My First 50K

My friend Vanessa asked, “How do you go from a month long injury to running a 50K?” I had no answer. I wasn’t sure I could do it. I was behaving like the kind of people I laughed at. Haha! They entered a marathon and their longest training run was 5 miles. Haha! That’s crazy!
Sarah Martinez came over from Maui to run the Big Basin Skyline to the Sea 50K trail race with me; a first for both of us. Neither of us was properly prepared, which is fortunate, because it would have been a drag if one of us had really wanted to run hard and the other couldn't keep up. As it was, Sarah could have gone much harder but was happy to hang with me and she actually talked me through a couple difficult stretches.
I had lost a month of training due to a pain in my butt. My spasming piriformis was pressing against my sciatic nerve. My chiropractor thought I wouldn't be able to race because piriformis syndrome is a long recovery, but my Kaiser PT was amazing and realized that I had simply knocked my pelvis out of whack when I took a big tumble on a trail run in San Rafael; the one where I scraped BOTH elbows (don't ask me how I did that), my shoulder, my hip and my knee. You can read the details of that and see photos in an earlier post.
Anyway, I saw the PT 3 times, followed instructions for her recovery exercises, continued with chiropractic adjustments and in 4 weeks I was back on the trail. My longest training run had been only 14 miles and my race was 31 miles so I was dubious about my ability to finish. Sarah’s longest training run had been 13 miles but she had at least run a marathon in January so had a pretty stable base. We went into the race thinking that if nothing else, we would have a lovely long hike/jog on a beautiful trail. Part of the race route had washed out in winter storms so the course was slightly rerouted and ended up being longer than 31 miles but most of it was wooded and two thirds were downhill; my kind of terrain. 

The day before the race we drove to Scott's Valley just above Santa Cruz to stay with my friend Dustie. I have trekked with Dustie in Ladakh and the Alps. She is a badass in her own right, hiking high altitude and running class IV and V rivers. My good friend Pam, another badass hiker/racewalker/aerobics instructor, came with us as our crew to drop us at the start, meet us at the rest stops with food and drink and meet us at the end. Dustie had snacks, a great dinner and comfy beds for us the night before. The morning of the race was perfectly cool and clear and the trail started out all downhill through a gorgeous redwood forest. It was Sarah's first trail race and she was amazed at the different vibe compared to the tension and aggressive competitiveness that often accompanies a road race. Part of why I love trail racing, aside from the softer surface and scenery, is the camaraderie and supportive vibe. If someone falls in a trail race, people stop to help. Of course I’m never at the front so maybe it’s a different story up there but I kind of doubt it.

We loped down the trail at an easy pace chatting with many of the participants along the way. Many of them...most of them….well, all of them passed us eventually. We took it easy knowing we would be out there all day. We lingered at the rest stops until we realized we had to get to the cutoff point by 1 pm. If we reached the 3rd rest stop after that, they would redirect us to continue on the marathon course and wouldn't let us do the extra loop of the 50K. As soon as we realized we were running late we picked up the pace and made the cutoff with 8 minutes to spare. We were at mile 16 then and I was feeling a little depleted. Pam was there and said she'd meet us at the finish line, but I told her to wait until we had finished the 5 mile loop because I really wasn't sure I'd make it for the whole thing. As we left the rest stop and headed out on the loop, the trail was suddenly exposed, no shade, it was midday and it was HOT. I was whipped. I had taken an Ibuprofen to make sure my piriformis didn’t flare up and it upset my tummy. I could only walk up the long, steep, hot hill. Sarah, being a second grade teacher, knew the value of distraction, so proceeded to tell me the story of Hansel and Gretel, with some local Hawaiian flavor thrown in, and by the end of the story we were at the top of the hill, into shade again, my nausea was gone and we flew down the rest of the loop.

When we met up with Pam at the rest stop again I let her know she could head off in the car to the finish line without me because I was ready for the final 10 miles. I slurped up one of my superfood shakes and hydration drink and was raring to go. There was one more stretch of another exposed uphill in the last 10 mile segment and this time Sarah related Jack in the Beanstalk’s adventures to get me through but for the most part I felt strongest on that last leg.

At one point we spotted the ocean through the trees. It was far away but we could see the white water of the waves. There was a big ridge in between that we still had to cross. With six miles to go we came across a woman who was near staggering. She was just doing the marathon course but was completely depleted, unsure of her ability to finish. We gave her gels and Naproxen and she felt better so we carried on. A little farther on we encountered another racer from the marathon course. He was completely out of water so I shared my electrolyte drink with him and a bit of a bar. At the final rest stop we reported their bib numbers. The next day I checked the results and found they had finished in about 9.5 hours! 
After those two brief rests I was feeling stronger than ever. It was late in the day, it had cooled down and I could smell the salt air as we neared the beach. The last six miles were joyful, horse to the barn miles. Bless the volunteers who were still cheering at the finish line with hot bowls of chili, corn chips and ice-cold soda. And there was Pam, with congratulations and a comfy car to drive us back to Dustie’s cozy home.

I felt remarkably strong and energetic afterwards and had almost no soreness in the following days. It is amazing and surprising to know what the body can do when you put your mind to it. I attribute the ability to finish and the lack of soreness to my nutrition system. I also had no blisters, which I attribute to my Altra trail running shoes. I had no chafing from my hydration pack thanks to my Osprey Dyna 6 pack. The next day Sarah and I hit the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for a roller coaster ride to top off the weekend. I think I used more profanity on that run that I had in the past six months but the next day I was already thinking about finding the next 50K.