What I Do When I'm Not Running or Doing Geology: My Creative Writing Minor

My Best Short Story and Best Poem of the Year!
as decided by ME:)

.........

The Lizard Wizard is Here

Mildred Rockingbomb woke up on July the 22^nd , 2012, unexplainably determined that there was a meeting in Alabama she had to attend that evening. She knew it, she could feel it – and took to preparing herself immediately. In the bathroom, she set her hair, which had just been dyed bright red, into a billow of tight ringlets, and drew her eyebrows on. “The orange suit..the orange suit…” the voices in her head were telling her (for Mildred could hear six distinct voices in her head on most occasions, four of which spoke English, one Farsi, and the other Gonja), so she buttoned into her orange suit with the rhinestone parrot design on the back. The parrot was a signal, a sign to others that she was one of them. She looked in the mirror, making sure that she had covered up the lizard tattoo on her right shoulder. It was a green lizard with red eyes, staring ardently and sneakily out from under her skin, like it had a secret and knew all of our secrets. She was sure – undoubtedly sure – that the lizard tattoo moved around her shoulder on its own, for she had a picture proving that it was indeed 3/8^ths of an inch further to the left when she first had the needle jammed into her flesh. The mirror reflected one of the many images of her, this one a tall, slender female figure with illuminated skin and eyes, inhuman in color. She stared longer, for she had never seen this reflection of herself before, and moved closer to the mirror, reaching out to touch it. As she did, scale-like bumps surfaced on her arms and face, and her eyes grew. Suddenly, the image jumped out of the mirror with an odd scream and on to her – knocking her to the ground in a confused panic. Mildred opened her eyes, frightened and dumbfounded by what had just occurred in her bedroom; the mirror was shattered into a million tiny malicious shards, and a voice in her head told her not to clean the glass up, it would be useful later. She shrugged it off (Mildred never got too excited or too scared; to her, things just happened) and went downstairs to put some toast in the toaster oven for breakfast.

It was a morning ritual of hers: one slice of rye with ketchup and cayenne, and one slice of wheat with honey and garlic. “Keeps the chiggers away!” she attested in a nervous blurt to anyone who questioned her odd dietary habits, for she hates anything that gets under her skin. She brewed coffee and poured it into a large bowl filled with cinnamon and heavy whipping cream, and sipped delicately on it as she went to feed the large eels she kept in a two-hundred gallon salt-water fish tank in her guest bedroom. The threw several medium-sized crabs in the tank, grabbing each with her bare hands, and watched the eels as they pierced the crab shells with their sharp teeth. “Beautiful…” she thought. Or was that merely a voice in her head? Regardless, she loved her eels and had for many, many moons. She even tried to take them into town with her, but transporting a large tank of eels was not an easy task, even though she was more than willing to pull a cart with the tank on it behind her. Ultimately, the general public does not take kindly to pet eels, or the people who own them. “Ding!” echoed from the kitchen, signaling that her breakfast was ready. She meandered towards the toaster oven, opened it, and removed her toast. But as she was closing the door to the over, it began to levitate. Her hand still on the handle, the oven was suddenly floating above the counter. She backed away, dropping her chigger repellent on the counter, eyes open wide. A prerecorded message began to play out of the toaster oven in a falsetto voice: “In approximately twenty-three minutes, Feather Meteor, Lizard Wizard of the Fnordian Alien Indian Tribe, will be here paying you a visit, so please prepare accordingly. Feather does not take kindly to any sort of berry, and needs the room her teleports into to smell like Canadian pines. You will perform any action he asks of you.” and then the message suddenly stopped, and the toaster oven fell back onto the counter. Mildred was not shaken by the message, and she felt strangely familiar with what was about to take place. She knew her life was never going to be the same after the Lizard Wizard’s visit.

