Grasslands 50 miler - David’s first ultra
- Pre Race Routine: Ryan Loehding was kind of enough to give me a ride to the race so my wife wouldn’t have to drive out there twice. I picked up my packet and mingled with a few other runners, trying not to look nervous. I tightened up my laces, but not too tight as I knew my feet would swell. Suzi, the RD, made some brief comments about how the course will be longer than last year b/c GPS measurements indicated that it was short. She kept the speech short and before I was really mentally ready, we were off.
- The Race: Since I’ve gotten so used to running with my Polar S625X that measures my speed, distance, and HR, I always keep a pretty close eye on those metrics. Today would be different however. I didn’t wear my foot pod, so I wouldn’t know my speed or distance, and I decided that I didn’t even want to know the cumulative time or time of day. I didn’t want to know time info. I didn’t want to think about things like how I had run 4-5 hours already and I have another 4-5 hour to go! So I set my watch to display altitude, calories (meaningless), HR, and temperature. This was g good decision b/c I remember not even thinking about time or distance until I saw a 20 mile marker at one of the aid station and I thought: “Damn! That seemed to go quick”. On most days, 20 miles is a long ways, but today it was just a warm up. It reminded me of my first ever weekend in Vegas, and how quick a $100 could disappear at a blackjack table, and how all of a sudden $60 and $80 didn’t seem like very much money! Conclusion: The mind has an amazing ability to make measurements of quantity take on different meanings in extreme environments. Today, I was glad that I was mentally strong, that is until the WHITE loop…
This third loop, miles 25-39 started out fine. I felt a little rejuvenated after re-supplying at the main aid station, but things would soon deteriorate. It was afternoon now, and it was starting to heat up. The refreshing breezes seemed to stop, and the miles seemed to tick by slower and slower. The sand was deepest on this loop and it was the toughest part of the course mentally. It just seemed to go on and on, like I’d never get back to camp! Plus, it was tough mentally to think that even when I did get back, I still had another 10 miles to go. Fewwwww…
To make matters worse, I was really, really sick of my “Gillenade”, a home made concoction of maltodextrin, sugar, salt, and Kool-aide flavoring. I made it way to salty. (Maybe that’s why my shirt ended up being so crusty…)
I was so sick of drinking it every 3:45 when I programmed my watch to beep to remind me to drink. I tried watering it down, but it didn’t help much, so towards the end of this lap, I switched to just water. I’d tried to take gels and salt tablets to keep up with the calories and sodium. Overall, it ended up working, and I never got dehydrated!
It felt really good to finish the white loop and I again got a little boost from leaving the camp a final time. The next time I came back to this camp, I’d be an ultra-marathoner!!! Although not as tough mentally as the white, the red loop was rough. My ankles were killing me, and stopped to walk off and on. And when I was running it was probably at a 13+ mile pace. But I was moving. RFM: Relentless Forward Motion. Just keep moving , David. You’ll get there!At about mile 43, 3 hikers passed me going the other way, and they asked me if there was a lake ahead. I said, “A Lake?” I had to really stop and think about it, and I was shocked at how hard it was to recall what I had just seen 5-10 minutes ago. How hard it was to think about anything other than running! I literally said, “There might be a small one, but I don’t know. I’ve run 43 miles, and I can’t think that straight!” A minute later, I was laughing at myself!!From that point on the race was fun. I remember cracking a rare smile at the 45.8 aid station b/c I knew that I could make it another 4.2 miles! Then I was again overjoyed to be turn right towards the finish at the red/white split that I had seen over 2 hours ago. But the happiest moment of the whole race was at about 49.5 when I saw my wife and one of our dogs at the top of the hill. I knew I was so close to finishing and to be able to jog the last half mile with them meant the world to me. All pain vanished as I rounded the last corner of the race. All the wonderful volunteers, other races, NTTR members, and everyone there at camp cheered as I finished. It was great a moment.
- Post Race: I mentioned to Suzi that this was my first ultra, and she was so kind as to give me free pair of Dirty Girl gaitors which is great b/c I don’t have a pair! I walked around a little, grabbed a sandwich, and then sat down for the first time in about 11 hours!
Man, it was hard getting into the chair, but it felt so good once I was there. My wife, Sarah, is the best. She brought our dogs to congratulate me, and she really took care of me every time I needed anything.
- Heart Rate Info: 161 average heart rate over 50 miles! This is top of zone 2 for me. My aerobic threshold is around 163-4. I was very surprised to see it so high because I had run on these same sandy trails about a month ago and my avg. HR was in the upper 140s! I think it was about 20-30 degrees warmer on race day that it was during my 29 miler training run, and I’m sure this, along with race day adrenaline, caused my higher HR.
- Course Info: 4 separate loops (blue, yellow, white, and red) The first loop (blue) was not sandy at all and generally very pleasant. The white and red loops definitely had some very deep sandy sections that were quite tough. The whole course is relative flat though. This race was really well organized and all the volunteers were great and always filled my water bottle at every aid station. This was a great race for my first 50.
- Result Info: I ended up being 15th out of 45. Not too bad! More photos here.
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