Psyco Wyco Run Toto Run - Run20 Mile


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Kansas City, Kansas
United States
Kansas City Track Club
40F / 4C
Overcast
 		Total Time = 6h 22m 9s
Overall Rank = 64/68
Age Group = Female 20-Mile
Age Group Rank = 12/15
Pre-race routine:

Stood around agonizing over whether to wear my Yak Tracks or not. Brian took some goofy pics of us. That was basically it.
Event warmup:

Ran maybe like 200 yards, just to see how the Yak Tracks felt in the grass. They felt OK and I didn't feel that they were bothering me at all, so yeah.
Run
  • 6h 22m 9s
  • 20 miles
  • 19m 07s  min/mile
Comments:

This was a hard, hard run. About halfway through I just felt totally wasted, and part of me wanted to quit. It took us 2 hours and 50 minutes to go 10 miles. There were a lot of places where you just couldn't run at all, you just had to try to keep on your feet. I fell several times but was able to catch myself with my hands.

So picture this: You've been running 10 plus miles through mud, your feet weigh about 10 pounds more than usual, you are covered from the knee down in mud, and you are still expected to be able to jump over small creeks, climb over trees, climb up hills, take all kinds of hairpin turns, etc.

I walked the last 2.5 miles. My hip and one of my hamstrings started really bothering me. I was feeling really sorry for myself and was near tears several times. I didn't think it would EVER be over! I almost cried at the end, but I didn't. Because I'm tough like that. Or just stubborn...yeah that's probably it.

Some memorable moments:
I blew my nose on a leaf I found on the ground because the snot was literally pouring out of my nose. It was awesome.
Lana would sing this song I made up that goes "Caution caution caution! Be prepared to stop" whenever she came up to an area that was particularly treacherous.
Lana fell on her bum in the mud. :o)
At one point Lana asked me "Do I have mud on my face?" I responded "No, but you have some mud on your pants. Oh, and your shoes...did you know you had mud on your shoes?" HA HA HA!
And I'm sure there were some others too.
What would you do differently?:

Train on hills. Hills, hills, hills, and more hills. Nothing but hills. This course was supposedly 22% flat, but I really think that's probably a lie. It was up, down, up, down, the entire time. Also, after the first loop I ditched my hat and gloves because I was getting really hot. Then, wouldn't you know, the sun went behind the clouds and the wind picked up. Wish I would have at least kept my gloves. I was freezing!
Post race
Warm down:

Basically sat down and tried not to cry. Ha! Got out of my disgusting shoes which was a huge relief, but Brian had to tie my shoes for me because my hands were so cold that my fingers weren't working. It was really pathetic.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

My hurting hip and hamstring. Oh yeah, and THE MUD! And I wish I would've trained on hills more. I don't think anything I could have done would have really prepared me for this, but running more hills would have at least helped a little bit.

Event comments:

The volunteers were awesome. They were super encouraging, they went the extra mile to take your water bottle from you and take the lid off for you and everything. Every aid station had cookies, fruit and other food. Some even had Gu and M&Ms. Without the aid stations with food, I'm not sure I would have brought enough. I ate at every aid station! And had some snacks in between. :) Overall I'd say this is a great race organization, but I'm really not sure if I'll do this race again. I do want to do another trail race...just maybe not this one. :)




Last updated: 2010-01-12 12:00 AM
Running
06:22:09 | 20 miles | 19m 07s  min/mile
Age Group: 12/15
Overall: 64/68
Performance: Bad
Course: This course was a trail. Not like one that has been carved out by man and paved, or covered in limestone or something. No, this was basically completely dirt, random rocks, tree roots, etc. The majority of the trail was only wide enough for one person. You had to watch the ground constantly because it was really treacherous. Just as an example, there were times where the mud was literally 6 inches deep. Picture running in thinset mortar, or oatmeal maybe. There were places where you had to grab onto trees to pull yourself up extremely steep hills. There was one point where I was working my way up a hill, I lost my forward momentum, and my feet just started sliding downhill in the mud. We had to jump over running streams of water, climb over fallen trees, duck under trees, and...yeah. I cannot even convey the difficulty of this course. It would have been hard enough even if it was not muddy, but the mud...oh, the mud. I've never seen anything like it. It was almost like some of our run we were running in a place where all the water from the surrounding forest runs to, so it was like a "dry" riverbed or something. Only it wasn't dry of course. Someone said this was the worst this race has ever been. Someone else we talked to said he had done several trail runs and none of them were like this. So...yeah. It was way hard.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 4