Iron Mountain 50 miler: a 50k plus 20 miles of mistakes

Iron Mountain Trail Run is probably the best kept secret in Virginia as far as ultramarathons go. A small field of runners, beautiful trails, laid-back atmosphere, and fresh baked bread and jams/jellies as finish awards are all unique to this event, along with the college-student friendly entry fee of $25! Plus, Damascus is one of the prettiest areas of Appalachia and less than 2 hours from Virginia Tech. So obviously all 11 of us ultraVT runners were crashing at Guy Love's mom's house in Damascus Friday night.

The first thing I noticed Saturday morning was the humidity. I'm from coastal Virginia, so I am far too familiar with this weather phenomenon, but one of the reasons I've moved to the mountains was to avoid it. Humidity meant a storm was approaching, so relief was looming in the distance, but the first few miles were gonna be sweaty ones.
The next thing I noticed was the 7 person pack us ultraVT hooligans made for the first 10k on the Creeper Trail. I love running with my boys - it's a ton of fun and I love them all to death -  but sometimes we all feed off each other and run a little too fast when we aren't warmed up. I noticed this in my tight legs and felt a little panic-stricken when I heard Jordan Chang call out that we hit the 5.5 mile mark in 40 minutes. Oops. I immediately began walking and dropping back when we hit the climb, and Rick asked me why my shorts were already dripping with sweat. Too fast.

Mike and I won the IMTR 10k

I then noticed feeling the miles tick away effortlessly. I glided along the cloud-covered ridge like a bike coasting downhill. The trails were ideal: a few rocks to dodge - keeping your mind engaged - a soft pine needle bed to cushion your landings, and stunning views intermittent along the treeline.
I noticed being lost in my thought - enraptured in the shear freedom and joy that trail running brings me - and not aware of how fast I was ticking the miles off. I ran the ups and hopped the downs and was smiling to myself about how happy I was to be there. I felt amazing.
I felt my IT band twitching and was brought back to reality. I was running through a field that lead me to a fire road, about 1.5 miles from the aid at mile 17 - the turn around mark for the 30 mile runners. I have had IT band issues in the past that have lead to 2 months of rest and a moppy, angered Rachel.
I should tell the aid station workers that I am dropping to the 30 and turning around.
If I was smart, I would have. If I had changed to the 30 miler, I would not be working on my 10th consecutive rest day right now.
What's 20 more miles? I'll take it easy.
This is what you signed up for. You'll feel ashamed for dropping to the 30.
Sometimes there is a devil on both of my shoulders. I blew through the aid station with my eyes closed to avoid temptation, and was thus greeted by douch-grade fire road. Damnit.
I ran most of it because I never know what to do with douch-grade and wanted to be done with it ASAP. I was also running scared, distracting myself by talking to a nice guy named Andrew that was in the middle of completing his first 50 miler. That made the next 15 miles or so tick off easily. Around mile 35 I was told that I was in 2nd place. I DID NOT WANT TO KNOW THIS. I purposefully did not wear a watch or ask aid workers what time/place I was in for this reason. I did not want to find myself racing.But after the climb up the waterfall I wanted to be at Tammy's aid station as fast as possible to secure 2nd place.

starting to struggle (but the trails were gorgeous!)

It began to thunder. Misty rain as washing sweat into my eyes and I was temporarily blinded on the fire road. I found my way to the next stretch of trail and flew on the downhill miles. It was effortless. The trail began to hiccup and I ran over them like they were nothing. The hiccups got gradually more rocky, muddy, steep, and slick, and I grew more and more frustrated.
I am not sure what exactly went wrong over the 2 miles from the trail to the last aid station, but something very bad happened. My IT band had been chatting to me regardless of my efforts to block it out, and then the rest of my right leg followed suit. The pain arose in my knee, the whole knee. The inside, outside, top and bottom all collectively  shouting at the top of their lungs.
I just turned 19 eleven days ago, I should not be having these types of problems.
Well. Shit. I continued a shuffle/hobble/run to the aid station and told them I was having problems and would be walking it in. I just stood under the tent their for a while watching the rain drop down and considered dropping along with it. These next 8 miles would be very bad for me.

 8 hours and 47  minutes had passed since I began the run. I had 8 miles left, and set out for the finish line feeling depressed and anxious. I just wanted a healthy 50 miles before school started. I ran for about 3 of the 8 miles to the finish, but ended up falling in a mud puddle (i.e. the trail) and twisting my knee even more so . That was the final straw, and a gimpy hop/walk was my only mechanism of transporting myself to the finish line.

done

my face says it all

About 9 people passed me during my struggle the finish line. I dropped to 6th place female. The trail turned into pavement and I knew I was less than 2 miles from the finish. I wish I had had a phone to call my boys and tell them that I was going to be a while. My knee hurt SO FREAKING BAD that I had to walk down the pavement backwards. I got some strange looks from the Damascus residence, and knew I was going to have to make some changes.
In just under 11 hours, I managed a pathetic shuffle through the field and the finish line. At least I got some applause.
Then David and I went to the hospital to pick G-$-Love up (but it's okay because he got 4th!)

what a day

I went to IMTR with my only goal being a finish, and now my only goal is to heal up so I can finish another ultramarathon. But, UltraVT had an awesome showing overall, as we all finished out respective races! Yay! I love our team.

These past 10 days have been stressful in many ways, in all aspects of life, and some stresses have made it difficult to recover properly, but I'm doing my best. I've been icing and taking NSAIDs and trying to sleep (though I pulled one all-nighter last week...oops). Jordan Chang took a look at my knee and said he's not too worried about it, which was a huge relief. I'm sure all it needs is another few days of RICE and I'll be able to go on a nice little jog.

I also got into MMTR via overflow application (woohoo, thanks Clark!) and would LOVE to have an awesome 3rd running this year. So I'll be resting until my knee is pain free, and then begin a proper, gradual training til November 2nd. I want to actually do welllllll at MMTR this year! I know I can! I just have to listen to my body this week. And do all my school work! I also paid dues for VT Triathlon team (finally!) in order to increase the amount of cross training in my ultra training regimen to help with injury prevention. And it would be cool to do a few triathlons! And I guess the people on the team are okay:)

See ya 'round the mountain.