            When twenty-three minutes had past, she began to panic. It felt like she’d been waiting for ages for the Lizard Wizard to arrive. Disposing off all the berries had only taken about seven minutes (she only had one container of blueberries and just decided to eat them all). She had also cut down a pine tree in her backyard and dragged in into the house to assure that each room would smell like pine, although it was not Canadian pine. Hopefully the Lizard Wizard would not be able to tell the difference, since he was from space and had never been to Canada. She taped her long cerulean blue fingernails on the marble countertops in impatience and hummed a song she had never heard before in a voice she had never spoken in before. So that was a little unsettling. When she was absolutely about to burst with anxiety, she heard a loud crash in the guest bedroom, and was certain it was either her brain finally exploding or her eels having enough of each other and escaping. She ran down the long, dark hallway to the bedroom, and stopped – froze – in the doorway. There he was, Feather Meteor, Lizard Wizard King. He was about eight feet tall, bright green, piercing red eyes, and a purple robe with planets and stars on it. He had a long grey and white beard, and was wearing Birkenstocks covered in glitter. Feather was distinctly radiant and smiling warmly, emitting lightwaves from his aura for all to ride. After what felt like 12 minutes of intense eye contact, he finally spoke in a soft voice. “How are you this morning, Mildred?”

“I’m feeling a little awk-”

“I don’t want to be short with you; I’d love to sit and had a long conversation, but right now is not the time. Listen, they are coming. They will be here in forty-seven minutes. Where is the trampoline? Didn’t you get the toaster oven message? Why is there a pine tree in the eel room? Eels feel distressed around pine trees. Didn’t you read The Eight Shakra of the Adranda Indians: Life as it Pertains to Multiterrestrial Vibe Interactions? Well, there’s nothing you can do about that now, but please try to remove the tree so the eels can smile again. Anyways, the Alien Indians will need to land their spaceship in your yard, so if you could please mow the grass down that would be wonderful and I would greatly appreciate it and bless you with six Jewels of the Bavarian Illuminati so when the Great Awakening happens you will be safe. Our Popes will be informed of your kind service and send their gratitude your way. Does this sound like a reasonable assignment?” Mildred stared blankly. She couldn’t believe that this was happening; she’d been ardently living by the Discordian society’s Living for a Discordian Star Beam for years and knew she was a chosen one – she could feel it in her bones – and now it was finally happening. She didn’t answer Feather, just nodded and ran outside to the barn (where she grew lily pads in an Olympic sized swimming pool) and brushed all the frogs off her riding lawnmower. She turned it on and backed out. “Bye, Mildred!” a frog on her lap said to her, and she took the frog in her hand and tucked into her chest pocket.

Back and forth, back and forth, she cut the grass and stared sternly ahead. Her right shoulder began to burn intensely, and she almost fell off the lawnmower and down the hill it hurt do badly. The pain subsided, and she looked in one of the windows of her house. Feather was hanging by his tail from the ceiling meditating, but opened his eyes as soon as she looked at him. She turned the mower quickly around the side of the house so he would not see her, but she was sure he was still staring slyly at her. Suddenly, everything went quiet. The lawnmower shut off, no cars drove by, no birds chirping or crickets singing. She felt light. Everything turned neon and spotted, like she was wearing the brightest 3D glasses. She got off the mower and looked at the sun. It was glowing bright green and pulsating, and the clouds around it were swirling kaleidoscopes of water vapor. And out of the sun came the space ship. It rocketed forth so quickly she was blown back by the pressure change its flight created in the atmosphere. Suddenly, it was hovering above her, and landed in the newly mown grass. Feather exited the house, but in the bright 3D color everything was projecting, she could only see his eyes and the parrot tattoo on his shoulder. His aura felt excited, and he exclaimed “They’re here! Oh wonderful this is perfect timing, I just reached a new level of enlightenment while I was practicing my morning meditation and I have to tell the Fnordian’s immediately, for it could be the answer to the question I chapter six of their metacognition literature! By the way, get ready for the journey ahead of you, for it will be metaphysically demanding but spiritually enlightening.” And he floated off to the blue orb that was floating in her yard. Mildred collapsed under the weight of possibility before her, and stared into the sky. With each passing second she became more a part of the universe and the universe became more a part of her, and she was absorbed into the sky and for a moment was at peace.

