MMTR 50 Miler 2012 Race Report

So last year MMTR was my first 50 miler, and it couldn’t have gone better. I was smiling the whole time, laughing, singing, pullin some parkor moves off trees and doing cartwheels down hills (just kidding…maybe). But it was TOTAL BLISS! It felt easy and I wanted to do it again ASAP!

12 months later I was limping to the start line (well I ran to the start line because I waited til the last second to get out of my parent’s toasty warm car) with a stress fracture or something in my left ankle area. I’d had the perfect spring of racing LUS races, retreated to West Virginia for summer ultras, but then kept running on average 30 miles every Saturday from Cheat Mountain Moonshine Madness 50 miler through pacing Guy Love at Grindstone for 30 miles. Basically I overdid it because I got too eager AGAIN but oh well. If you know me you know I have to learn things the hard way because I’m stubborn and overdo everything worth overdoing.

Like running in the mountains. Duh.

So with a hug and a “Go do it” from Fletcher, I was off.

“This year is going to be special. It’s the 30^th year, we have a new course, and there’s snow on it!” said both Clark and Horton at the prerace dinner (maybe not exactly that, but it was something to that extent) GREAT! And there I was stuffing my face with pasta and nursing my ankle. Yeah, it sure is going to be a special race…at least all my fellow Hokie Ultrarunner’s look equally nervous…and at least I knew what I was getting myself into, having done this race last year.

I knew it was going to be a long day at mile 3, when my ankle started feeling funny and hurting and stabby and all locked up.  There went my hope of getting top 10 women, which was total feasibly about 2 month ago when a 9:20 50 mile was a totally doable time for me. It was expected. I was in perfect 50 mile race shape, well rested, and not injured. My racing legs were totally there. Why did I have to go and overdo it again? Why did I sign myself up for 21 credits this semester? So from mile 3 on, I had to totally change my whole mentality about the coming 47 miles. It was going to be a fun day in the woods, a day to relax and detox from that horrible Structural Geology midterm I’d just taken on Thursday, a day to enjoy what my body can do even when I’m not in tiptop performance shape. I was with the best people, in a beautiful place God gave us. Inhale, exhale, move forward. Ignore the pain. Breath.

I ran the first half at a good pace, though I was not comfortable for the first 11 miles. Everyone was running so fast! It was a bit tiring, but I knew the second half was going to be slow so I did it.

“Isn’t the sunrise GORGEOUS?!” I exclaimed enthusiastically to the man running in front of me. No response from him. What?! Why wasn’t everyone enjoying the breathtaking sunrise! I don’t care if this is a race; I was going to WALK up that hill and take in as much of the sunrise as I could! It sure was beautiful.

I ended up running with Lee Conner basically to the halfway point, and that was good. I felt like we were running a good comfortable pace, then around mile 24 my ankle got a wave of intense pain and I had to stop and walk. Wow, that was a lot of pain. I ran into the aid station with that “guys please stop talking to me I’m FINE” look on my face and went straight to the aid station volunteers (thank you all so much!) to ask for advil. They had aleve, which I said was great, but a few kind souls told me not to take an aleve if I’d just taken two advils 3 hours ago. “BUT I WANT DA PAINKILLERS, YO!” I screamed in my head. I was also curled up in the fetal position rocking back and forth under the picnic table crying. But that was also just in my head. 

Help...

As I was eating pb&j and listening to Bob tell me what to do about the pain (thanks Bob!) I looked over at Fletcher and just shook my head, and he knew exactly what was going through my mind. It wasn’t happening today. Sure I was going to finish, but my body was screaming and wanted to sleep. My parents were also at this aid station, and seeing them was comforting. I thanked everyone there and left the halfway point and headed up the long climb. I basically walked the entire next section up hill. I got really hungry about half way up because I hadn’t been eating because I’m stupid, but when I got there they and the best vegetable soup I’ve ever tasted! And I swear it saved my life. Thank you, aid station volunteers, SO MUCH. We could not make it without you!!! 

heading to the loop

The loop is the next notable part. That’s where the snow began. Fletcher, Darren, and Mike were there waiting before the 1.5 miles up to the loop, and they asked me if I wanted one of them to run with me. “No not yet.” Was my response, and I grabbed some food before power walking up that hill. I made it up pretty fast, and Fletcher was at the loop and told me to grab a ton of food because I was gonna be out there for a while. He asked me again if I wanted him to run with me, but I said I had to do the loop by myself. It’s a personal thing.

