How do you train for a 100 mile race?

Cliff's notes version: no one knows.

I signed up for April's 100 mile race about 3am Saturday night (registration opened at midnight). I didn't really know if it would fill up, but I had just gotten home from hanging out at a friend's house and was up anyway.

As soon as I woke up Sunday morning, once I got past that "what the hell have I DONE" feeling (kidding, that isn't going anywhere), I moved on to "how the hell do I train for this?".

I spent some time reading all the research on the internet about 100 milers. Actually, not that much time. There's not a whole lot on the internet on 100 milers. Shocking, right?

There was so little, I even had time to line up some awesome pacers. One of the many, many reasons I was hesitant to sign up for a 100 miler was that I didn't think I would know people who would want to come support me when I was dirty, tired, and whiny. In the middle of the night. I've underestimated just how crazy and devoted my running friends are.

From what I understand, the key to completing a 100 miler is to run a lot in training, stay hydrated, and pray.

Look a meme! I worked extra hard on this post!

According to one article, a study showed that people who were successful at the 100 distance only did 10% more mileage than for those training for a 50 miler. Now, this may not have been a peer reviewed study, and it conveniently eliminated key details like what exactly "training for a 50 miler" means. But I like what it says, so I'm going with it.

More seriously, the main idea seemed to be that the key is back to back long runs on the weekends, and focusing on those, rather than a ridiculous amount of miles during the week. This was a relief to me, because I'm really over those Wednesday pre-work 15 milers.

That part is just like 50 miler training. It's unrealistic for a normal person to try to train anywhere close to the race distance. Even if you have time for a 70 miler on Saturday, you don't have time to then spend 3 weeks recovering from it. Instead, you use back to back long runs to simulate running on tired legs while avoiding completely annihilating your body in the process.

I created a training plan that has 2 weekends with 30/20 combinations (30 miles on Saturday, 20 on Sunday), and one weekend with a 52 mile run. The 52 mile run will also begin at 1am - another important part of 100 miler training is night running. Since the race continues overnight into the next day - you kind of have to practice having the sun go down while you're running so you learn to keep running and not just lay down on the side of the road and go to sleep. Or cry.

The plan isn't totally finished, but I'll share it in all its terrifying glory when I'm done. However, there's no hurry, because I won't start training until December 30. Which I'm weirdly excited about.

Since I'm looking at a whole lot of running coming up, what's your favorite thing to listen to while you run/exercise/drive/whatever?

I'm all over the place. My playlist jumps from Miley Cyrus to Broadway to Eminem to funny podcasts to audiobooks, and on a lot of runs I listen to nothing but my crazy thoughts. The only thing I'll never, ever listen to is country. Ew.

The next step, but I don't know why

As some astute stalkers blog readers have already guessed, I signed up for a 2014 race last weekend. It's kind of a big deal.

The C&O Canal 100 miler

This April, I'll be attempting to run 100 miles. Don't worry about me though, this is one of those "easy" 100 milers. It's all on a flat towpath, so you won't find yourself lost while trying to climb a mountain at 3am.

To put it in perspective, there is no race "date". The race spans over two days (Saturday at 7am to Sunday at noon). There's a 30 hour cutoff. Meaning the race continues overnight. I'm counting on my GORUCK experience to get me through that part.

I would have announced it yesterday, along with Kara, but I really wanted my success making pie crust to get top billing.

So now the big question is: why? My friend asked me the day before Stone Mill to explain exactly what goes through my head when I decide running 50 miles is a good idea. 

I didn't have an answer. Then I had 11.5 hours to think about it the next day during the race. I still couldn't come up with anything. At least not that I could put into words. Or even google something someone much more articulate has already put into words.

 I like pain? Except not really.

Something about the challenge maybe? That could be it.

At my first 50 miler, the lows were awful. The thought of running one more step, much less 30 more miles, was incomprehensible and had me nearly laying down crying on the trails.

I wouldn't exactly say every moment of my 3rd one was pure bliss, but relatively, I felt much better throughout the race. I was never near tears, never yelled at strangers, and never thought I'd rather be in the Hunger Games than doing this stupid race. At the end, again, it's all relative, but I didn't feel as close to death as in previous years.

