Holy hell!!! This was the hardest race I have ever done! I had hoped to keep about. 9 mm pace like the Orlando xtreme trail half I did 2 weeks ago, but the type of trails and the heat just crushed those dreams.

Peter, Mark and I arrived at the staging site and immediately after getting out of the car we heard 2 gators bellowing in the water. We were also immediately attacked by mosquitoes. Don't ask why, but we didn't have bug spray. Thankfully, bug spray was one of the items supplied by the race, so we were able to drench ourselves in it and frustrate those blood suckers! Mosquitoes are the worse at dawn and dusk and this was dawn in the Everglades, so they were pretty heavy. Luckily, once dawn passed, we didn't have any more bug issues.

Picked up our packet which was a cool small backpack with the race logo. Also received a fairly nice cotton t-shirt. I was particularly happy since they were gender specific, so i can actually wear this one :) Peter won the raffle we didn't know we were entered into. His prize was a tech t-shirt. I guess one of the volunteers dropped it b/c the white shirt was a bit dirty. We should have realized the foreshadowing of the dirty shirt!

The start line was about 4.24 miles from the staging area (which became the finish line and party area), so we had to be transported to the start. They had a big school bus and a tram for this purpose. Once we boarded they actually took roll. I assume they were making sure everyone who checked in was transported, so that was nice of them. On the way to the start we saw 2 deer standing in the trail. They stared us down and it took us almost running right up on them before they finally moved off the trail. Other than birds, they would be the only wild life I spotted the entire run. Of course, the trail was such that I couldn't look anywhere but at my footing, so for all I know I ran passed panther, bear and gators.

Once at the start, the race director gave everyone time to use the porta-potties before getting started. Our scheduled race start was 9, but we didn't get going until about 9:10. By that time, the heat was already really high and although I was looking forward to getting started, I was also a little apprehensive about the whole thing.

Before letting us go, the director gave us some information about the park and the conditions of the trail. He said the first section was like a super highway - it was the best maintained trail we would run on because there were some private homes off it. How there are private homes in a state park I don't know, but there were - if you could call what we saw homes! He also mentioned that the trail was really dry as there hadn't been rain all week, but still the area called "mud tram" was muddy and some areas were so bad that they put up walk arounds. I'll get back to these walk arounds later.
Finally we were off! The "super highway" was 2.3 miles long. It had cypress roots and knees and rocks and pot holes. But it was pretty hard packed dirt and it was shady. During this section we kept our pace under 9mm.

We then came out of this shaded area into the prairie. It was quite dramatic coming out of the shaded wood into this gold colored field. It was also miserable! This section was just under 4 miles. Earlier in the week the race fold cut down the prairie grass along the trail. That was nice, but now we had to run on the cut grass. It was pretty thick and laid across a really rutted trail. Thankfully, there were no roots or knees on this section. For some reason running on this grass just sucked the life out of my legs. Our pace dropped to about 9:15. The sun was also beating down without mercy. We were already in the 80*s. We were not used to this weather as we've had a pretty cold for Florida winter and I run in the morning before the sun comes up, so even on days that got warmer I was still running in temps no higher than 60. By the end of this section I was starting to feel like I was going to throw up from the heat. Not I good sign. There was a aid station just as we entered the prairie and I grabbed some water, but I didn't drink that much. May have been a mistake!
We finally made it out of the prairie and back into a shaded area!! This section is the infamous "mud tram" section. The first part was dry, but the footing was tricky with lots of cypress roots and knees and rocks and limestone caps. Shortly after entering this section I had to walk because of what the heat did to me in the prairie. When I did two 20 something girls passed us (Peter and Mark said they were going to run with me the whole way even though I told them to "save themselves" :) ) We walked for about 30 seconds and then picked it up again. In pretty short order we were at another aid station!!! We took a really long time here as we hydrated and grabbed some M&Ms. I also put ice under my hat and ran with some in my hands. I find holding ice helps cool me down. The volunteers warned us that the next section of the mud tram was really tricky. Oh, and every time we came into an aid station there was someone making note of race numbers. I wonder how many runners have been lost!

