Promise Land 50k 2012 race report

This was my 3^rd year anniversary of my relationship with Promise Land. We first met when I was 15 years old and a trailrunning greenhorn. This was my moms first Horton ultra, and we had no idea what to expect. I was to run the first 12 miles with her – a huge distance for me at that point – and then work at Sunset Fields for the remainder of the day. The experience I had at Promise Land that year was enough to convince me that I had to run an ultra. From having socks pelted at me at the prerace briefing, to sitting around the bon fire with new friends, to seeing the sunrise while running on the trail, I decided then and there that I was going to run Promise Land the following year.



2011 - I thought I was fast

The following spring, after my last season of cross country, a 2 month period of no running due to a broken humorous bone (no more golf cart joyrides for Rachel…) , and 4 months of training, I found myself on Saturday morning standing at the startline of 2011 Promise Land 50k+. I could run 34 miles, I knew I could, but coming from Mathews I had no experience or training running uphill. We don’t even have stairs at my house. The only “hill” in the tri-county area is because the ground there is SINKING. However, I managed to run my first ultra, my first PL, in 7:47. No bad for a 16 year old flatlander!

Now that I live in Blacksburg as a VT student, I can run up a mountain. I’ve been getting faster and faster, stronger and stronger. I’m still not sure how I sprinted all of Holiday Lake in February and finished in 4:58, 11^th woman, and ran Terrapin with a horrible case of tendonitis in my right ankle and still finished in 6:02:20, 4^th woman. However, even thru these first two races in LUS, even though I was doing reasonably well, I was still just running them to get to the Promise Land. It’s like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The journey to get to it is still beautiful, magical, but Promise Land is the real deal for me. Everything about this event is beautiful, and I wish I could spend every weekend like that (I actually probably spend too many weekends like that and not enough studying, now that I think about it...haha). The sense of community and encouragement at Promise Land is amazing, and the ultimate goal is that each runner has a wonderful experience. 

I checked my email the Thursday before and saw it. The email from Horton containing the seedings for Saturday. My heart immediately started racing. I knew he was going to seed me high to see just how fast I could run. I opened the attatchment and searched for my name. There is was: 6^th woman. I top 10 finish on this course is something to be EXTREMELY proud of. ANY finish on this course is something to be extremely proud of! 8000 ft of gain/loss over 34 miles of technical singletrack is no easy feat! And Horton predicted me finishing 6^th woman. My my how times have changed.

Luckily my injury that I hobbled through Terrapin in a black cloud of pain and misery with (I literally ran the last 2 miles of Terrapin with my eyes closed to block out the pain) had cleared, and besides a pulled rib muscle from my bronchitis attack two weeks prior, I felt in prime condition to have a top finish Saturday. And at 3pm that Friday, the VTUltra caravan pulled out from the Chapel, all 8 of us. I’d been tense all day, just thinking about finishing that quickly. I knew I had it in me, but executing on that trail is a completely different matter. Who knows what can happen out there!

I was SO happy that my mom decided to sign up last minute for PL. I definitely needed her there to easy my nerves a little. THANK YOU MOM. When I checked in and got my number – 106 – I started to get way to excited/nervous/tense. I was holding a bib number with single digit after the 1. Was this really happening?! Yes, yes it was. Horotn saw me as soon as we pulled in and shouted, “Hey there wild woman! Did you see your number for tomorrow?!” and gave me a hug. I knew he knew I could do well and was going to finish in the top, so why didn’t I feel totally confident yet? All I could do was relax and enjoy the beautiful afternoon sun. Why waste energy worrying?! I was at promise land! Livin the dream!

Friday night held the usually fair: too many deserts, awesome pizza, and Horton’s classic pre-race briefing, followed by hanging out by the bon fire. Around 10 I decided to stumble back to the “girl tent” and try to get some sleep.  

4:30 came way too soon, and I didn’t have ANY of my stuff together. Next thing I knew it was 4:45, then 5, the 5:15…I pinned my number on in line for coffee with my mom, and kept dropping everything I was holding. I was a disaster, and even put the bladder of my CamelBak in backwards. But it all comes down to mental and physical toughness, and luckily those qualities are inside me. If they were outside me, I probably would have dropped them in the field like everything else I was holding that morning. Next thing I knew I was standing amongst my fellow Hokies shouting our Hokie Hi at the top of my lungs with them. You’re welcomeJ And then we were off.

I've worn that shirt during both my PLs with the
 same tie-dy shirt under it.....lucky?

It was a race from the start. I ran a lot. The first climb was pretty easy, it felt like, and I ran most of it. I was staying around Wyatt and Guy Love which was surprising, since they are usually faster than me. But I felt good and kept chugging along. I was in the zone, so focused and aware of everything. However, when I passed Regan Petrie, I was immediately jolted out of Lala Land and realized that I may be going too fast! I couldn’t believe I was right behind her on that first climb! But after I dial the intensity back a little, the next 10 miles felt great, and I was having a blast racing the course. The only problem I was having was not talking to people. I suppose being near the front of the pack means being more spread out and less talkative. But that was okay; I got some good thinking done haha.

