Sometimes it is harder to get a race report to going than it is to actually make it to the starting line. I did a double of sorts over the weekend, picked up no blisters, managed to run for over 60 miles and not further injure my PF, added to my tick count for the year, and came home with ZERO medals!
Well, this 1st installment of the weekend update will cover the Free State Trail Run, put on by the Trail Nerds. I ran this race last year, the marathon that is, and this year, I planned on running the 40 miler, followed by the OKC Marathon the next day. Sounded like a good idea anyway.
My great friends Jason and Lisa were running the marathon and also doing the full in OKC to qualify for 4 stars on Marathon Maniacs. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Roman was running the marathon, and then doing a leg of the OKC Relay. And Kathy was matching me step for step, also doing a 40/26.2 double. We are gluttons for punishment.
Dana, Roman, and Lisa cruise along early in the race. The marathoners had an out-and-back before starting on their 20ish mile loop. I heard grumblings about the unevenness of the grassy fields, but later in the day, the grass did not seem such a bad memory. :-) From the looks of it, and also judging by their finishing times, Jason had long since sped away.
But just like an episode of Lost, this post will flash back and flash forward in time.
An hour before the marathon start, the 40 milers and 100 K-ers took off. In usual Zombie fashion, I was in the porta-pot just minutes before the start, and took a few pics of the race start before taking off myself. Very soon, I found my place in the long line of runners as they entered the first of many miles on single track trail. Fortunately, Kathy was near by, and we ran and chatted for about 10 miles or so.
The trail wound along one draw, down a ravine, across a stream, back up, sometimes on the shore of the lake, sometimes deep in the thicket.
One of the signature sights at this trail is this structure made of old driftwood....sort of an arbor, made lean-to style with no visible nails or ropes.
It was a grayish day, forecast to be in the mid 80s, but the cloud cover kept it around 10 degrees cooler. Not the best day for pictures though.
Our first aid station was at Land's End. Just the basics here. Succeed sports drink, water, a few candies, fruit, and salty snacks.
Some yummy chocolate chip cookies showed up later, or maybe I just missed them the 1st time through.
After this aid station, the mud got worse. We had went through a few muddy sections, but the next several miles was ridden with over-the-ankle slop. At first, most runners tried to go a little wider to get around it with dry feet.
After a while, I just gave up and plowed through it.
After 10 miles +/- Kathy got fed up with my poky-ness and left me. My feet were achy, and I was wondering if my Plantar fasciitis was gonna let me finish. I truly gave very serious thought to dropping after one 20 mile loop.
When I did finish the 1st loop, I discovered that our Jeep was gone, and I knew that Dana most likely had dropped. My thoughts were that she was a mile away at the shower, but maybe not. Possibly she had already showered and went back to Lawrence to shop? No way to know for sure. My cell phone was in the Jeep, as was my stash of salty snacks, electrolytes, shot blocks, and ibuprofen. Tried a hamburger at the start/finish, and it was cold. Hmmm.... (Dana, fought hard to stay in the race, and made it 9 miles before her PF flared up bad and she stopped. Still proud of ya babe! If Plantar Faciitis contagious?)
Fellow Taturs Shelley and Kurt had finished their marathon, with Shelley finishing 3rd female. Not sure what Kurt's time was, but as always, he was slower than his speedy wife. While I was feeling sorry for myself, Shelley asked me if I was going back out for the 2nd loop, and I realized I just HAD to go. A Zombie feels no pain, right? It also helped that I was able to snag some Vitamin "I" from the aid station table. With Roman, Kathy, Jason, and Lisa still out, and Dana somewhere, I decided I just as well be moving on the trail as aching laying on the ground. That is LOGIC at work.
Early in the run, there was a long skinny loop, that could have easily been skipped. I have never been one to do anything like that and as a race director, I would immediately DQ a runner that cheated. I was beat up, my feet ached, I knew everyone would be waiting long for me to finish, BUT, despite being able to cut 1.8 miles from my 2nd lap, I decided I could not live with myself. And a weird thing....after that 1.8 miles, I felt much better, pain free almost, and ran stronger (but not necessarily faster!) Maybe that was just KARMA at work?
More lakeside trails
More mud....I actually took my only fall on this second loop, falling on my big arse in a sloppy slippery slope. My entire backside was mud plated, my water bottle was buried, and I lost my glasses, but did find them later.