 

.........
IT'S REAL. and now my poem
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Honey Tastes

                        like a flower freshly blossomed and still covered

in morning dew that reflects the days dazzling joy
                        like a sun rise over a field, a blessing
of newly cut grass
                        like a lazy Saturday afternoon in late spring,
 contently laying on a hillside absorbing the sunlight
                        like warm summer mornings praising you overflowing
endless rivers of euphoria – just dive in
                        like laughter bursting from children as they leap  
through sprinklers during the hazy summer days
                        like slow motion fireworks, viscous volcanoes,
mudslides of mercy – these are good things, why rush them?
                       like Rosh Hashanah, when we recite our Parsha
and pray for our next merciful year to be a humble one
                        like a single amber orange autumnal leaf floating
 as the crisp wind lifts it off the tree and brushes it across your face
                        like a headcold lifting – treated best with a mug full
of warm ginger tea and a tablespoon of grace
                        like rainy weekends wrapped together in blankets
next to a woodstove, when all we do is idly smile at each other      
                         like that smile – you know that smile – on your lovers face
a benediction that everything will be infinitely perfect
                                    amen.

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!

MMTR 50 Prerace Thoughts (writen at 10pm before the race)

I was going to write this yesterday after my structural geology midterm, when I was frustrated at everything and taking my aggression out in a passive and unhealthy way. I had it all worked out in my head, “Sometimes the best taper involves hurting your ankle, not running for a week, and screwing up a midterm so bad you may lose 60 points from one annotated diagram...it seems to build up the most aggression, which I will not unleash on the trail.” But then I decided to stop having  a pity party for myself and just run. I knew it was Thursday, I knew I had 50ish miles to run Saturday, I knew my ankle was still in a lot of awkward pain, but gosh darn it sometimes when it seems like your life is falling apart in almost every way you just have to run. So I tore out of my bed, slammed my laptop (that had Gilmore Girls playing on it) closed, and laced up. I was gonna run to the gym, bust up the abs class (of course a 45 minute core workout two days out is a perfect idea, right? Right!), and run the long way back home. That planned proved to be the most ingivorating and revitalizing 3 miles anyone has ever run ever. EVER.

And that was when I realized how much running means to be in all aspects of my life.

I love running. It felt so good. I was renewed, the sidewalk alone the edge of campus filled with bus exhaust and bewildered freshmen became my euphoria. I was literally laughing out loud it felt so splendid.

I then proceeded to finish out my Thursday night by watching the middle of Unbreakable and then making deer burgers, kale, and beets for dinner with Fletcher, and passed out asleep before the AM hours.

Then today came. I woke up in a panic because it was 8:03am and I hadn’t finished my differential equations homework or mineralogy lab. But then I remembered it was THE FRIDAY BEFOR MOUNTAIN MASOCHIST!!!!!!! Why wasn’t that getting me excited…..because I had to go to math at 9am and geoscience fundamentals at 12:45pm…I’d have to pack and get gels and cut my toenails (TMI sorry but that’s the truth) after class at 2:30pm in a rush because I hadn’t had time to pack all week because of exams and labs and blah blah blah life life life… but it all fit together and I was mildly stoked by the time class let out and I was pedaling as fast as possible back home! I literally trew all my running clothes in my backpack and went to buy gels from Frank but I didn’t have enough money because I’m a poor college student (just kidding) so I payed him 8 dollars in 1’s and like 23 pennies and he spotted me the rest. Then I sped to pick my lovely friend KELLY SUMMERS! up and we had a blast driving hereJ

(Even though it took us 3 hours because traffic was so bad)But we made it, crazy college times and all. It’s hard to take 19 credits, run ultras, work, and balance healthy relationships, but making it all work is the best and life is totally perfect right now in every way.