Clearly, it was time to up the ante.

Another possible reason is that I'm really a lazy runner. I know that doesn't seem in line with my current goal race, but stick with me.

Pretty much at this point my options for challenge are either increase the distance, or choose a race and focus on improving my speed. I would much rather run an easy ten miles than a 5 mile tempo run. Focusing on speed is really, really hard, it requires discipline, focus, math (those 800 intervals don't time themselves), exertion - you catch my drift.

Training for a 100 is much simpler. Run. A lot. Then run more. See how much more appealing that is?

We are currently looking for pacers. So anyone that's ever thought "I'd really like to travel to Maryland and run with Alyssa and Kara in the middle of the night while they are dirty, miserable, and probably rude and annoying", please let us know and cancel your plans the weekend of April 26-27. I'll bake you a dessert. I promise.

The key to accomplishing goals: aim low

 I just had four full days off from work. Technically, I did a shift at my second job last night, but it's hard to call that "work" since I get to try on cool new running gear and chat with runners. I did scrub the toilet though, so there's that.

Anyway, I didn't intend for that time to go to waste. Like most productive, motivated adults, I went into my Thanksgiving break with some goals.

1. Sleep as much as possible.

Nailed it. Didn't set an alarm once.

I preferred the bed, not the couch during Cards Against Humanity, but to each their own.

2. When not sleeping, spend 95% of my time relaxing, eating, or reading.

Obviously the relaxing and eating was pretty easy, given the holiday. Eric injected our turkey with butter, and deep fried it. That's how you do Thanksgiving.

Every time it's lowered in, I wonder if this will be the time it causes an explosion.

Apparently he looks evil while carving the turkey.

Because otherwise no one would know what a Thanksgiving table looks like.

Forgot about drinking. I made apple cider sangria for Thanksgiving.

I was a little stressed about the reading. I planned to read two books by authors I actually know in real life, and while I was excited, there's some pressure with that.  I could suddenly really relate to what Carrie went through reading Berger's book.

The first was my work BFF Kristin's book. She's an official published author now - you can buy her book Double Sunset on amazon! I definitely started it because I thought it was so cool that my friend was a real live author, but I ended up sacrificing some of my precious sleep Monday and Tuesday night because it was so good and I couldn't put it down. It's essentially a romance but with a little action - hard to describe but I really recommend it!

The second was even more nerve wracking. My aunt wrote a book, and asked me to read it for her and give her feedback. Now it was family, and she was specifically counting on me to be honest about my thoughts.

I'm not done yet, but it's so good. It's been awhile since I had that "I can't wait to get home from work and finish this book!" feeling (sadly, it wasn't there with Allegiant) and that's how I feel about her book. Such a relief!

3. Don't do a turkey trot.

I mean, clearly this isn't that different from the last goal, but it's a bit more specific. I'd done most of my cooking Wednesday night, so I was free to sleep until 9 on Thanksgiving, and then enjoy nice hot pumpkin spice coffee and the parade. Words can't describe the joy I got from looking at my instagram feed, which was nothing but cold looking people at Turkey trots.

I showed them.

Around noon, I did a free, warm, easy 7 miles on the treadmill, accompanied by Buffy and the smell of frying turkey. I even put the incline at 1%.

4. Hang out with friends

I played about 5 solid hours of Cards Against Humanity and stayed up into the single digits every night catching up with friends I haven't seen recently. Perfection.

Thanksgivmukkah

Remember when people used to take group shots at social events? Now every time we hang out with our friends there are much cuter things to photograph. 

 

Thursday

 

 

Friday

 

Saturday. Even I find this dog cute enough to take a picture of. Still hate the species in general though.

5. Get the Christmas decorations up. Done and done. And I played with this photo in my app and made it all weird and fish-bowl-y, because I use my time off wisely.

 

 

Hint hint. Santa.

 Don't worry though, I didn't forget about my Jewish heritage.

 

 

Eric got 8 Hannukah themed chocolate bars and has been hiding one for me to find each day. I think it's pretty clear how I feel about that.

