I left the house just a bit after 4:30 AM. That put me at the race start a bit less than an hour early. I knew this was a small race, but I wasn’t sure how traffic would go or how they would handle parking. I used the time to relax a bit, once again, I found myself nervous on race day.
A few minutes before 8 AM, I found myself in a grass field with about 90 other people. They had a woman with a beautiful voice sing the National Anthem, and then within 2 minutes, we were gone. We ran through the dew covered grass for about 1/10 of a mile then along a park road for ½ mile then into the trails. I started off a little fast, but once we hit the trail it felt pretty good. Most of the trail is single track, not technical – it’s almost 10 miles long, so the race is three laps. I joined up with a group of about 7 – 10 other runners for the first 4 or 5 miles. With almost no room to pass, I was glad for the half mile of easy passing on the road to get lined up according to pace. The group was very quiet. The course has two aid stations at either end of the trail. As I got past the far aid station, I was following a woman in grad school at the University of Maryland
As I started the second lap, I realized that the terrain seemed to be more difficult, not really hard – but I could feel that my legs were working harder than in a road race. I briefly considered that the third lap would probably be even less comfortable. I was now alone, from the time I left the aid station until I reached the next aid station, I saw two people – riding mountain bikes. I had seen this same pair on the first lap – they looked like they were newbies getting into shape. The lead rider didn’t seem capable of avoiding me, so I jumped out of the way. I realize that the 50k didn’t have exclusive use of the trail on this day, but I kept thinking that these two geniuses could have realized after passing say 90 runners that perhaps today would be good to ride elsewhere … so I was a bit surprised to seem them on both lap one and lap two. I also passed a different group of three riders on lap one and two – but they seemed more experienced and I was more confident that they could avoid me as well as me avoiding them.
As I got near the end of the second lap, I made a rookie trail running mistake. I stared at my Garmin to read the mileage – while looking at the Garmin, I was not looking at the root that jumped under my foot – the result was an early and very HARD foot-strike. The top of my ankle felt like it might be bruised, I figured keeping it moving would be best, so I didn’t even stop. Fortunately, the pain went away quickly. I felt like a moron for not paying more attention to the trail. There are some more significant inclines at the end of the loop and my knees started to feel the effects. It wasn’t enough to make me stop running, but I knew I couldn’t keep running this course indefinitely. For some reason, once each lap, I kicked my right ankle with the bottom heel of my left shoe – that hurt and has left a cut. I suppose I’m not picking my feet up very high and my foot strikes are not far enough apart – at the time, I just knew how much it hurt.
The race provided access to a drop bag at the start of the second and third laps. I started the race with a fuel belt with two bottles. That worked well for the first two laps, but I finished both bottles before reaching my drop bag for the last time, so I picked up my hand-held bottle and left the fuel belt behind. I should have been drinking more, but the whole drop bag thing was pretty cool. In addition, the volunteers were awesome, on the first lap, I handed off my jacket that I started the race with – he delivered it back to the finish area, so I didn’t have to carry it with me.
Lap number three started out okay, but after about a mile on the trail, I checked the Garmin and it said 18 miles … WTF? … this should be mile 22. That got under my skin – looking back, I don’t understand what bugged me, I was in the trees, the Garmin probably lost signal and I should have been able to let it go, but it just kept nagging at me. Maybe I’m really 13.1 miles from the finish – that’s a half marathon and my legs feel like crap.
I started to get some cramps in my hamstrings and quads. I was slowly making my way along the trail, surprisingly, only one person actually passed me. As he went around me, I got a foot cramp and let out a groan – when he heard me, he stopped and offered an electrolyte capsule. I thought that was pretty cool. I got more capsules and watered down Gatorade at the aid station. The aid station was about 5 miles from the finish and the Garmin indicated another 7 miles – I knew it was wrong, but it was still messing with my head. I thought maybe the course would have more mileage after leaving the trail. When I finally emerged from the woods, the course marshal said it was just ¾ mile (mostly on pavement) to the finish and I never looked at the stupid Garmin again. When I got to the last tenth of a mile, I could read the clock – as I saw it turn over 5:14, I knew I could finish in less than 5:15 (my second goal), but only if I hustled. The last bit was uphill across a grass field – I was surprised how difficult it was to pick my feet up, but I made it in with 1 second to spare.
The post-race food included baked potatoes with Old Bay seasoning – not my first choice in general, but it was delicious. Our finishers premium was a glass coffee cup and a running hat. My kids were disappointed that I didn’t get an actual medal.
Rosaryville Veterans Day 50k
Time: 5:14:59
Course: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/56596888
Participant Hat
Finisher's Premium (Glass Coffee Mug)
Early in the run, notice the smile.
Closing in on the finish line.