So we ate pasta and listened to Clark and Horton talk about this special 30^th running (omg!) and with a “one to three TEAM!” from us Hokie Ultrarunners, we all dispersed off to our evening accommodations. And now it is 10:30pm (can’t sleep) and I am chillin in bed in my hotel room getting PUMPED to run my 2^nd Masochist on it’s 30^th year.

Goals:

Realistic time goal given the conditions: 9:30, break my 50 miler PR of 9:36 (Cheat Mtn ’12)
Lofty goal: sub 9 would be sick!!!

FINISH LYNCHBURG ULTRA SERIES 2012 IN ONE PIECE AND HAVE AN AWESOME TIME FROLICING IN THE WOODS AKA MY HOME!!!!!!!

See ya at the start line! (p.s. this probs won’t be posted til after the race but whatevsss, gotta capture these prerace jitters!)

Terrapin was 7 months ago...but I just found this on my computer

Sunday, March 25^th/Monday, March 26^th /Thursday, March 29^th (It’s been a busy week)

Inspiration makes its way into my mind at the strangest times. And as I lay here in my bed, propped up my about 6 pillows to keep my body from being in blinding pain, I am suddenly wide awake. It’s one of those nights where you make a new song in your head, but then realize how annoying of a song it is so you start reading that huge stack of novels you check out at the library, and 200 pages later you glace at your clock and it tells you in a harsh read light that it’s 2:36am. In five hours and a few minutes you will be asked to build an L-C current in your electromagnetic physics lab. You don’t care, however, because you’re in the middle of an adventure in a magical place, living vicariously though the fictional characters that were themselves frolicking through some depressed British persons mind about 120 years ago. Your body is too shredded to do any first person frolicking – that’s what happens when you spend your weekend running up mountains – so if reading for 4 hours after getting in bed gets your jitters out, you do it. My eyes are darting across the page, and in one more paragraph I will escape. I can’t feel the lactic acid slicing through my muscles or the microscopic tears in every single one of my muscle groups trying to mind themselves.

Okay, so it’s not that bad. I just get carried away when I write.

The event leading up to this elaborate piece of prose goes by many names. Some call it Tendonitis. Some call it Idiocy or Denial. Some call it Terrapin Mountain 50k. I call it FUN.

After my geology exam Friday afternoon, I walked vigourously back across campus to my dorm room. Not because I was afraid of being late to leave for Terrapin, but because I wanted to tess out my Achilles. I had been out for about 3 weeks at this point, and knew it probably wasn’t a good idea that I was going to be running 31 miles on it the next day. Zero running. Lots of mountain biking and swimming stuff. But I’d just had a successful running at Holiday Lake and had a good base. So I’d be fine, right? Right…But as I swiftly made my way through the maze of slow walkers across the drill field, I felt no pain in my Achilles. No discomfort or fluid crunching around in my ankle. It was liberating. I almost broke out in my signature happy dance, but refrained myself. Not because I was in public, but because I didn’t want to mess up my Achilles.

After a fun car ride to the Sedalia Center with my fellow Hokie ultra runners, I was ready to run. I felt the anxiousness building up inside me as the mountains approached, the mountains I’d be enveloped in in a few hours. It was on. I was ready to race. I always say I’m going to just run, just enjoy myself, but that’s so much easier said than done. I always end up wanting to see how hard I can push myself. Anyways, we pulled the cars up in the field, had a spur of the moment dance party, pitched the tents, and then went to check in.
I had been seeded in 14^th woman. Two months ago, I would have thought that I could easily break that and get a top finish. But over the course of the past three weeks of no running, I wasn’t sure I would finish 14^th. That’s pretty dang high! I remember last year when I started running these crazy things I would notice the women seeded in top 20 and stare in awe at their race number, quickly getting out of their way whenever I could because I was so amazed by them. How tough and strong these women were! I hoped to one day be as amazing and fast as them. Little did I know Terrapin 50k 2012 would be the testing ground. A new level had been reached. And such unfortunate physical circumstances lead up to it.