 

My first stop each and every morning.

 

In my tablet - genius.

6. Black Friday shopping. But really black Thursday shopping.

Yup, we went shopping after Thanksgiving dinner, and I feel zero guilt about it. I've worked in customer service since I was 15, which is actually half my life now, which is actually really depressing. But the point is, I've worked plenty of Thanksgivings, especially at Starbucks.

More importantly, my mom manages a movie theater, and those are open 365 days a year, so she's always had to do holidays on another day or stress over getting the day off. I thought that the whole thing about a social media badge telling people not to shop was a joke, because I've never seen a "in support of family values, please consider not seeing a movie on Thanksgiving or Christmas or all the other holidays!" badge.

Apparently it wasn't. And neither is this.

 

We went to Old Navy and Kohls on our way home from our Friendsgiving. We took turns standing in line, got great deals, made a huge dent in our shopping, got home in time for the second half of the Ravens game, and slept in on Friday. Win/win/win/win.

7. Make my own pie crust.

Beautiful

Apparently this isn't the culinary feat I thought it was, because basically everyone I told was like "oh, I know, I always make my own, so easy, right?". Still, I'd never done it, and now I have. Pumpkin dutch apple pie for the win.

 

With homemade whipped cream. Lots of whipped cream.

It passed a pretty tough critic, so I felt proud.

You can't tell, but I promise that's my pie crust in her mouth.

It wasn't a goal, but I ran 7 miles Saturday and 5 Sunday. It took time away from relaxing and eating, but whatever.

Black Friday/Thursday shopping - love it or hate it?

Also - last book that you couldn't wait to get home and read? I'm almost done with my aunt's and I'm kind of considering branching out from YA fiction and trying a novel intended for adults.

 

 

Life keeps me humble

I usually get a pretty strong finish line high after a big race and start feeling like I'm super special and awesome. This week has reminded me that I'm actually weak and pathetic.

Exhibit One: 30 minutes of Jillian Michaels completely kicked my ass.

I know I already said this but it continues happening, so I need to continue talking about it. I did the workout Saturday, and I could still barely move on Monday. Like.....everything hurt. In comparison, after Stone Mill, I was walking around and even sitting down Monday like nothing happened.

Exhibit Two: I don't get ID'd anymore

The broomball season is 6 games, and last night was our fifth. We finally scored our first goal, and proudly ended the game in a tie! We are now at zero wins, 3 losses, and TWO TIES. 

Of course, we went out after to celebrate.

Team Orange. We were never given a name.

I was feeling pretty cool, heading out on a Monday night at 9pm, even if I was going to just get water. Until we approached the bouncer and he said "I was going to ask for ID, but then I saw you guys." Ok. Message received, bouncer.

Exhibit Three: I've grown into a soft, wussy Marylander.

I grew up in the tundra of Rochester, NY, where people don't even blink or turn on the news to check for cancellations after getting a foot and a half of snow overnight. This post by Holly has some fun facts about how truly terrible winters are there, if you care. In Baltimore, temperatures in the low 30s and flakes is enough to shut the whole city down.

Well, now I'm right there with them. When I left work today it was 35 and raining. I had stupidly worn flats that might as well have been made of cardboard, and forgot my gloves that morning. 

I thought I was going to die.

The second I got home, I cranked the heat, threw a mug of water in the microwave for tea, and turned on the hot water in the bathtub. I tried to put my feet in, hoping to regain feeling, but they were so cold that it hurt. 

Can you see how white my toes are?

Now I'm still in flannel PJS, a robe, and a heavy blanket and shivering.

Exhibit Four: Running is still hard.

After a full week (8 days, in all honesty) off, I returned to running. Even though the temperature never left the 20s yesterday, I braved the cold to run outdoors after work. Since we had broomball (aka 40 minutes in an ice rink) anyway, I figured I might as well get cold ahead of time.

