Post run...Mississippi 50

After crossing the finish I hugged the race director, collected my belt buckle and finisher bling, then saw my friend how had finished just ahead of me by about 8 minutes.  He said he ran on because he was afraid we would not make the cut off.  I don't blame him.  I would have too.  But I made it so it's all good.  He was going to come back to my room to shower before heading back to Memphis. 

After picking up what was left of my drop bag I headed straight to the car.  The adrenaline rush began to wear off and I became immediately aware of the cold.  I also could not believe how far away from the actual start/finish I had actually ended up parking.  It seemed like forever to get back to my car as my legs got stiffer and stiffer.  I also began to shiver and by the time I made it to the car my teeth were chattering.

That adrenaline is an amazing thing.

I ignored the change of clothing I had laid out.  Ignored the sandals  I had out to put on after.  Ignored my heavy coat.  Ignored the mud on my shoes and legs, sat in my car and blasted the heat.  I picked up my phone and turned it on....No Service...oh well.

I did not waste any time.  I had to get to the hotel before I got really sleepy and really uncomfortable.  I pulled out slowly as I forced my legs to push the clutch and the gas....everything seemed to work!  Good, I could drive!  I pulled passed the chute careful for the runners still coming in and got to the exit of the park and could not remember if I needed to go left or right.  ...nice and not service on my phone.  Intuition told me right and fortunately it was correct.  After that first turn getting back was no trouble.  I finally got to a high spot in the road and my phone blew up with text messages and voice mails.  Those would just have to wait until later.

I made my way over the dirt roads and a good line of traffic was forming behind me cause I don't like to drive fast on dirt roads.  So sue me.

I finally got to the interstate and right off at the hotel and parked.  I managed to grab my bag of clothes but left everything else in the car.  As I walked to the room I began to shiver again and waiting for the elevator my teeth were chattering, but I was too tired to put on a coat...just get to the room and get to a hot shower.  That's all I had to do.

I was tracking mud down the hallway and into the room...oh well.  I got into the room and my mom was there.  She fortunately collects plastic bags and I put my muddy shoes and clothes in them and stepped into the shower.  Wow....that's an amazing feeling.. Afterward my friend came over and took his shower and we ordered pizza delivered to the room....Before we had made plans to go to a sushi restaurant but after getting warm and clean we decided that was too much effort and opted to eat in.  Funny how plans change!

Well if nothing else, long runs make for good sleep.  I slept like a baby that night and slept late.  My mom and I went downstairs to have breakfast.  I had waffles, eggs, bacon, and some more bacon.  Met up with some other runners who had stayed over night as well and relived some stories.  That's always fun when you run into other runners who did the race. 

All in all it was a good trip.  I don't know if I would recommend the Mississippi 50 due to the strict keeping to time cutoffs.  But I may do it again now that I know what to expect.  Who knows. ....anything is possible...

Sorry I have not posted in a while! Mississippi 50!

Ok, so I trained over the last month.  February was just training, yoga, weightlifting and running.  That's why I did not post anything because there was really nothing interesting to post....Sorry.

I have however been training with some wonderful friends.  I have reunited with a friend from grade school (yes...like 8th grade), we have been getting in some quality gym time.  I have been training with lots of great running friends, and getting some serious mountain climbing.  Or at least as serious as you can get in Little Rock without having to drive two hours.

All in preparation for the Jamez Mountain 50 miler in May.

Another thing I did, I ran the Mississippi 50 trail run on Saturday March 1.  Many ask why I would travel to Mississippi to run an ultra when there was a marathon in my back yard the following day.  Well I tell them ...I just needed to.

I needed a 50 mile trail run THAT weekend....I'm so happy I did it.


I have to say I have begun to figure out that runs on horse trails are probably better left in the dry part of the summer.  This is the second race on a horse trail I have done and it was the second muddiest.  We began at 6 am, which was great because I did not like the idea of running in the dark on a cold day.  It was cold.  It started out at about 29 degrees and the temp never got above 50 all day.  There was also a very strong wind.  Fortunately the forest protected us from that but you could still hear it roaring in the treetops.  That is an eerie feeling for me.  The first half mile was easy.  The trail was pine needle covered soft dirt. I was running with a friend I had met at an earlier race and we decided we would try to stay together. He had never run a 50 miler before.  I had a little experience with the Punkin holler 100K last October so I guess somehow there was a little advice I could give during the run. 

We ran across our first mud puddle and the whole line of runners stopped to navigate around it.  After the third mud puddle people were becoming less cautious and resigning themselves to the fact things were going to get real dirty.  On one particularly deep puddle there was a front runner wearing one shoe frantically poking the mud with a stick searching for his footwear.  We ran around him sympathetically....

The game became how to keep your shoes on.  Tip toeing through the mud and keeping your heels from becoming completely buried was helpful when possible, but not always.

After a few mud puddles, the choices were to risk the mud or the briars on the side.  Then  there was the water crossing.  The first one was deep and again caused a huge log jam as panicked runners tried to not get completely soaked in the icy water.  But after the third water crossing that became futile as well.  Walking carefully through the water was the best way to get through and not lose a shoe or an ipod.