I told Horton about my injury during a little chat we had the night before, and he said I would be fine and still have a good run. Well, there ya go. I had my worse Terrapin nightmare streaming through my head in HD…Planet Earth quality…. “And here we see the illusive Appalachian mountain mammal, the Corriganius Rachelae, or more commonly referred to as the Big Eyed Mountain Lemur, in its most natural habitat. Watch as she gracefully navigates the technical switchbacks and OH NO! It appears as though she has taken a nasty tumble! Rupturing her right Achilles tendon in the pro-cess! Although she could easily overtake any of her male relatives when she is in good physical health, she is now so badly injured that nothing can be done to save here, and she will be left here to die so as not to slow down the rest of the leap of lemurs. ”

Natural Selection is a bad mother.

The best case scenario I had formulated for Terrapin was that I would make it to the finish line under 9 hours with 1 good leg. That’s all. Because nothing else seemed possible. My parents, the coolest parents in the world, were awesome enough to come to Terrapin for a lovely weekend in the woods, and reassured me that I was strong enough to finish no matter what. This is the first ultra of mine that my dad had come to, and I really wanted to show him for real how strong a runner I was, even though he already knows. I just love sharing this wonderful sport with people I love! It’s something you really have to experience to understand. The next day was indeed shaping up to be a mental one. I said goodbye to my parents and we Hokie’s retired to our tents to tell stories and laughs, and eventually we all said goodnight. The rain started drizzling down, and eventually I fell asleep. I always do my best sleeping when I’m in a tent.

The morning greeted us dark and wet. I embraced my impending dampness and set forth across the field for the best cup of prerace coffee I’d had in a few months. Thank you cross country team! I was debating wearing a light shell just to keep the rain off and from being too cold right off the start line, but the morning felt balmy enough so I decided just to wear shorts and the terrapin shirt from last year. Maybe the mixture of the yellow Terrapin shirt and the bright blue Promise Land shorts would brighten the somewhat dreary morning.
We Hokie’s congregated on a bench to kick things off with our traditional Hokie Hi. I hope everyone heard us…we weren’t nearly loud enough in my opinion. And with that subtle gesture, we made our way to the start line and off we were! Up the mountain! Maybe not being able to see where I’d be climbing too was a blessing.

I felt okay starting off; it just felt SO GOOD to be running again! I was immediately about a thousand times happier than I’d been in weeks, just from running 10 steps. I felt so good that I tried to catch up with my team mates. I did, and after a 2 minute conversation I could feel the extra speed taking it’s toll on my legs and decided to drop back. My breathing was much too hard for this early in the run, so I slowed it down and began to climb. Horton was on the side of the old fire road in his truck, and he let me know I was “way up there!” that was a little reassuring, so I leaned into the climb and ran a little. Most of the journey up to the aid station at the top of the mountain was a run/fast hike for me, as my endorphins were kicking in and making my legs want to work hard. The first down hill section on the gravel fire road was painful, but I flew down and blocked out the pain. My toenails were doomed anyways. After about 13 miles, I began to lose steam. The loop was nothing but pain, and I was sinking deeply into a dark, painful place. I didn’t know how far we’d run or how much more was left, but I did know that I had never been in such pain all over my body before during an ultra. It was unreal. I suppose 3 weeks of no running and no climbing isn’t the best thing to have to go thru before a race like Terrapin. I pushed through, though, and tried to smile, but I did almost cry at one point on the loop. My jelly legs were very mad at me.