I did 5 miles, and it wasn't bad, but I never really seemed to warm up until I was almost done. This morning, I cried uncle and ran another 5 on the treadmill. Running outside in the cold is bad enough, trying to leave a warm bed to do it....well, I have the treadmill now, so it's an unnecessary evil! 5 miles felt...tiring. More than I thought it should have. But at least I'm back in action! I'm trying to psych myself up for more Jillian - so far it hasn't happened.

What's recently knocked you down a peg or two?

A weekend of young adult bliss but not in the creepy way

Last weekend, I had a glorious experience running all day Saturday through the mud and woods. While it was great, I've really enjoyed spending some time on the opposite side of the spectrum. I've had a weekend filled with young adult novel heaven, paired with pure laziness.

First up: Catching Fire. My friends and I declared ourselves too old for Thursday night midnight shows, so we went at 7pm Friday. I was counting down the hours from the time I woke up.

As I'm sure most readers already know, this movie was epic. Probably even better than the first one. I couldn't stop mentally obsessing over how amazing it was all weekend. The only things that kept me from seeing it Saturday and Sunday as well were the horrible weather, and important plans to watch other YA movies.

Let's talk fashion. It's an area I don't generally delve into on this blog, but I feel Friday night I really nailed it.

#OOTD

Shirt: Bake bread with Peeta, Skinny Dip with Finnick (with golden Trident)
Socks: Flames and mockingjays, made for children (probably), cut off my circulation but it was worth it
Headband: Mockingjay symbols
Hair: French braided
Bag: Big enough to sneak in a Wegmans sub, soda, and candy to the movie theater (the odds were in my favor)
Tights and shorts: Champion by Target, circa 2006

On Saturday, it was time for part 2 of my BFF Twilight sleepover. We used to be able to knock it out in one fell swoop, but that was when there were fewer movies and we could stay up past 11pm. I was concerned that when viewed within 24 hours of the amazing performances in Hunger Games, the Twilight acting/plotline would appear even more terrible than usual. I was right. Does Kristen Stewart ever have ANY expression that isn't "tortured"?

Like everything, the viewing experience was improved with girltalk, wine, and chocolate.

Seven layer Samoa bars. Basically, Samoas chopped up into small pieces and then baked into a giant Samoa.

Terrible picture, but I was really busy eating and watching vampires.

To complete the weekend, I finished Allegiant (the last of the Divergent trilogy). I'm hesitant to say this, because it seems to be at odds with internet opinion, but I didn't completely hate it. I don't want to get into a whole discussion of a book like 20% of my readers have read, but I would like that 20% to all email or tweet me so we can discuss it in detail. Particularly if you've read the Maze Runner series so we can get into parallels.

Here's some things that confused me this weekend.

1.  I got home from the movies at midnight Friday night and it was 60 degrees out. I woke up Sunday morning and it was 16 feels like 11. WTF mother nature?

2. I did 30 minutes of Jillian Michael's No More Trouble Zones Saturday. Guess which left me more sore on Sunday - that or running 50 miles last weekend? In all fairness, the fact that French braiding my hair felt like an upper body workout Friday night probably should have clued me in to my pathetic lack of arm strength.

While last weekend's race did leave with a bit of a runner's high and wanting to run ALL THE MILES, I can't say I haven't enjoyed this fat drunk week off. Who wouldn't enjoy a week where every single morning includes an extra hour + of sleep? I did run a mile before the movie Friday, and play 3 quarters (27 minutes) of broomball Thursday. Just saying.

Did you see Catching Fire/read Allegiant and if so can we discuss it? If not....just tell me about the last chocolate you ate. Actually just do yourself a favor and introduce yourself to those things.

 

Finally, everyone is safely in their 30s

I'll probably end up doing another 50 mile race, just because this week got busy so I didn't have much time to write a detailed account of my pre-race activities and immense suffering post race. Monday, I had to attend a meeting on running apparel (ok, that was actually awesome), Wednesday is my grad class (really, really not awesome) and Thursday I have reading night AND broomball. 

Clearly, Tuesday night was the only time I had available to do my important preparation for this weekend.

Pretty sure I'll never make it through the reaping without ugly-crying.