The first 36 miles were three 12 mile loops, so everything we saw we knew we would get to see twice over.  By the time we got to the third 12 mile loop the puddles and crossings were so destroyed that footing was tricky.  Once I stepped off into a creek and my foot continued to sink in the muddy water. Fortunately my friend was right behind me and he held me up before I sank completely in.   My glove and sleeve got soaked with mud and I finally righted myself before I fell in entirely.   During another creek crossing I fell forward and landed on my hands in elbow deep water.  It was not pretty.  All the while we had a strict time deadline looming over us.

I did my best to eat on the run.. I had packed my nuts and candy corn in my camelback.  I grabbed handfuls of goldfish and chex mix at aid stations and ate while I walked with my food.  The sun came out briefly but then dipped again behind a wall of clouds never to be seen again.  It stayed cold.

After the three 12 mile loops the thought of only doing 6 miles twice sounded so wonderful.  After a bathroom stop we carried on to the 6 mile loop to finally see something new.

Three creek crossings on the 6 mile loop, and more mud.  Oh well, so much for something new.  My running companion finally took off as he is a stronger runner than I.  I ran into a poor girl who had sock issues and ended up taking off her socks early in the race.  The backs of her ankles are rubbed so raw I'm sure I could see ligaments in the back of her heels.  She was one tough mudder....I don't know how she did it.

At the end of my first 6 mile loop I crossed the mats with her and a couple others.  The race director came out and said "your done"....I was like "what"?  "No"...He looked at the time and asked "how many loops do you have left? " I said " one six mile loop"  He said "ok, you can finish"

Wow...that was the closest I had ever gotten to missing a time cut off ever..... and I do not feel like I was dilly dallying around on the course.  I only walked when I came on a hill.  On well, guess I was slower than I thought.  Maybe those creek and mud crossing took more time than I expected.  oh well... anyway I got to go on Thank goodness!

I took off....straight passed the aid stations, the toilets the car...took off, did not look left or right and ran as fast as I possibly could to cover my last loop as quickly as I could.  I dipped into the woods as darkness was threatening and the wind was picking up and the temperature was dropping.  Run..runn...run.. dont stop for anything cause they can still make you take a 50K time if you don't get this loop done in less than 2 hours. and it aint an easy loop.

I did the first two miles and came on the aid station .   I had sucked down a gu with caffeine to give me a kick and handed off the shriveled packet to the aid station volunteer. "do you need anything ? " he asked.... "Just to finish " I answered. and kept running.  I had 4 miles to go but I told myself there was 5.
5 miles to go
5 miles to go
5 miles to go...
I passed the next mile marker, there was only three miles to go but I told myself there was 4

4 miles to go
don't stop
don't stop

I came on a water crossing and a hill I had to walk....

I saw another runner up ahead.  A guy in blue.  Other than that I was alone.  I had left the rest of the group that had crossed the mat with me.  They had stopped at the aid station at the start finish.  I did not take that luxurey..just run

I passed the next mile marker...
only 2 miles to go but I told myself there was 3...

I  kept gunning for the runner ahead of me and almost got close.  I kept looking back for the runners who crossed with me but they never caught up....Ok, that means I'm keeping pace.  My garmin had shut down hours ago so I had no idea how fast I was running.

A sharp pain started to creep up in my right leg....

don't stop
keep running
kept getting darker and the wind was roaring in the trees.
Just three miles to go...

finally finally I see where the pink and gold trail meet.  That is where another runner had told me there would just be 3/4 of a mile to the start finish on my earlier loop

I told myself it was 1 and 3/4 so I could not slow down!

I wanted to burst into tears cause my knee hurt and I wanted to stop and get warm, get my belt buckle and be done,  stop and go to the hotel for a hot shower. I wanted to get in my car and blast the heater, I wanted to stop running.

I saw the sign to the park entrance for the Longleaf horse trail and the cars parked at the start finish...was this true? was this the finish line? I ran down the road by the orange cones. past cars and into the chute....

done...
More to come...

Sunday's Super Fun Base Trail Run

As part of my training for this altitude run I have decided I would add some multiple loops of base trail running.  I choose the base trail because it is super technical and requires a lot of agility to traverse.

Sunday morning I decided to run it twice in a row, which is not many miles, but it is severely taxing due to the rocks and boulders you have to run over. 

There were lots of recreational hikers and some runners.  Lots of folks climbing the mountain.  It was a really nice day and I completed my first loop in about 38 minutes, the second 40.  So my goal is to shorten that time over this spring.  We'll see how it goes.

Friday's Long run!

And sometimes you have those amazing run's and you wish you could bottle that energy and feeling up and re release it during a marathon.  Friday's long run was one of those.  I pulled a 9:20 pace for 15 miles.  It was a beautiful sunny morning and my run started at 8:40 am.  It was cold then I started, in the high 20's but I quickly warmed up in the sun, pounding away at the trail.  I cruized over the Big Dam Bridge, then ran the mile and a half stretch to the two rivers bridge.  Crossed that then circled the park.  There were others around getting their runs in but very few.  I almost had the trail to myself and it was so refreshing just to sink into the tunes on my iPod and think about nothing.