This nearby stream crossing was my bathtub. After cleaning myself up, I returned to find my glasses.
more aid stations. This was the far point aid station and everything from here was getting closer to home. At this point my race was 3/4 over. I was beginning to smell the barn.
On the way back, the deer really started to move. I saw several deer, or maybe they just followed me around.
Also, the weather got bad. A little light rain set in, but let up after dampening everything. Even sections like the one below that were dry were just wet enough for the mud to cake up on your shoes. Every 50 steps or so, I had to scuff my feet, or stop and scrape off the excess. Or just run with 10 pound shoes. Slow going, but still going. from the far side aid station to Lands End aid station, the weather warning sirens went off 7 or 8 times. It was thundering and lightening, with light rain. There was nothing for me to do but run. I did not care to lay in a ditch in the rain; besides, the rain was light and where I was there was no wind at all. I figured the warnings were for the boats to get OFF the lake because of the lightening. But I was also worried that when I hit the last aid station, they would be pulling all the remaining runners, and sure enough, that was the case. They had me and around 7 other runners WAIT (I waited around 40 minutes) before we got a ride back to the start/finish. In that 40 minutes, I could have made it the remaining 3 miles to the finish. Well Heck! The park rangers had made the call, and it was later relayed to me that a tornado had touched down IN the lake, some of the tents at the S/F area were blown down, and the park rangers had herded everyone into a concrete building for safety.
Another good friend Vicky finished her marathon HOURS before me.
Great job Vicky!!
Back to my plight....I ran what was probably 37 miles +/-, and would have got the 40 on a sore heel completed in around 12:15. Not my speediest effort by any means, but I think I deserved at least a marathon medal. And hopefully, after the RDs decide how to post the results, they will see about getting me one.
It was great to have a hot shower after the run, and just as I reached the showers, the sky opened up. It rained HARD and even hailed a little. The hot shower was just to nice to leave, and I walked out of the bathroom 30 minutes later cleaner than I have been in years, except for a little mud behind one ear.
After meeting for dinner in Lawrence, we all began the trek to OKC. The weather on the way there was horrendous. Dana and I had to pull over a few times to wait out the hard rain. We finally just stopped and slept in the car. Dana dropped me off near the starting line in the marathon just in time for the starting gun. Actually, I had 25 minutes to spare, but it was still close. I will post a marathon report here tomorrow, and a longer report on the RunnersWorld blog tomorrow as well.
Well, this 1st installment of the weekend update will cover the Free State Trail Run, put on by the Trail Nerds. I ran this race last year, the marathon that is, and this year, I planned on running the 40 miler, followed by the OKC Marathon the next day. Sounded like a good idea anyway.
My great friends Jason and Lisa were running the marathon and also doing the full in OKC to qualify for 4 stars on Marathon Maniacs. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Roman was running the marathon, and then doing a leg of the OKC Relay. And Kathy was matching me step for step, also doing a 40/26.2 double. We are gluttons for punishment.
Dana, Roman, and Lisa cruise along early in the race. The marathoners had an out-and-back before starting on their 20ish mile loop. I heard grumblings about the unevenness of the grassy fields, but later in the day, the grass did not seem such a bad memory. :-) From the looks of it, and also judging by their finishing times, Jason had long since sped away.But just like an episode of Lost, this post will flash back and flash forward in time.
An hour before the marathon start, the 40 milers and 100 K-ers took off. In usual Zombie fashion, I was in the porta-pot just minutes before the start, and took a few pics of the race start before taking off myself. Very soon, I found my place in the long line of runners as they entered the first of many miles on single track trail. Fortunately, Kathy was near by, and we ran and chatted for about 10 miles or so.
The trail wound along one draw, down a ravine, across a stream, back up, sometimes on the shore of the lake, sometimes deep in the thicket.
One of the signature sights at this trail is this structure made of old driftwood....sort of an arbor, made lean-to style with no visible nails or ropes.
It was a grayish day, forecast to be in the mid 80s, but the cloud cover kept it around 10 degrees cooler. Not the best day for pictures though.Our first aid station was at Land's End. Just the basics here. Succeed sports drink, water, a few candies, fruit, and salty snacks.
Some yummy chocolate chip cookies showed up later, or maybe I just missed them the 1st time through.
After this aid station, the mud got worse. We had went through a few muddy sections, but the next several miles was ridden with over-the-ankle slop. At first, most runners tried to go a little wider to get around it with dry feet.
After a while, I just gave up and plowed through it.
