May Coffee Date!
It’s May! Boy, that really snuck up on me. Since it’s the first Friday of the month, I’m linking up with Coco and Deborah for the Ultimate Coffee Date. After a series of race recaps (Recap, Questions Answered, and What I Learned) I’m almost ready to move on. I do have some race-related things to share over a cup of coffee (or, tea) though. Let’s get sipping! The first thing I would share is the story of my ride home the day after my race. The soreness was epic. I must have looked hilarious (or, horribly pathetic) hobbling through the hotel parking lot and loading my bags into the car. Stepping up onto a curb felt like scaling Mount Everest. But finally I was ready to go! I started the car… and my tire light came on. Seriously? At any other time this wouldn’t be a problem, but today of all days, putting air in my tires was a daunting task. But, I found a gas station, unscrewed the tire caps (which, obviously involved getting down low to the ground- that didn’t feel good) and filled the tires. SIGH. Okay, on the road at last! Then, I got a text from my daughter. She needed certain feminine supplies and it was an emergency. “Can you stop on your way home?” FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. How many times have I told her not to let this become an emergency??? They didn’t have what she wanted at the Turnpike service plaza, so I had to make an extra stop at Walgreens (again- hobbling painfully through the parking lot and into the store, grr). FINE. Finally, after five hours on the road, I arrived home! As I turned the doorknob to open my front door… I got a splinter in my finger. I can’t even explain how this happened- it’s never happened before (I mean- my doorknob isn’t made of WOOD?!?) It really hurt (as splinters do) and it was deeply imbedded- not one you can easily pull out with a tweezers. It seemed like, after allowing me to finish my race, the universe decided to screw me over in a thousand little ways. I shuffled slowly into the house, my finger throbbing in pain. My husband was working, and my daughter was busy in her room (probably watching a very important TikTok video). But the cats were there to greet me! They REALLY missed me- I know this, because that night they both slept in bed with me. Charlotte slept on my pillow, and Muffin slept between my legs. Remember the Simpsons episode where Marge goes to Rancho Relaxo, and when she comes home, the family missed her so much they’re all sleeping in the same bed? That’s what this reminded me of. Yes, it was a little crowded, but the cats don’t like each other much, so I was living my dream of snuggling with both of them at the same time. Charlotte eventually jumped down to the floor right next to me, and both cats slept the whole night like that. It was so, so cute. The last thing I would share over our delicious hot beverages is, I got some pretty snazzy race swag! But my favorite was this sticker, which is now living on my phone case: How was your April? Are you excited for May? Top photo by Jocelynne Flor on Unsplash
The Aftermath, and What I Learned
Are you sick of hearing about my race yet? Don’t worry! Regular posts will be resuming soon (including a reading post featuring Pillars of the Earth). But let’s wrap this recap up once and for all. I slept well the night after my race (gee, I wonder why!) and woke up SO stiff and sore. Everything hurt, except for… get ready for this… MY HAMSTRINGS. Remember that left hamstring that ached continuously for months every step I ran? It was fine. WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON? Did it finally give up and decide to leave my body??? My quads were so, so sore. My shins were killing me. The left knee, the one I feel on, was very stiff. My feet hurt, and let’s not even talk about the toenail situation. My neck and shoulders ached, my back hurt. My hamstrings were fine. The drive back from Ocala is four hours, but it took my five hours with all the stops I made. While I drove I listened to this episode of the Everyday Ultra podcast, all about post-race recovery. The host, Joe Corcione, said the three main components of physical recovery are sleep, hydration, and nutrition. By “nutrition” I hope he meant a Subway sandwich and Coke Zero. On the Subway sandwich was mustard and all the vegetables. I added the curry chickpea salad from Nora Cooks (which I brought along in a cold bag) and it was delicious. Then Joe talked about mental recovery. He said you should ask yourself two questions: first, what am I most proud of? Hmm! The obvious answer would be, that I finished. But I think really what I’m most proud of is that I had the audacity to believe I could even do this in the first place. Who told me I could attempt such a thing? I’m not a gifted athlete. I’m 59 years old. I’ve never run on a team or had a coach. When I picked up my packet