Race Report: Lake McMurty 50K 2015

This is the story of my second 50k.    I can hardly believe I just wrote those words.  Sometimes I still can’t wrap my mind around the fact that I am a trail and ultra runner.  By no means elite…but the fact that I do it, work hard at it and love it.  I never imagined this would be such an important aspect to my life.

I had thought to take this 50k slow and use it as a long training run for a 50 miler coming up in June.  But I admit, part of me, the over-confidant part of me that no longer respects the distance, thought- I can just bust this out. 

After it was all over I realized…I trained for this when I ran it in 2011!

Days before the run I started to do everything I could to ensure race day would be good.  I started hydrating on Wednesday with water, coconut water and then drank half a liter of pedialyte on Friday.  I avoided alcohol Friday night, even while sitting at a sushi bar watching the bar tender pour copious amounts of white wine.  I stayed off my legs on Friday.  I went to bed at 8:30 pm and woke up at 4 to meet my ride to Stillwater at 5am. 

Lake McMurtry 50K consists of a trail that is basically a figure 8 with two roughly 7-8 mile loops.  This makes it really easy to mentally break up the run, one loop at a time, knowing you will run each loop twice. 

Loop 1:  Started out great- ran with several ladies at the back of the pack.  It was their first 50k and spirits were high.  The course was beautiful and the day just dawning.

Loop 2:  My favorite part of the course, we pushed it a little.  Running every bit we could.

 

Loop 3:  This was definitely the toughest.  I was feeling cold and a light rain started.  Thankfully, TZ gave me a garbage bag which I wrapped around me like a fur stole.  As my running friends and I made our way  I began to believe that this loop had to be at least 12 miles.  I ate a rib at Ed’s aid station.  I got a back massage at Shorty’s aid station.  I thought seriously about quitting when we got back to the start/finish.  Plus I was concerned that at our pace we wouldn't make the cutoff for the finish time. 

 

Loop 4:  Race Director, TZ, encouraged us not to worry about finishing in the official 10 hour time limit.  My main running friend of the day, Johnna, said we weren’t quitting.  I said ok.  We did our best on this loop, but did a lot of walking.  Running hurt.  After the half way point on this loop the adrenaline kicked in.  I picked some lovely grasses and ran in with them like a bouquet.  I drank a “flushy” from the aid station topped with some strawberry vodka.  At it turned out, the three us that started together – finished very close together.  It was an emotional finish.  Completely satisfying.