My coworker seemed really disappointed when she asked what I was going to eat the day before my big race and I was just like "uh, you know...the usual...basically the same stuff I would eat on any given day". But when you really love to eat carbs, it's really not necessary to "carb load". Alternately, you could say that I am carb-loading every day.

Pre-race, I had a meal many questioned, but I felt confident about. Pad Thai. It served me well.

It was actually an important dinner. My final BFF joined the rest of us in this glorious new decade (30s). I can finally officially declare that everyone in their 20s is dead to me now.

FYI, I enjoyed the crap out of the frosting on the top left for dessert.

I've already been here for 5 months, so finally I can stop cursing her out of jealousy. It's crazy though, because it feels like yesterday that I was pitying her for having months to wait while confidently handing over my legit over-21 ID. 

I did abstain from alcohol, but that was mainly because I had a 40 minute drive after dinner. Had I known I was going to drink during the race, I probably would have had some wine to relax at the hotel!

The night after the race, I really couldn't sleep because my legs were throbbing and no position seemed comfortable. Sunday morning, just walking to the bathroom took forever and seemed to require nearly the same level of effort as running the entire race itself.

However, once I left the hotel, I got an amazing bagel and made an important discovery: I was just a few miles from the newest Wegmans in Maryland. Clearly I went, and even better, they were doing all sorts of cheese samples. It was pretty close to heaven.

Walking all around Wegmans seemed to help. When I got home, I did some cooking to prepare for the week, and then walked two miles on the treadmill and foam rolled. I think resisting all my natural urges to spend the day glued to the couch really helped, because I slept great Sunday night and was walking completely normally Monday (even up and down stairs). I could barely even tell I ran a race at all!

The only issue is that my left ankle is being weird. It's really....tight...or something. It's not painful, but I feel the tightness when I try to flex my foot or curl my toes (but not when I put weight on it).

The trouble spot is under my thumb in case any doctors are reading.

It's not that big a deal, because I had originally planned to take a full week off running after the race (broomball excluded), no matter what. I didn't stick to that the last two years and I don't feel it was beneficial (and I'm positive it led to bronchitis in 2011). It probably isn't strictly necessary, but the worst case scenario is that I get some extra sleep and have time to watch The Hunger Games plus all the Catching Fire previews.

The weird part is that this is my left ankle. I rolled my right ankle twice during the race, really badly. I know I have the world's lowest pain tolerance but I was biting my hand and seriously struggling both times. Of course, that ankle has felt fine since the race. 

Internet friends, please diagnose me. Ashley has already declared tendonitis, and the definition she sent me sounds pretty accurate. I'm RICE-ing as much as possible! 

Stone Mile 50, 2013 retribution edition

I'm pleased to report that I did not die in the woods when the Stone Mill 50 became a surprise Stone Mill 77 or something like that. The race ended up being about 51.5 miles (by our estimate) and I successfully crossed the finish line after just 11 hours and 35 minutes. That's nearly a 3 hour course PR! If more races could cut down the distance by 5 miles year to year, I'd be PRing all over the place.

Friday night, I arrived at the fabulous and extremely classy Hilton to join Kara around 9:30pm. We were pretty much in full race panic mode and frantically debated outfits, counted Gu packets, and discussed bathroom logistics that are normally completely taboo at slumber parties. A Full House marathon in the background kept us sane - if we started to get too anxious, we just paused for an Uncle Jesse eye candy break. 

I was shocked to see my name and a race logo on my bib and a timing chip. Stone Mill had really fancied things up since 2011!

I think we settled down and went to bed between 10:30 and 11. Although I was pretty nervous about the race, I took some melatonin and slept great. 

Being a ten minute drive from the race start meant we got to sleep in until 4:30 am (last time I had to wake up at 3:20!). That's still pretty early and I was groggy and questioning my life choices, as always. I stumbled to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and found my mouth unexpectedly filled with nasty fake bubblegum flavor that was disgustingly sickly sweet. Apparently I had grabbed the wrong toothpaste.

Hazards of waking up with a #motherrunner.

After that I was wide awake. We headed over to the high school where the race begins. About halfway there, Kara realized she'd left her carefully packed drop bag at the hotel. The race began at 6am, and it was already 5:30, so that meant she was pretty much screwed, since her headlamp was in there.