It was snowy, icey, slushy, and slow. But also incredibly beautiful. I haven’t spent much time on snowy mountains and I’m glad I finally did. The added summit was extra gorgeous, totally worth the climb/almost falling. I sat up there for a second to take in what we were all out there doing and how grateful we should all be to be able to do these incredible things. Then I stumbled down and shuffled through the rest of the loop until I popped out at the aid station. And at that point I knew I needed someone to run with me. Phil helped me fill my pack up, he could tell I was hurting BAD, and told me to eat and drink. I had 11.5 miles left, so I ate some cookies, recruited Fletcher to run with me, and drank some mountain dew. We shuffled off, and immediately I felt happier. Just knowing it was almost over, I was still in one piece, and having Fletch there with me made everything seem so much better.

A mile or so later I stepped on a rock wrong and twisted my hurt ankle. Like worse than ever. I immediately had to stop and limp it off. Fletcher asked me what happened and if I was okay and I just looked at the ground and tried to suppress the tears. It passed, I said everything was fine, and started running downhill. We talked to keep my mind off things and it worked. I was happy and enjoying the running and felt okayish (relatively). Eventually we were at mile 41, only one more aid station to go before the finish. This part of the course was slow, as there was still about 3 inches of snow covering the trail. We walked almost everything except the downhills and some flats, which was normal for me. We were running with Rick and a cool guy from NC who races bikes, and it felt good. The stretch did feel a bit long, but eventually we got to the fire road and there it was. 4 miles to go. My friend David was just ahead of me when we ran in, and I passed him before we got to the aid station (haha). He was having a hard time, hurting a lot just like me. He said the sides of his legs above his ankles were destroyed, so Fletcher and I gave him a little pep talk at the aid station as I stuffed my face with cookies and joked around with the aid station workers. We ran off together, but David dropped. I knew he was going to make it, but I was a little worried he was gonna hate it at the end. The last few miles were mostly running since it was downhill, and we trotted along talking. Fletcher had made a huge snowball for me to throw at Horton when we got to the finish line, and I was running as fast as I could to throw it at him. We finally got to the “1 MILE TO GO” mark and I kick it as hard as I could. I told Fletcher not to let me stop and run as fast as I could. I said “Think I can catch those two people up there?” and he replied “I didn’t want to say anything but yeah I think you should.” So I ran even faster, slowly reeling them in. I passed them before the final turn; I could see the finish, I COULD SMELL THE BARN! We were by the fence, and Fletch told me he was going to drop off and that he was so proud of me. I think I replied with a grunt of recognition, and kicked it in.

FINISH!

            Crossing that finish line in 10:24 with a bad injury and still finishing LUS was more rewarding than if I’d finished top 10. Just knowing I could push through all of that for so long was a good sign for my ability to run a 100 miles (which will happen in the near future); it was definitely harder than running at a good clip, both mentally and physically. I really did have to struggle to finish, and still kept a smile on my face for the most part. MMTR still means so much to me, and being part of this 30^th running, with the hardest conditions the course has ever had and an extra 1,000ish ft of climbing, was really a special run. It was literally a rollercoaster, one that has a lot of loops that turn you upside-down for longer than comfortable. But I finished and got my shirt, and also finished Lynchburg Ultra Series 2^nd woman (I think). 

Also I didn’t throw the snowball at Horton, but I did take it to him and tell him I was going to throw it at him but was too exhausted. He just laughed:

me+snowball and Horton

The cutoff was extended half an hour for the conditions, so we waited for Kelly to finish and just hung out. The Patagonia guys were at the finish making the BEST quesadillas and tomato soup I’ve ever eaten. THANKS GUYS YOU’RE THE BEST!

Guys, I just ran 50+ miles in more pain than ever. That makes me feel pretty proud of myself.

And now I just resting and recovering for the rest of the year.

I’d like to thank Clark for putting on another wonderful and challenging year of MMTR, Horton for continuing to be Horton, all the sponsors, radio directors, the aid station volunteers, my parents for being awesome and supportive!, and ULTRAVT!!!! We’re the best team ever.

See y’all at Hellgate, where I’ll be helping Fletcher, Rudy, and Guy with whatever they need as they tear up those trails. 

team + Horton!