the night before the race, I had a full-blown attack of imposter syndrome. They can tell I don’t belong here. I don’t look like an ultra runner. I didn’t do enough long runs. My hamstring is injured. My heart was literally pounding with fear just from picking up my race number. Yet- I showed up at the start the next day, and once I started running I knew that, barring injury or heatstroke, I would finish the race. Belief is a powerful thing. The next question Joe encourages people to ask is, what did I learn? Note the wording there- not, what went wrong? Yes, mistakes were probably made. But the important thing is, what did I learn? Well. When I look back on this race, I ran the first 50K well and felt strong. It was in the last 20 miles that I started to fall apart, and the last section I got through on mental strength alone. I talked about being a little disappointed in my finishing place- so many people passed me in that last section. Two people actually came up behind me and passed me right at the finish because I was stumbling around incoherently, trying to figure out which way to go. It would be nice to finish a little stronger than that! I could blame the sand, the hills, and the heat. But every ultra has SOMETHING, and it’s almost impossible to train for every single thing that might come up. But I think if I were stronger overall, I would be able to withstand the challenges better. So- more strength training at the gym! I’m going to really focus on strength this summer, and also do some hill training on the treadmill. Does this mean I’m going to do this again? Of course I am! Is there anything if your life you believe you can do, against all odds? Top photo by Andy Montes de Oca on Unsplash
Questions Answered
This post was going to be “The Aftermath and What I Learned”, but I’m postponing that until tomorrow. I had some great questions in the comments yesterday that I wanted to address. First, Catrina (who, by the way, has her own race recap up!) asked what my time was and how I placed. Yes, I was getting to that! My time was 15:54:58. and out of 83 finishers, I was 59th. To be honest, I was initially a little bummed out by that. I mean… it’s not great! But let’s break it down a little more. There were 53 male finishers and 30 female, and of the 30 women I was 20th. That’s a little better. And… 16 people did not finish. I was surprised when I saw that. (I know when I DNF’d my race last year, there were only a few other DNFs, which of course made me feel even worse). My heart goes out to every single one of those runners- I know how it feels. So, with all that, 59th is looking a little better (but still not great). I’m going to come back to this topic in tomorrow’s “What I Learned” segment. Suzanne noted that all my trail BFFs have been guys. She wanted to know if many women run these races? GREAT question. This race- with 30 women- had more than I usually see. Women seem to be seriously underrepresented in the ultra world, which is weird because they’re good at it! The longer the distance, the less gender matters. For example- the overall winner of this race I just ran was a woman. There are people working to get more women into the ultra world. Meghan Gould, who hosts the She Runs Ultras podcast, has a mission to help 10,000 women run their first 50K. And this race was certified by Trail Sisters, an organization whose mission statement is “To increase women’s participation and opportunity in trail running and hiking through inspiration, education and empowerment.” (To be honest, I didn’t see anything especially “trail sister-y” about this race, other than the fact that it was advertised they would have feminine hygiene products at the aid stations- which is something!) Back to Suzanne’s question. In this race, I had plenty of friendly encounters with women. There were some I talked and laughed with, but none of them were running up to me yelling “JENNAY” throughout the race. Like me (remember I was wanting to do my own thing and listen to a podcast) the women seemed more reserved. It was easier to fall in with the guys because they were more aggressive about it. HMMMM! This is really giving me something to think about. Maybe a goal for my next race will be to make friends with at least one woman. One last thing- I have a lot of sore muscles but no injuries- victory! If you run ultras or trail races in a different state (or a different country), are there a decent amount of women runners? Do you find it easier to make friends with men or women? Top photo by Immo Wegmann on Unsplash
Skunk Ape 50 Mile Run Recap