Since it was so late, we had to park half a mile away, and predicted that was really going to suck after the race. We were right. The good news was by the time we used the (heated!) bathroom, it was 5:56 and we didn't have any time to freak out, fake a pulled hamstring and and spend the day in the hotel hot tub. We walked up to the start and checked in at about 5:59. With no formal command, the race just began when everyone moved through the start line.

If I had seen this crazy eye picture before the race, I'm pretty sure I would have DNS'd.

As you can see in the picture, the race begins in complete darkness. According to an email we received, lights wouldn't be necessary due to the nearly full moon, but I did not find that to be the case. The last time I ran this race, it was my first 50 and I had packed everything I could ever possibly want 3 days ahead of time, made color coded google documents, and was really on the ball.

This time, it hadn't even occurred to me to pack a light, and if Perry hadn't mentioned it in a Friday morning email, I wouldn't have brought them at all. Which is surprising, considering I am still mentally scarred from the horror of running for 3 hours in the dark last time. 

The race starts around the school, then goes down the steepest hill I have ever run (seriously, this is not 50 miler distortion, it's insane, and the race finishes by going right back up it). Since it's 6am, everything is coated with a nice slippery layer of dew. After the hill, it's single track trail, and instead of wet grass, it's wet leaves, which cover pointy roots and jutting rocks. Did I mention it was pitch black, which quickly turned into that grey twilight that is possibly even more difficult to see in?

I had thrown my knuckle lights and headlamp in my suitcase at the last minute, but I hadn't bothered to check the batteries. I gave my headlamp to Kara, but it seems she considered going from her expensive Petzl to my $9 Walmart headlamp a bit of a downgrade, and was dissatisfied with the quality. My batteries were nearly dead, so we were pretty close to running blind.

Things quickly got even more fun. Apparently, we were starting on an out and back (I guess I could have checked the course map a little more diligently). Through a swamp. So while we were navigating thick, slick mud, runners started returning on the single track trail (aka super narrow path), blinding us with their working lights and fresh batteries. 

Annoying as it was this out and back allowed the race to skip the waist high stream crossing at mile 47, and allowed the course to be actually 51 miles, so I wasn't too mad. I knew from before that the race sort of sucked before there was daylight. I was expending 99% of my mental energy on trying not to fall and slice my skull open on rocks, and trying really hard to hold out for sunrise. The other 1% of my energy was panicking about having no lights at the end of the race, when it was also be pitch black, and I'd be tired and delusional.

 As predicted, once the sun came out, my spirits were high, and I started to enjoy the race. While I have bad mouthed Stone Mill for the extra distance, it's really a well organized race and the volunteers are just absolutely phenomenal. For the most part, the trails are really runnable and easy to follow. It's no frills - you pay your $35, show up, run, go home - no medal or tshirt.

I don't need to pay for fancy signs!

Mile 1-20ish were good times all around. I didn't bother to wear my Garmin, thinking it didn't have a long enough battery life. Turns out, everyone else's lasted until the finish, but I didn't regret my decision. I love trail running because you can just zone out and not obsess over numbers, and get all zen with the trees or whatever. I wore a regular wrist watch, and every time I looked it, I was pleasantly surprised with how long we had been running.

I was even still able to smile for the photographer!

Don't worry, he still caught one of my usual horrible form and DERP? face

Somewhere in there we met up with our friends Perry and Crystal, and the four of us chatted and were having a grand old time. Around 2 hours in, it was time for a bathroom break, but there was really no tree cover in the woods. So we opted for the obvious second choice.

Stone Mill is a hardcore, trail ultra. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Kara was really concerned they wouldn't want muddy, non paying randoms using their bathrooms, but I assured her that during my 6 years as a partner (fancy Starbucks terminology for "employee"), we let anyone and everyone (including much dirtier people) use the bathroom. Additionally, I'm quite sure I've spent more than enough money there to warrant unlimited bathroom use for life.

To keep it classy, I used the men's room to save time. If we had to take turns, our finish could have been like 11:38 instead of 11:35, and you can see how disastrous that would have been.