 

When we got out of the loop to climb to the summit of Terrapin Mountain, the aid station people (thank you guys so much for all your work!) said we only had 9 miles left. I could not have been more happy to hear this! I was sure we had at least 12 more to go. With only 9 more miles, we were practically done! I had a change of heart – for a while – was started having fun again. I was pulled out of my mental funk, and started enjoying the end of the race. The section after the thirst Camping Gap is one of the most fun sections on the course. You get to climb out on the ledge of the mountain, slide through Fat Man’s Misery, and fly down some beautiful single track through rhododendron tunnels. I have always loved this section, and started feeling good. By the time we got down to the last aid station, after some near death experienced running down the single track that was now just a mud slide, my legs and feet were officially gone. I was in a good mood, but the pain in my lower body was bogging me down. However, I learned something very amazing at this aid station. I learned that I was in 4^th place for women. 4^th place. And the 3^rd woman was not that far ahead of me, they said. Now, I knew I was in no shape to be that high up on the rankings. What was happening?! I didn’t believe them for a while, but was so excited about this news that I started flying. I took off, not wanting the women I’d just passed in the last section to catch me (no offense, ladies, but I really wanted to finish 4^th!), and fancifully wondering if I could catch that 3^rd place lady in the last 4 or 5 miles. Probably not, but I was running as hard as my pain-filled legs could run! By the time I got off the mountain and onto the gravelly road, I felt pretty secure in my position as 4^th woman, and let out a huge sigh of relief/pain. I now just wanted to be done with this race.


I thought about the day as a whole, from starting to crying to now being 4^th woman. I thought about what my body was doing, and how on earth I was capable of running 31 miles with 7500 ft of gain with no really specific training over the last month. I thought about how much better a day it could have been if I did not get injured. And I thought about how I didn’t want the day’s adventure to end. Running in severe pain on a beautiful mountain is better than no running at all. But I was in a lot of pain. I saw the “1 MILE TO GO” sign and dug deep down. I always grind out that last mile sprint, but this one was probably the most painful last mile I have ever run in an ultra. I felt the pavement beating my knees and feet to death, I felt my legs turn to jelly. I closed my eyes – it was a straight shot in to the finish line now – and just listened as the cheering from the finish got louder and louder.


I was done. I sprinted as fast and I could on the grass and crossed the finish line in 6:02:20. 

Then I sat in the grass and took my pack off  to ease the nasty pack rash I had developed (that is now a giant scab, oozing weird yellowy liquid) and ate a cheeseburger and half a bag of ginger cookies. You know, getting ready for the hot date I had that evening.

 

 

And all was right in the world.

      The End.

Summer Races

Summer 2012: Best summer of my life.

Trying to make the rest of my year as euphoric and the summer.

I also races Highlands Sky 40 Miler and got 3rd woman in a time of 7:57 or something like that. It was one of the toughest races I've ever run; definitely ran like a 50 miler. It was also the most beautiful race ever, though, so that totally balanced it out! Physically, I felt pretty good during the run. I felt like I was going to throw up for the first 20 miles, but then started running with this incredibly nice and REALLY COOL woman named Tina and we basically ran the last 20 miles together. Getting 3rd was unreal, to say the least. I wore that Top 5 vest for a week.

The next weekend - as in 6 days later - I found myself that the pre-race dinner for Eastern Divide 50k, the first running of a new local 50k course, about 20 minutes for Blacksburg. A few of my friends and my boyfriend were running it, so I just decided to tag along. However, I found myself cournered, fourced to accept a free entry into the race.....I accepted. My legs were still tired from Highlands. So with 11 hours to prepare myself for another ultra, I ate carbs and went to bed. And at 7:30am the next day I was on the start line. I actually felt good and ran mostly with ledgend Rick Gray, who also ran Highlands the previous weeked. We ran together until about mile 20, then I decided to take off and "sprint" the rest. I finished 4th woman (though the entry I took was a mans, so Scotty Dwyer finished 4th woman!) in 5:25 or so.

The rest of the summer was bliss.

More on Cheat Mountain Moonshine Madness 50 Miler later, I have mineralogy class now.

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!

This Injury is a Pain in the Achilles...