New Music!  Maclemore!  I love the  new album The Heist:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Heist-Explicit/dp/B009G78EE2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359901951&sr=8-2&keywords=The+Heist


Purchase this!  You won't be disapointed!

New Music!

Homemade vegetable juice - frozen!

So one of the issues with juicing is the mess and cleanup involved in just making a glass of juice.  Ok, here is my solution.  I plan to make a lot of juice at one time and freeze it!  I know NOBODY else has thought of this...(insert sarcasm font here)

Last night I had a lot of vegetables and berries I needed to juice because they were simply going to go bad in my refrigerator if I did not use them.   I had a bunch of kale, celery, some carrots, a cucumber, strawberries and blueberries.  It was the kale and strawberries I was most concerned about.  I had to juice right away.  I pulled out all the juicer parts, assembled the thing and prepped my vegetables.  I'm still getting used to how much juice vegetables make and did not pull out everything at once to start with.

I also had half an orange and an apple from the pantry.

I started juicing and realized the vegetables I had washed were only going to fill up half my pitcher.  So I washed ALL my carrots and added them.  All in all I had:

half a head of celery
10 small carrots
a bunch of kale
one peeled cucumber
a thumb of ginger
 half an orange
one apple
about 5 strawberries
about half a cup of blueberries

Then after I tasting it I decided to add another orange and an apple.  Then my pitcher was finally full. I had purchased tiny Glad Freezer containers to freeze my juice in, they are half a cup each and this pitcher full easily filled all 8 containers.  Popped them in the freezer and now I can take them to work all week!

I'm actually having my first glass of frozen juice now and it tastes great!

Cheers!

Today I went for a run...

At least once a week I have to try to get out in the middle of the day for a daytime run downtown.  I work downtown so I have easy access to the Rivertrail.  My office is about three blocks from the river.

So normally I change clothes in my office, charge my Garmin in the window of my co-workers office, then sneak down the back stairway out the employee exit.  My route takes me west on the road in front of my office then across the broadway bridge.  This bridge is very old and is scheduled for demolition and rebuild soon.

This week began with warm humid temperatures.  If you live in the south and you start to have warm humid temperatures in January you know trouble is coming.  So yesterday evening we had the trouble in the form of storms and a tornado touchdown as a huge storm passed over Arkansas.  Behind all this trouble comes the cold.  This morning it was still warm, and through the day the temperatures were slated to drop so when I looked at my weather ap and saw the drop from 47 degrees to 46 degrees in 10 minutes I decided I had better get my run in immediately. 

I left out of my office and rounded the corner to go west and immediately felt the driving force bringing in the cold.  The winds were whirling between the buildings at gale force.  I pushed through and crossed the street, the flags were being yanked against their ropes and whipped back again. People passed me with coats, hats and scarves pulled close against their heads and necks and they eyed me strangely. 

As I turned North on Broadway I passed a group of young girls and as they walked passed struggling in the wind I heard one say "Yeah, Like I'm going to go for a jog today"  Well whatever.  First of all I don't know how jogging pertains to anything I'm doing.  What is "jogging" exactly?  How did it come to even be associated with the act of running?  I thought to myself, "Of course you won't because your not like me" 

At this point the wind came from behind and it was pushing me forward.  I increased my stride to take advantage of the little bit of lift provided.  I felt like I would take off into the sky at any time. I approached the bridge and started to cross, I was whipped around in all directions which was a little scary when teetering on a sidewalk over a white capping river.I rounded around the baseball park then down toward the big arena to cross the street into the rivertrail and fought the wind  as I headed west on the trail.  I passed a couple other runners out there.  One guy was actually utilizing the exercise equipment installed along the sides of the trail....doing squats and pushups...walking the beam....overachiever... whatever.  I carried on and finally got to turn around to head back east and there is that amazing sensation that the wind just stops...It's pretty incredible.  Your facing this enormous headwind then you turn around and all of a sudden the wind stops and there is relative silence.  It's like a different day.  And you benefit from the push from behind but I'm forever reminded of this assistance as the ends of my hair whip around my face and stick to my lips. 

This bliss last until I have to turn south again and cross the Clinton Bridge.  I suddenly become aware of the amount of force that was pushing me from behind as it pushes me sideways toward the railing of the bridge.  I'm so happy there is a rail there.   The overhead structure groans and whistles with the wind.  I run up the hill and is again pushed by another gust of wind.  I feel so tiny like I could be picked up and pitched into the river at any time on any whim.  It was exhilarating and  scary at the same time. At one point I almost reached out for the railing to steady myself but I kept running.  I passed a couple guys who were on a ladder changing light bulbs.  That seemed scary.

Finally back in the safety of dry ground I headed back to the office.  It was a very successful run, and a good day!

Second Juicing Attempt

Ok, here is my second attempt at juicing.  I was better prepared and less allergic...