We were really concerned about mile 20, since that was a low point for both of us when we ran JFK. We agreed to treat ourselves to some Christmas music from Pandora as a pick me up then, but we never needed it. Mile 25 is the "Penny Loch" aid station (you know when they have names, they are going to be extra special and not just have pretzels, like some of the smaller ones). There were a ton of delicious looking homemade treats (including pizza?!). 

I know I had a lot of good stuff there (turned out to be too much, oops, but it was the last time I made that mistake), but what stood out was this unbelievably delicious homemade coconut macaroon. I said before that what sucked me back into this race was the food - so many volunteers take the time to bake special treats, and they are truly talented.

Do you see that grill? They were making fresh hot grilled cheeses! (I did not partake out of fear of GI distress).

After that, you get about 3 miles on the C&O canal (a flat, crushed rock path). It can be boring (it got a little monotonous during JFK, where you are on it for 27 miles!), but it's a really nice change from the rolling hills, having to constantly stare at your feet, and being on your guard to avoid falling. Just like in 2011, I thought I'd love this portion, but I actually hated it and couldn't wait to get back on the trails. I think I got to reliant on my walk breaks on the hills!

Conventional running wisdom promotes negative splits (running the second half faster than the first), but I've come to learn that for me, in an ultra, that's just not the way to go. There's basically no chance that I'm going to great and ready to push the pace at mile 40, so I need to run strong where I can, and that's generally the beginning. Our friend seemed surprised that we didn't have specific pace goals, but ultras have such varied terrain and they are just SO LONG that it's impossible (for me) to plan paces ahead of time. I think we've gotten pretty good at running by feel - pushing it when we feel good, and dialing it back when we need to, and other than forgetting to change my batteries, I think I ran this race to the best of my abilities.

Kara and I each took a picture of the woods at completely different parts of the race. I think it's safe to say that these give you a pretty good view of almost the entire course.

We stared at leaves for nearly 12 hours.

Sometimes we got breaks. To climb over rocks. Under overpasses. This was somewhere in the high 40 miles, so you can imagine how fun that was.

This was my actual view. I can't complain.

Somewhere in the 20s (I think?) we got to see the actual Stone Mill. 

So impressive, RIGHT?

Perry had pointed out that miles 30-40 were really the challenge of a 50 mile race, and as soon as he said it, I knew he was right. At mile 30, you're exhausted because you've run really, really far, and you still have a long ass way to go. Plus, there's that feeling of "would it really be so bad to quit now? I could still say I've ran 30 miles, and that's really nothing to sneeze at". By mile 40, you usually experience that mental turnaround from "eh, if I quit it wouldn't be so bad" to "I've come this far, I'm crossing that finish line if it kills me!", and you get the mental boost of having only single digits left.

So far, I'd managed to avoid that complete and utter depths of despair, I can't do this, I hate everything and everyone feeling that had plagued me in the early 20 miles of Stone Mill 2011. I knew if I could get through the 30s without them, I'd be golden. 

I did, and I was. I'd like to attribute this to working really hard lately on my positive attitude (I've been writing my 30 days of thankful items in my notebook every night and everything!). But that would be a lie. Here's the real secret behind my success.

Yup. This happened.

Drinking and running. I recommend it.

They had Jim Beam last time, and I didn't have any, and I have always wondered about what could have been. I skipped the liquor at mile 25, on account of things like being scared of throwing months of training into the crapper, imminent death or dismemberment as a result of drunk trail running, GI distress, wasting precious running time boozing it up, etc, etc. 

But at mile 29, with those Debbie Downer 30-40 miles looming, it was make or break time. I went for it, and luckily Perry joined me so I didn't have to drink alone. I mixed it with coke, if you were wondering. 

Kara informed that if I became drunk and lazy she'd drop me like a bad habit, so the next few miles were pretty much like when you have too much at happy hour and then a coworker you barely know shows up and in your head you're all like "just sound sober. Did that sound sober? Is that what a sober person would say?". I assured her that I only poured like a teaspoon in my coke. I'm pretty sure that was true, but after running for the entire morning and part of the afternoon, I could certainly feel that teaspoon.