After 10 miles +/- Kathy got fed up with my poky-ness and left me. My feet were achy, and I was wondering if my Plantar fasciitis was gonna let me finish. I truly gave very serious thought to dropping after one 20 mile loop.
When I did finish the 1st loop, I discovered that our Jeep was gone, and I knew that Dana most likely had dropped. My thoughts were that she was a mile away at the shower, but maybe not. Possibly she had already showered and went back to Lawrence to shop? No way to know for sure. My cell phone was in the Jeep, as was my stash of salty snacks, electrolytes, shot blocks, and ibuprofen. Tried a hamburger at the start/finish, and it was cold. Hmmm.... (Dana, fought hard to stay in the race, and made it 9 miles before her PF flared up bad and she stopped. Still proud of ya babe! If Plantar Faciitis contagious?)
Fellow Taturs Shelley and Kurt had finished their marathon, with Shelley finishing 3rd female. Not sure what Kurt's time was, but as always, he was slower than his speedy wife. While I was feeling sorry for myself, Shelley asked me if I was going back out for the 2nd loop, and I realized I just HAD to go. A Zombie feels no pain, right? It also helped that I was able to snag some Vitamin "I" from the aid station table. With Roman, Kathy, Jason, and Lisa still out, and Dana somewhere, I decided I just as well be moving on the trail as aching laying on the ground. That is LOGIC at work.Early in the run, there was a long skinny loop, that could have easily been skipped. I have never been one to do anything like that and as a race director, I would immediately DQ a runner that cheated. I was beat up, my feet ached, I knew everyone would be waiting long for me to finish, BUT, despite being able to cut 1.8 miles from my 2nd lap, I decided I could not live with myself. And a weird thing....after that 1.8 miles, I felt much better, pain free almost, and ran stronger (but not necessarily faster!) Maybe that was just KARMA at work?
More lakeside trails
More mud....I actually took my only fall on this second loop, falling on my big arse in a sloppy slippery slope. My entire backside was mud plated, my water bottle was buried, and I lost my glasses, but did find them later.
This nearby stream crossing was my bathtub. After cleaning myself up, I returned to find my glasses.
more aid stations. This was the far point aid station and everything from here was getting closer to home. At this point my race was 3/4 over. I was beginning to smell the barn.On the way back, the deer really started to move. I saw several deer, or maybe they just followed me around.
Also, the weather got bad. A little light rain set in, but let up after dampening everything. Even sections like the one below that were dry were just wet enough for the mud to cake up on your shoes. Every 50 steps or so, I had to scuff my feet, or stop and scrape off the excess. Or just run with 10 pound shoes. Slow going, but still going. from the far side aid station to Lands End aid station, the weather warning sirens went off 7 or 8 times. It was thundering and lightening, with light rain. There was nothing for me to do but run. I did not care to lay in a ditch in the rain; besides, the rain was light and where I was there was no wind at all. I figured the warnings were for the boats to get OFF the lake because of the lightening. But I was also worried that when I hit the last aid station, they would be pulling all the remaining runners, and sure enough, that was the case. They had me and around 7 other runners WAIT (I waited around 40 minutes) before we got a ride back to the start/finish. In that 40 minutes, I could have made it the remaining 3 miles to the finish. Well Heck! The park rangers had made the call, and it was later relayed to me that a tornado had touched down IN the lake, some of the tents at the S/F area were blown down, and the park rangers had herded everyone into a concrete building for safety.Another good friend Vicky finished her marathon HOURS before me.
Great job Vicky!!Back to my plight....I ran what was probably 37 miles +/-, and would have got the 40 on a sore heel completed in around 12:15. Not my speediest effort by any means, but I think I deserved at least a marathon medal. And hopefully, after the RDs decide how to post the results, they will see about getting me one.
It was great to have a hot shower after the run, and just as I reached the showers, the sky opened up. It rained HARD and even hailed a little. The hot shower was just to nice to leave, and I walked out of the bathroom 30 minutes later cleaner than I have been in years, except for a little mud behind one ear.
After meeting for dinner in Lawrence, we all began the trek to OKC. The weather on the way there was horrendous. Dana and I had to pull over a few times to wait out the hard rain. We finally just stopped and slept in the car. Dana dropped me off near the starting line in the marathon just in time for the starting gun. Actually, I had 25 minutes to spare, but it was still close. I will post a marathon report here tomorrow, and a longer report on the RunnersWorld blog tomorrow as well.
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