The volunteer did not lie about this section. While no part was under water, The ground was very damp in the dries areas and really muddy - thick, thick mud, in the other areas. The number of cypress knees was amazing; as was the lime stone cap rocks and other rocks. I am very surprised I did not catch a toe and go down. During our pre-start talk, the director said at least 3 of the 50k runners had gone down in that section. There was no way to run fast through this section. At least not for me - even if I had the legs for it, I couldn't do it as the footing was so tricky. At no point did I see anything that looked like a walk around for the really bad mud areas. I have no idea what the race director meant when he said they made these areas more easily passed.
Finally we emerged from the mud! The rest of the way the trail was a hard packed, dry, gravelly, pot holed trail. Where we came out was also not shaded> Trees lined this area of the trail, but did not provide any shade :( Still, once we got going on this section we all started to pick up the pace. I got to about 9:15 at one point. We came into the next aid station tired, hot, and thirsty, but running fairly well. This aid station took almost as long as the last b/c Mark availed himself of the porta-potty. Once again I drank water and this time a cup of Heed - that last one was probably a mistake. I also took another handful of M&Ms. We took off again and now we had a bit of shade. I immediately felt like I drank too much as my stomach was a bit sloshy. Peter felt the same way. I then started to get a bloated feeling. Pain came with the bloat. Not a lot of fun. But the worse was my quads were dead, dead, dead. I was also afraid I might start to cramp. Thankfully, they never did. I think it was about then that I told Peter and Mark that this was the hardest race I had ever done. We were probably running about 9:45s. The last aid station was around mile 11. We actually moved fairly quickly through it - but still way slower than any road race aid station. Peter even went into one of the coolers to get a mountain dew.

As we left the station it started to rain! It was just a light rain, but it was wonderful. It also came with a bit of cloud cover. Joy, joy, joy!!! Too bad it didn't last long. But it was great while it did. About a half mile later Mark's knee went on him and he had to stop running. Peter and I stopped with him. He told us to go on, but we did a few run then walk sections with him, before we abandoned him. :) It was around then that I saw the 2 twenty-something women that passed us as we left the prairie and I was determined to pass them. I did!
The last 3 miles was in brutal sun. I tried to stay with Peter, but couldn't keep his pace. I told him not to wait for me - we were almost done and both in bad enough shape that we wanted to get in as quickly as possible. So with about 2 miles to go he pulled ahead and then became a small dot on the horizon. During the last 2 miles I had to walk a couple of times. I was actually starting to get chills which is a bad sign; so I knew I had to get in, but it was a struggle to make myself run. This section really was more about mental strength than physical.

Finally, the blue finish banner was in site! Ran through it, got my medal, a finisher's jacket and a cold bottle of water and walked under the big tent to find Peter, sit down and try not to pass out! Success on all points :)

Mark came in a few minutes later and he was in obvious pain - his knee was quite swollen, so we got an ice pack from the med area and all just chilled out trying to collect ourselves. Once I was feeling a bit better I found the keg. Then I started feeling even better ;) Eventually, I felt good enough to eat a veggie burger. They had a pretty nice set up for the post race food. They had a grill going with burger, hot dogs and veggie burgers, bananas, oranges, cookies and other snack items. For drinks they had bottled water, coke, diet coke, canned beer and a keg. They were also very aware of the heat and the need for ice and I heard that they made multiple ice runs into the nearby hole-in- the wall town to make sure everything was cold and there was plenty of ice at all the aid stations. I found this very impressive.
We were still there when they did the award ceremonies for the 25k. Much to my surprise my name got called for winning the female master's division! I guess I am officially old now :0 In checking out the results, I was 4th overall woman. Really crazy stuff.
Peter was 4th in his AG and Mark 6th. If they hadn't run with me they would have placed even higher. Also, neither of them ever really trained for this, so their results are even more impressive.
I was hoping to have some critter sightings, but other than the pre-race deer and the sounds of gators, I had no luck. I did hear a ranger say that one of the runners had a bear siting. He heard some noise behind him and turned around to see a bear on the trail!

More trail training runs would be helpful, but there was nothing I could do about the heat. I had not run in those temperatures in months and was not acclimated to it. Also, I need to do a better job at hydrating and nutrition. I also wonder if racing a trail HM 2 weeks before was the smartest move on my part :)

Grabbed a cold bottle of water and sat down under the tent! Stayed there for some time and only moved to get beer ;)


Heat and energy sapping terrain!


Despite how hard I felt the race was, I enjoyed racing. The race director and all the volunteers were outstanding, the other racers were all very nice and the post race food and drink were great.

The race swag was also really nice. The awards were holders for the really nice finisher medals. You slide the rectangle shaped medal into the heavy medal holder and it kind of looks like a book end. The holder indicates what the award is for. It is really nice and If I could figure out how to upload with my Ipad, I'd post a picture!