The Turkey Swamp race has 4 distances to chose from, the 10 miler, 25k, 20 miler, and the 50k.
Last year I ran the 20 miler and Marybeth ran the 10 miler.
This year I ran the 50k and Marybeth ran the 10 miler again.
The course is a 2.5 mile (or so) loop consisting of some trail, dirt road, and grass fields. Last year there was only one short stretch of grass, this year the course was changed and it seemed like almost half of the loop was grass. It wasn't easy running by any means.
On the drive to the race, about half way there I realized I left my bag (that I spent an hour packing the night before) home! It had all of my gels, endurolytes(salt tabs), extra clothing, hat, Glide, band aids, basically everything. Thankfully I had my running clothes, sneakers, and Garmin with me, so no need to freak out. We stopped at a rest stop on the way down and I picked up some band aids for my nips. 33 miles with out my nips covered would not be good for me. I would have to improvise with the rest of the stuff I forgot.
My wife was running the 10 miler again, and she had some shot blocks and gels that I would end up using.
The race started and it was raining lightly, it felt nice actually. The grass was wet for the first half of the race though, so my sneakers stayed wet the whole race basically.
I'm not gonna put a positive spin on this report, cause basically this race sucked for me. I'm not quite sure why, but I just had a horrible race and struggled about as hard as I've ever struggled from mile 19 to about mile 22.
When the race started all of the 50k'ers had to hang a left and do an extra 1 mile loop before starting the loop which would supposedly complete the 31 miles.
I felt strong for the first 15 miles or so, averaging between an 8 and 9 minute pace easily, then I slowed it down a bit for the next few miles, but then suddenly the wheels fell off, I found myself starting to walk and wonder if this would be my first DNF, since I was already dead and I still had 12 miles to go.
The only thing I could think of was that it was really humid and I didn't have my salt tabs (I left them in the bag at home), I have been training with them the whole summer. I felt like my stomach was bloated from the fluids I was taking in, but I was still really thirsty. I found myself nauseas at times and light headed and was trying to force down liquids but it was hard with a bloated stomach.
I started to remember all the little tricks I've learned along the way, most importantly to keep moving forward no matter how bad I felt and hope things would change. I started to pick a tree or an object in the distance and force myself to run to it.
My youngest son came to the race with us and sat by the cooler and did some crewing for us, handing me drinks, filling my bottles. Then at one point, probably the turning point in the race for me, it was about mile 22 and I was walking, and he came running up to me with a stick and said "Why are you walking, go, go, go" and he started hitting me in the back of my legs with the stick!! Lol, I immediately put a big smile on my face and started running again. I ran the rest of the race at about a 12 minute pace, but never walked again. (Other then some very short moments). Probably the deepest I've ever had to dig in a race.
My last loop I managed to run a 10 min pace just cause I wanted it to be over so bad. I passed about 3 or 4 racers in that last 3 miles.
There was a lot of rumblings during the race about the course being long, which was correct. I clocked over 33 miles on my Garmin, and several other people clocked the same as me. I was fine with it though, I'd rather go long then short. My only concern was that it was fair and everyone did the same distance. There were some stories about guys who clocked only 30.5 miles on their Garmins, which means they were supposed to do another loop, but since they didn't know the course was long, they thought they were finished.
There was one check in point for the 50k'ers on the loop where you checked in every time around, so hopefully they will have an accurate count of who did the correct amount of loops.
Either way, it was a great training run for me in preparation for my 50 miler next month.
I finished in 5:59, over an hour longer than my last 50k but very happy with my effort.
No matter how bad of a race time you put in, if you give it your all, you will always walk away feeling good.
http://www.bestrace.com/results/09/090809TS6.HTM
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5 comments:
Mike,
I did that race yesterday too and I had a aimilar experience. Right around mile 20 I started feeling funny and then threw up a few times. I realized that I needed more S! caps. I was doing one per lap at that point so I upped it to 2 per and it really helped. Still, I walked almost all of lap 7 waiting for my stomach to drain. I'm really surprised that with all the $$$ spent on the race (and all the other hoopla) they didn't buy any electrolytes to give to the runners. Anyway, by the end of the race, I was popping 3 caps per loop and was able to fly over those last two laps. Good race and good luck with all those "real" ultras, hehe.
Sean Gavor
Hey Sean, I wish I knew who you were cause I would of deffinitely been bumming some of those S caps from you! Nice job getting through a tough race.
Sorry to hear that the reace didn't go as planned for you, but it was a good training run and you put in an extra loop. Which 50 are you doing next month ? Vermont ?
Anthony, Im doing the NF 50 in DC on Sept. 19TH.
The irony is, my cooler with a large supply of electrolytes, ICE COLD water, and calories (in the form of whey protein and maltodextrin) was sitting right there on the course. I put it just past the parking lot at the trail entrance (before AS2) and encouraged everyone I saw to have a go at it. I finished in 7:15 so it was there all day. I know at least a few people got in there because I went through a whole bottle of S! caps (although I probably took 1/4 of the bottle myself)!!!
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