The week after Holiday Lake, I made a rookie mistake that I should have run out of my system at this point in my ultrarunning career. I've made it before, twice before, and have now made it again: Not Recovering. Following Holiday Lake, I gave only two days to resting/swimming/recovering, and then Tuesday I set out for a hilly 5 or 6 miles of pavement pounding at a 7:30 pace. Thats a recovery run, right? It felt easy enough. My achilles didn't think so.


I evolved from ballerina to ultrarunner in the
usual manner, as seen above. This captures
 the "awkward stage," which
could be substantial enough evidence to
 prove evolution via the "missing link"

When I was still training in classical ballet (yes Rachel has quite the interesting past before becoming an ultrarunner), I got achilles tendonitis in my right leg. I couldn't tell my teacher, or she would probably cut me from the Nutcracker or just stop glancing at me all together (a glance is better than nothing and ment to be cherished). So I just put a leg warmer over my ankle during pointe class and hid the pain. It eventually went away, but I guess not completely.
The Saturday after Holiday Lake, I ran up my favorite mountain that I can run to from campus - Brush mountain - and played around on it for like 15 miles. It was SUCH A BEAUIFUL DAY. But after the run, my tendon kept hurting and by the end of the day I could barely move my foot up and down. I knew what I did wrong. If only I'd slept in like every other "normal" college student! I gave myself 3 days, and tried to run again. No go. Another 3 days, and still in pain.
Third time is a charm. I'll never under-recover again.
 I got it looked at by the local chiropractor, and he told me I have a bursar attatched to my tendon by some filaments that don't want to let go easily. He showed me how to rub the bursar to work it out, and how to stretch it. But there are no permanate solutions...
It went through periods of waxing and waning over spring break, like phases of the moon, expect not pretty. This was (is) a satellite of PAIN orbiting my achilles. And it's much too large for my tendon, just like our moon is almost too large to be classified as a "moon." (isn't that cool? That it could almost be argued that our Earth-moon system is a bianary system?) I shall now upgrade this metaphore to a Protoplanet of Pain
I haven't been on a ligitament run since February 25th, when I went on a run/adventure on the last half of the Terrapin course with two friends, because the chiropractor said it has potential to burst if I push it too much, and I would be out of all physical activities for about 3 months. And if Rachel doesn't do some sort of exercise like every day, she gets a little crazy..
      So I've been attempting to mountain bike. I like all the mud splatter.

Sufficient mud for one day?...nahhh

Sometimes I think that injuries are a way of some higher being telling me that I need to recover. I won't gain 15 pounds if I don't run for 2 weeks. I can bike and swim (the ladder is a funny site to see me attempt) and work up a nice sweat. But still, nothing gives me the same happy, content, satisfying feeling as a 5 hour run in the mountains on a saturday morning. It's the feeling of being completely draining, soaked in sweat, with dirt and scratches on your legs. Wednesdays, I usually go up Brush mountain on a nice 10 or 11 mile loop in between classes, and go to my afternoon class fresh off the mountain. At first my class mates thought I was attacked by some crazed animal. But after a while, I trained them to know when I had just come off the trail, and now they have developed a new skill: How to Spot an Ultrarunner.
To my peers: you're welcome.


Terrapin, and all mountains, know that I love them dearly

This weekend is Terrapin Mountain 50k. I'm still running it, but am not going for time. I just want to finish. My tendon is feeling exponentially better than it has all month, and I could not be MORE ANTSY. That mountain can not bring me down to my first DNF. Terrapin and I are friends; we've spent a lot of quality time together. I know it goes through mood swings and where it's soft spots are. You may think Terrapin trying to kill you, but it's just testing you to see if you are worth its time. Thats one thing Terrapin and I have in common. I am not racing Terrapin this weekend; I'm running it. But I'll probably end up racing:) I'm getting my money's worth, spending as much time with my old, rough, rocky friend as possible. Maybe that'll make up for the lack of mountains in my life this past month.