Due to a knee injury, and feeling sick heading into the race, I did not expect to actually run much of this race before backing out. Just days prior, I couldn't imagine running 5 miles much less 50. I took off almost a full 2 weeks of running heading into race day, in an effort to heal up. The previous day, it still hurt so I had my head set on just running to Weverton and then backing out. Then at least I would get the Appalachian Trail piece in, which is my favorite.

My friend Roger and I are pretty similar runners, and sort of expected to run together for quite a while. We got to the starting line just a few minutes before the 7am gun. Then it is a long slow climb up to the Appalachian Trail. There are two contradicting issues in this section, as you need to save yourself on the hills, but at the same time you know there are 1000 runners hitting the trail at the same time and you want to get ahead of as many as possible before you are restricted to a single track trail. We ignored passing people, and decided to take it easy for the most part.

Once on the AT, it became obvious that a lot of people who sign up for this race, are not trail runners. Some people can handle rocks, some can't. The ones who can't, block the trail for dozens of runners. I tried to move around these people, pulling Roger along. Still thinking I am only running 16 miles today. I also neglected to think, that the aid stations on this section are very spread apart, so I needed to focus on hydration.

At Reno Monument Road, we run onto a paved road that winds along the ridge, with significant steep hills. By the time we reach the summit at mile 5.5, we have climbed 1100 feet from the start. After we summit, it is back to the trail and rocky terrain heading down into Gathland. At Gathland, we get our first view of spectators, lining the green pasture of the area. It was pretty nice. I grabbed a cookie and not enough Gatorade, and continued on. I was also carrying Perpetuem but was not drinking it (are you thinking that something is coming at some point?).

Out from Gathland is a some uphill, and more rocks. Still passing people in a narrow trail, pretty fun. We are a lot faster than any of our 3 training runs on this course. But I am saying to myself that it's the risk taking, not the level of effort, that is increased. We are also starting to pass 5am starters, which is pretty amazing. My knee started giving me issues, so much so that I can no longer bend that knee in order to jump over logs and such. Makes things a bit more risky.

Heading down the switchbacks, I run into a hiking friend coming the other direction. Mary! What a wonderful friend to run into. I stop and talk to her for a couple of minutes while Roger heads on. Does a couple of minutes matter over 50 miles? We come off the trail at 3:11, which is pretty fast. At mile 15.5, Weverton is a HUGE pack of people. So much so that I got confused as to where to go next. Pretty exciting though. A dog appears, running on the trail, that has been running with us for easily 5 miles now. Pretty funny.

Now we hit a significant aid station before heading onto the flat C&O Canal for 26.3 miles. I grab a PB&J and probably not enough Gatorade, catching Roger now because he goofs off at aid stations. My knees felt pretty good on the flat surface so I decided to keep going until I had to bow out. I decided to settle into a 8/2 run/walk plan. By this point I really don't know what mile I am at; just letting them fly by, and it is working. The 8/2 plan did not seem like fun, the run was too long and the walk too long, so I went to 4/1. That lasted until maybe mile 30, when I had to give that up as well. Roger is still with me, and I seem to be pulling him along, and he makes comments about him feeling like he's about to bonk. Somewhere between mile 30-34, Roger decides that he wants to do sub 10 hours. I don't care what I do, so he heads off and I say that I am going to walk a while until I feel better.

I neglected to think that the C&O Canal section would have some many leaves getting into my shoes. I thought the main shoe issue would be on the AT, but I had to empty my shoes many times on the C&O Canal. Those wearing gators on their shoes seem pretty smart.

The next miles include significant walks. At some point it was obvious that I am lacking hydration. The fact that I did not plan this race because I did not expect to do it, was hitting me. I am still not suffering horribly, but running just ain't happening. Breathing gets labored. I start figuring out what it would take to hit each aid station's cutoff times, which I wrote on the back of my bib. It would take 16 min miles for me to reach the finish before the deadline. I am not confident at all about 16 minutes miles because I seem to be walking at about 17:30.

I decide that I need to really work on hydration, and I decide to suck down everything I can until I have to use some facilities. I dumped my Perpetuem because the thought of that spoiling was not pleasant. Took my first gel which seemed to help, and I was able to run some spots again. The walking breaks were plentiful but not discouraging, because it was a beautiful day outside. A high of 60, but it got colder during the later miles of the race.

I finally had to pee, yeah! Maybe I can recover a bit here. I try to drink soup at the aid stations and get more salt in me. One aid station had a Christmas theme, and I got my picture taken with Santa Claus! Hey, it's a 50 mile race and I am walking, why not?

In one of my bad walking moments in the 30-40 mile range, I spot some gear that someone threw down on the trail. Hmm.. there's a bottle that says Tylonel. I wonder if there are pills in there. A-hah! I take two pills from the trail and hoped they were ok. See what happens in ultra races?

In the late 30s, I did a check on my time versus mileage and found that I could do 20 minute miles and finish in time. Yeah!! I think I can do that. At about mile 39 I hear that water from the dam, which marks the point where we leave the C&O Canal. That gets me going and I am able to run a good .5-.75 miles.

Before coming off the canal, I had issues in both knees, so I had to decide which one would get the knee brace I was wearing, so I had to switch it from the left to the right, which is pretty funny. But it seemed to work. Just have to balance the pain the rest of the way.

After we come off the canal, it's a paved road, but it's a walkable steep hill. ugh. I'd rather have the trail. I am still sucking down fluids as much as I can to recover from my earlier hydration problems. Problem is, there are no port-a-potties along this section, and we are now in residential areas. In fact, the whole course seemed to lack potties; the only saving grace was that we were always in the woods.

So now I am running to the nearest potty. It was a good 4 miles away and I do not have energy to run 4 miles. So I had to find a spot. Then it gets dark and we head into Downsville, the last significant aid station. More fluids, and more needed potty breaks. In all I had to have taken a potty break 4-5 times in the last 8.4 miles.

Though I ran well coming off the canal, at Downsville I fell back into "unable to run" mode. I ended up walking most of the last 4 miles, though I did run the last 1/2 mile when I saw the finish.

Once done, I see Roger, who came in at 9:57. Woah! And then I get greetings from Terps421 from BT! Wow, that was a nice surprise. Thanks to you both. Linda notices that my hands are swollen. I looked this up later and it appears that I did not take in enough salt. I only had 3 salt tabs all day. Dumb. This could've made my whole race.




Actually make a plan ahead of time. More hydration, more sodium. Possibly hold back on the Appalachian Trail section. I could've done significantly better than 11:26. But really, I didn't care what time I finished, and 11:26 is perfectly fine.

Headed into the gym, sat down, couldn't do much. Eventually got up and took a shower and got some pizza. They were out of pizza for a while which was annoying, and the race cleans up and disappears not long after the last runner comes in. Had to wait quite a while for the bus, that was pretty annoying.


Hydration, low sodium