills. I am NOT against walking in an ultra but since this distance was so much shorter, I decided to run the hills. This actually ended up working out...considering I missed a turn off and avoided the steepest incline and descent in the race, uh, and I took two other people with me. One of them was Runway, my marathon partner in crime, who had stayed the night with us in our sparse little cabin. I guess we all missed the pink plastic ribbons at one point, only to discover them a while later, taking THAT turn and coming in to the aide station ahead of the first runner. The aide station volunteers didn't seem surprised that two skirt-wearing girls were ripping it up on the trails, with no MEN in sight. We had no idea and didn't stop, just continued on our merry way.
At this point in the race, we were about five miles in, which should have been six miles, and we felt awesome. We were jumping streams, running through mud and having a jolly time under the canopy of trees and gorgeous vegetation. I felt so good, so full of zip that I took off down a rocky hill...my ankles wobbling from very little technical trail running as of late, and suddenly found myself alone with white flour arrows pointing in three different directions.
I was suddenly a victim of an ALICE IN WONDERLAND moment. Runway wasn't behind me. I crossed the road and found a little sign pointing UP the hill that I had just descended that said 50k GO HERE> So, I just did an eeny-meeny type of decision making and took a hill with a pink ribbon by storm. It was steep, it was rocky it was full of little sticks. It was also empty...until I was faced head on with a down hill trail runner from the 50k who informed me I was miles off course and heading in the wrong direction. So, I flipped around and followed him down...tripping and hobbling over the rocks, feeling STUPID and totally inexperienced. Off in the distance, I heard a woman's voice so I headed that way.
**At this point, I must insert the thought that I had regarding ALL Colorado bloggers:
YOU MAKE THIS LOOK SO EASY and EFFORTLESS!
Reaching the ALICE IN WONDERLAND site was of no help, once there, I was totally alone again, spinning in a circle, shouting Runway's real name, hoping my rotating body would send out a rotating message that would reach all four corners of the Cuyamaca Mountains(assuming there were four corners to a mountain range).. Silence responded. See, I really am a rookie.
Suddenly, Red Shirt came ripping down the hill, he wasn't too talkative but did tell me he was first male in the half. Hmmmmmm. I really WAS off course. So, I ran back up the first hill that I had descended, looked around and decided to follow him home...at least I would find my way back to the finish without winding up a skeletal corpse, lying across the trail.
I smelled people and suddenly, dozens of 50k runners were walking up the LONG hill that I was running down. "GOOD JOB!" they shouted, "Awesome!" Uh-oh. That only meant I wasn't far behind the first place guy...meaning that WE HAD skipped the trail up the peak and even though I had gone off course again, we were way too close in time to the first place guy.
Oh well, I gave the last down hill everything I had, and then some. It was hot, it was sunny, I was running and I didn't have diarrhea. It was a joyful time.
Crossing the finish line confirmed that we had gone off course. Runway had arrived WAY before Red Shirt Guy and although she and I were shaking our tails on this run, we were slower than Red Shirt's pace for sure.
The director of the race was the coolest ever. Runway was first over all just because she crossed the finish line first. Red Shirt asked NO questions and assumed second place...I came in second female and 6th over all....and that was that. NO QUESTIONS ASKED. We all left laughing...as I said, it was a low key event.
