I had originally planned to take Friday off. But one of my bosses asked me to come in. So I ended up putting in a half day of work. The drive up to the Castaic area from Irvine sucked. But I made it. Along the way there was a huge accident on the southbound 5 freeway just a few miles south of Magic Mountain. Of course, everybody on the northbound side slowed down to rubberneck.
I checked into the Rodeway Inn just off of Lake Hughes Road. No frills, but a nice enough place to crash for one night.
Rodeway Inn
Old School TV
My friends who were also running LD wanted to meet up for dinner. They were staying out in Palmdale. We hadn't decided on a place yet and I was getting pretty hungry from skipping lunch. So I drove out to In-n-Out to pre-eat. But I got a text when I pulled into the In-n-Out parking lot, so I hopped back on the freeway to make the drive out to Sharky's Woodfired Mexican Grill in Palmdale.
I got some chips with guacamole and a grilled shrimp burrito. Why do I always forget not to eat a burrito before a race? It was good though. After taking about the race and future races, we parted ways. On the way back I stopped by a 7-11 to pick up some drinks. I picked up OJ for breakfast, beer to sleep, and water to hydrate myself. I then laid out my gear for the race.
Chips & Guacamole
Grilled Shrimp Burrito
Saturday
Going into the race, I've been 0 for 2 with the 50k distance. The first attempt was a painful DNF at Montaña de Oro where I was not adequately replaced my electrolytes. The second attempt was at Santa Monica Mountains where I rolled the same ankle too many times and dropped out at the 30k aid station. So the goal for this race was just to finish. I did not want to go 0 for 3 with 50k's and get in the habit of dropping out. There would be no bunny chasing for me at this race! :)
I drove up Lake Hughes Road to get to the community center. The roads were very familiar as I used to come up here for our college church retreat. I parked and picked up my race packet. It was pretty awesome to see some familiar faces. Trail runners are the best. Nice folks.
Nice shirt!
The golden rule for running is nothing new on race day. Well, I always seem to be breaking that rule. I wore new glasses. I also wore my trail shoes that I've only worn one other time. That'll all come into play later in the race. I got ready and lined myself up way in the back. The strategy was just to hike or slow jog the uphills, run the flats, and don't go crazy on the downhills. I stopped a few times to take photos. I really wished that I lived closer to some trails. Running trails put me in a happy mood.
Everything was going fine for the first couple of hours. Then on my way to the 16ish mile aid station, I tripped over something and slid head first. The water bottle on my right hand broke part of the fall. But the left hand and knees took the rest. I would also be so unlucky to trip with my bad ankle. Once the adrenaline wore off from the fall, I could feel the soreness. Why did I fall? So, I wore new glasses that I had just picked up on Friday before driving up. Apart from having my eyes having to adjust to the new prescription, I got those transition lenses that would darken and lighten on their own. It turns out that they don't transition fast enough. As I was running from bright sunlight into the shady areas, I could barely see anything. That was the section were I ate it. It was nice and flat, cool and shaded. I literally ate a part of the trail because I forgot to clean my water bottle before drinking from it. I took a nice drink of trail dirt. :)
I saw my friend Kristin here at the aid station. Her husband was running the 50 miler. I hope I was somewhat coherent when I was talking to her. It was starting to get hot and I was somewhat confused as to where to go. Good thing there were people pointing me in the right direction. I crossed the road and headed up towards the 50k turnaround at mile 20 something. Along the way, I passed a couple of people sitting in the shade on the side. It looked like the heat was getting to them as well. It was amazing to see the front runners of the 50k coming back down.
It was a long hike up to the turnaround with very little shade. Once I got there, I saw a lot of the carnage. A lot of the runners there were sitting down. Some of them were fighting nausea. Only at a trail race do you have people encouraging you to throw up, saying "you'll feel better if you do." :)
For some reason, I kept craving Mountain Dew. It was what was motivating me to get to the next aid station. Even when they didn't have any, I would still be thinking about ice cold Mountain Dew. I did drink some delicious flat warm Coke. It tasted pretty good when you've been running for several hours. Frank Shorter was a genius for drinking that back in his day.
I was emotionally deflated coming down the mountain because my right ankle was too sore to run on. It was especially sore when it was downhill and cambered at some of the more treacherous single track sections. I was afraid that I might fall off the side of the mountain. But as slow as I was, I kept moving forward. I kept listening for footsteps because the faster 50 milers were beginning to pass me. Sometimes I swear I would hear footsteps approaching, but when I turned my head around to check, no one was there. I guess being tired and baking in the sun leads to hallucinations. :)
Eventually I got myself down to the finish line. There was no way I was going to DNF especially with the generous time limit. I finished about an hour longer than I wanted or anticipated. But it was good to get that monkey off my back, to have finally finished a 50k. I was beginning to think that the marathon distance was my limit and that ultra running was just not for me.
Finish: 8:43:46
Post race thoughts
I came out of the race rather unscathed. I cleaned out my wounds, threw on my shorts with more pockets, grabbed my phone, and waited for my friends to finish their race. I'm going to have to pack my own post race food if I run this race again as the finish line food did not really agree with me. Nothing wrong with the food. They had vegetable and chicken fajitas, beans, and rice. It was just not something that I'd normally eat. Once all of the Maniacs had arrived at the finish area, we gathered near the finish line and took pictures.
Just a few scratches on my left hand
...and a few scratches on both knees
Ultra-Maniacs!
I said goodbye to my Maniac friends and stuck around to wait for my friend that was finishing her first 50 miler. That was pretty cool to see her finish especially when I was getting texts from her that she had been throwing up. I have some amazing friends!
My Maniac friends were supposed to text me directions to a restaurant. But I never got a text by the time I got down the mountain so I just headed to In-n-Out to get some protein to repair my legs and also carb up for the race tomorrow. Somehow I thought it was a good idea to follow a 50k (a distance I've never finished until this race) with a super hilly La Jolla half marathon the next day! As if the distance itself wasn't enough, I've been recovering from another bout of tibial stress fracture. Just let me tell you that a 50k is not a good distance for a welcome-back run. A much shorter road race with sure footing would be a much better choice. But I guess I'm always up for a big challenge. No one can accuse me of being too cautious. :)
The shoes that I wore also had not yet been broken in properly and they irritated the heck out of my heels. I had two big blisters, one on each foot. I lanced and drained them when I got home.
Rebuilding my legs
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