Mile 22 was when I finally felt tired. I was afraid that I’d emptied the take too much on the first climb – I was just too excited about racing! – and had nothing left for the rolling hills on the way to the second climb. I wasn’t running around anyone, so there was no conversation to keep me distracting from whatever was hurting on my body, and felt a little down mentally too. I kept looking out off the side of the mountains at the beautiful view, and tried to run as much as possible. But nothing was going fast at this point. The grass sucked me down, the humidity has set in, and I was all alone for the next few miles. That was when I had to tell myself to just do it. Just keep running. That’s all you can do. It’s what you love doing. This is you’re race, your favorite course. Just keep running. The pain would go away, but the feeling that I didn’t put 100% into this race would never go away. So I grinded out the next few miles to aid station 6, and realized that I’d lost Wyatt and Guy Love somewhere. I didn’t know if they were behind or in front of me, but at this point I only cared that I was in 5^th place for women. Horton had informed me of this at a previous aid station, and that definitely gave me an energy boost. I just hoped I could hold that position for the remaining 10 miles..

5 miles left, running from the storm.
photo cred:Bob Clouston

I had been looking forward to climbing up Apple Orchard Falls the whole week. Seriously though. I love climbing! Even if I’m walking it, it still feels AWESOME! So when I got to this point in the race, I was so stoked. I even ran some of it! I ran up some of the stairs and some of the single track. Don’t get me wrong, I was in a lot of pain at this point, but the falls were SO beautiful and I was SO stoked to be in 5^th place that I couldn’t contain myself! I was just too happy! The trail for this section is beautiful, the falls were gorgeous, the sun was shining, and I was in 5^th. What could be better?! The last half mile of the climb was kinda painful, but I could be angry at anything at this pointJ Plus I saw this kinda malicious looking storm cloud coming in…. I didn’t know what it held, but I sure as heck didn’t want to find out while I was still running! When I got back to sunset fields, I decided to put my long sleeve back on because it was definitely colder at the top than I expected and knew that cloud was coming right for us. And whattaya know, not 5 minutes later it was pouring rain. It was probably 38 degrees, and I was getting colder by the second. The singletrack down to the gravel road was a slip-n-slide, and it was hailing. The rain was washing all the crusty sweat off my face and directly into my eyes so I could see from all the stinging, and my hands were now frozen. What was going on?! Wasn’t I sweating profusely a while ago and getting sunburnt?! Now I’m freezing cold/hypothermic/getting hailed on?! I couldn’t get anything at the last aid station because I couldn’t move my hands! I wanted to be out of this now! I looked down at my watch for the first time at this point. Holy crap. Did it say I’d been running for 5 hours and 52 minutes? That’s it??? And I only had 3 miles left????? I had some idea of how fast I’d been running, but I didn’t know I’d gotten up the falls that fast!!! And with that, it started lightening and thundering directly over my head and the rain picked up, so I shifted into all out sprint mode and TORE down that mountain. I was running faster than at a cross country race, blocking out all the jarring pain in my tired quads, running 6 something minute miles and not getting any warmer. I saw a tree get struck by lightning. This was an ULTRA. I didn’t see any runners in front or behind me. I wondered if I’d missed the turn into the camp. I wondered if this entire event was a dream, and that I’d soon wake up and realize that no, it’s actually Friday, and you have to run 34 miles TOMORROW. I was getting colder and colder and closer and closer to the finish with each passing second.  Then I saw it: the finish. I turned into the field and it was a mud fest. I sprinted as fast and I could and almost slid across the finish line. I saw the clock: 6:12:55. It was over. I did it. Horton gave me a hug, Clark announced “Rachel Corrigan, 5^th woman!” and Horton asked “How did you like it?!” All I could think at this point was “I can’t feel my hands…” So that’s what I said! But seriously. WHOA. I cannot believe I did it!!!! 5^th woman at my favorite race!!! I saw two of my Hokies under the shelter cheering for me, and after telling Horton what I really thought of the race I went to join them. I didn’t know what to do because I was so soaking wet and cold and tired. Eventually, I went and got dry clothes on (it took me about ten minutes to take my shoes off because my hands were SO COLD)  and stumbled back to the shelter to get some of the awesome food that this race provides for the runners. THANK YOU PEOPLE WHO COOK THE POST RACE FOOD!!! We REALLY appreciate your help and your time!!!! The rest of the day was spent waiting for the rest of our Hokie crew to finish – they all did, including two first-timers!!! SUPER PROUD OF MY GIRLS KELLY SUMMERS ANAD LEAH LINARELLI!!!– and chatting with friends from the trail and catching up with my mom. The weather may have been insane, but that is just another factor in ultras. We shall run through anything, over any terrain, and enjoy every second of it.

My experience this year at Promise Land was perfect. I loved sharing that race with 7 other Hokies that had never been there before, and spending time with my mom at our race. I loved the experience of RACING the course too. I got to enjoy it in a whole new light, pushing myself to new levels of ultrarunning. And thankfully we all made it to the finish safely and with huge smiles on our faces (except maybe Wyatt, but after we nursed him back out of hypothermia he still said he loved the race!). And with awesome finishers shorts, and a bright pink top 10 women’s shirt for me!

Thank you everyone who makes this event what it is. I love it so much, and will forever be thankful that I can experience these events and am happy and healthy.
Now it is time to rest and recover! Next race I have is Highland Sky 40 Miler in West Virginia (a WVMTR event). See you on the trail!