Hey there! On Saturday I completed the Skunk Ape Endurance Run in Ocala, Florida. There was a 100 mile option and a 50 mile- I did the 50. The course was an out-and-back (with a slight variation on the way back) and the 100 milers did that TWICE. This made it fun because we got to see runners coming and going. Full disclosure: I’m still a little mentally foggy! But I was afraid if I waited to write the recap, I would forget too much… so here we go. Here’s the start at 7 am: We were off! The beginning of the trail had a lot of roots, and I was worried the whole thing would be like that. But it soon evened out into a beautiful, smooth trail, perfect for running. The day was forecasted to be HOT, but at this time it was comfortable, the trail was shaded, and I felt great. If you’ve read my other race recaps, you’ll know that I always seem to make a “friend” in these races, and this was no exception. In the early miles I was running near a guy who eventually asked my name. “Jenny,” I said, “What’s yours?” He said “It’s Forrest! Isn’t that crazy!” What! That is crazy! Then he said “Just kidding. It’s Charlie.” He was running with a friend (Brad) and every time after that when I saw them, he would yell out “JENNAY” (in a Forrest Gump voice). How many times did I see him? Read on to find out. We came to the first aid station after about 7 miles. Here’s a photo Darlene found on Facebook. After filling my water bottles, I ran on. The next section had a little more difficult terrain, but nothing terrible. I was still feeling good. Around 11 miles in, we got to the second aid station. This was one point where we could access drop bags, so I grabbed some more gels and supplies and was on my way again. I had been enjoying running by myself, but now I was starting to feel a little lonely. Just as I had that thought, from behind me I heard “JENNAY!” It was Charlie and Brad. I decided to run along with them for a while. We were on a section of pavement that had a lot of hills, and unfortunately Charlie’s pace didn’t work for me. He walked more than I wanted to, but when he ran it was faster than I wanted to go, so I decided I had to do my own thing. I trotted along happily again at my slow but steady pace. Soon after that we got to the next aid station. Here, everyone was talking with dread about the section coming up called “The Berm.” I wonder what’s so bad about it? I mean- I’ve run in sand. I completed a race called Dunes 50k which had us running up and down sand dunes. But this was worse than any sand I’ve ever encountered. I tried several times to run (because WALKING through the sand for 5 miles seemed unbearable) but eventually gave up. Everyone was walking. And guess who was there? “JENNAY!” Charlie was keeping up his aggressive walking pace, and I decided to walk right behind him. I didn’t let myself think any thoughts (but if I had, they would have been angry and negative) and just focused on Charlie’s feet in front of me. Trudge, trudge, trudge… at one point someone said “Can you believe we paid to do this?” Ha ha. After three or four miles we got to a runnable section. I sat down to empty the sand from my shoes, and you wouldn’t have thought it was possible for THAT MUCH SAND to come pouring out of a shoe. And I started to run again. PHEW! But then… it was The Revenge of The Berm. Yep, the deep sand came back, and I had foolishly run ahead of Charlie. I tried to emulate his aggressive trudging pace, and finally, FINALLY came to this sign. I emptied another five pounds of sand from my shoes, and ran to the next aid station. They assured us that the sand was done (and you only do The Berm section on the outbound route, not coming back) and that the next section was fun “if you like running up and down hills.” Er…anything is better than sand- bring it on! This was a 6-ish mile section to the next aid station, which was also the turnaround point. This meant we could see the runners coming back our way, which was fun. I was running alone again, but saw lots of runners coming back towards me, and we all gave each other thumbs up and called out “Great job! Looking good!” until… a woman running toward me held up her hand in warning and said “Watch out- rattlesnake.” And then she ran on. WHATWHATWHAT??? Rattlesnake??? WHERE? Around the next bend? A mile away? I immediately turned off my music (I had put music on as a reward after The Berm) and slowed down to a cautious walk. What do you do if you see a rattlesnake? I couldn’t remember- run away? Stand still? Throw something at it? (no- pretty sure that one is wrong). After about half a mile I saw more runners coming towards me- they weren’t fleeing in terror and called out the customary “great job!” so I figured it was safe to proceed and started running gain. I was almost 30 miles into the race, and it was getting hot. The last mile of this section looked like this: It was in full sun, and when I got to the aid station I knew I had to rest and cool down. The aid station workers told us it was 94 degrees, and they had chairs set up in the shade. I’ve never actually sat down to rest at an aid station- but this time I knew I had to. My