I stand by my choice though, because from what I could tell, of the two of us, the one who had imbibed was in much better spirits.

I honestly wasn't that concerned about time, since I was pretty much assured of a PR. I was, however, extremely concerned about minimizing the time spent running in the dark as much as humanly possible. Although I didn't seem to have any memories whatsoever of the race course, I quite vividly remembered the terror of the woods at night. Aside from the drinking, I felt good about our time at aid stations, we were grabbing food and walking off pretty quickly, as per our plan. I couldn't stop comparing the various miles and times to my previous experience, and since the current one was coming out favorably in every way possible, that was really a pick me up.

For example, we reached mile 25 exactly at 5 hours in. I know before we were at something like mile 23 at the six and a half hour point, because I remember thinking "well we're effing screwed here". I was constantly calculating how many more hours of daylight we had and praying we could finish before the sun set.

There was a big aid station at mile 43. Other runners really saved our lives here. Crystal had an extra headlamp in her bag (they were ahead of us at this point, but she'd given Kara permission to take it). I was so panicked about my batteries that I would have stopped at a gas station and bought them if I had brought money with me. Crystal had 3 batteries in her bag, which I took, and an aid station volunteer gave me a fourth from his own personal headlamp! A second volunteer held all my crap and helped me switch out the batteries, and I felt like a HUGE weight had been lifted. I can't say enough how amazing everyone at this race was.

I still had high hopes of finishing in the light. The volunteers told us there was another aid station in 5 miles, and then 2 more miles until the finish. We had over an hour and a half to cover only 7 miles! 

They did it again though. After 5 miles, we reached an aid station....only to be told we were at mile 47. At, this point I could barely put together a cohesive sentence or state my own name, but I'd had quite awhile in the woods to crunch the numbers, and I was pretty positive that 43 + 5 = mile 48, not 47.

Here you can kind of tell our intellectual level in the later miles. 

This triggered intense, frightening flashbacks of the never-ending race of 2011, and I started interrogating the volunteers.

"How many more miles?"

"Just 3 and some change"

"ARE YOU SURE IT'S 3?? And what does "some change" mean?"

"It will feel like a long 3!"

"I don't care what it feels like....BUT IS IT REALLY 3? OR IS IT 6??"

They swore it was really 3 but I didn't believe anything anymore and it was nearly sunset. 

If you have never run in the woods, in the dark, all I can say is that it's a truly special experience. Even though we didn't achieve my goal of finishing in daylight, I was kind of glad Kara got to find out just how much pure hell it is. When I thought we had maybe 2 miles left, I made sure to point out "now imagine finding out you have 8 MORE MILES". Our new lights really helped out, but it's still really disheartening and scary to have no idea where you are, how many more miles there are to go, and to run for miles without seeing one single other human being. It's one thing to be at the end of a race and know you just have to push through for x more miles or minutes, but it's quite another to have run 48 miles and have NO CLUE when the hell this thing is ending. We were near a road, and the trail kept turning toward it, and we'd be like "finally!" and then the trail would wind again and we would be headed away.

Finally, though, we could hear the finish line cheers getting louder, and the lights kept getting closer, and we exited the woods on the road near the school. They have one last cruel little joke, and put you back in the woods when you can see the school, just so you can go through the woods and up that horrific hill to the finish.

I'll definitely be framing these.

We took some gorgeous pictures, then got the hell out of dodge. And by that I mean baby stepped like old ladies toward the car while talking nonsense because we could no longer do anything remotely close to thinking.

That was long ass recap for a long ass race, and I still feel like I left stuff out (the 900 stream crossings, for one). More importantly, I still haven't had a thin mint brownie. (Kara's hypothesis was that they weren't appealing since 90% of our diet yesterday was candy, cookies, and soda). You'll all just have to wait in suspense for tales of our fantastic post race celebration.

Edited to add: I had a bite of bacon at one of the aid stations!

Edited again (I'm tired) - if this wasn't enough information for you and you're dying to know more, check out Kara's recap!