Well, I have had some time to think back about my race last weekend. I had fun. I finished. My time was a little slower than I thought, but I finished. My back has been out of whack ever since, but I finished. My feet sustained the worst blisters I have ever had, but I finished. Nuff said.But you know me....I am long winded and fancy myself as a storyteller and photographer--very amateurish, I might add. The Midnight Madness was the brainchild
of Brian and Kathy Hoover from Runners- World, the BEST running store in Tulsa. Brian really promoted this race, not knowing if we would have even 30 runners. He encouraged anyone who had ran a marathon and wondered if they could go farther to "Kick it up a Notch". There were LOTS of runners entered in this 51.5 mile race who had never run a step beyond 26.2, and some who had not even done that. But hey, it was around the Arkansas River on nice flat paved bike trails--how hard could that be?? (In July? In the heat and humidity? Plenty hard, if you ask me!)180 runners signed up for this race in it's inaugural year, and I am sure it will be an even that will grow.
Good friends running, good friends helping at the aid stations, good friends cooking great food, good friends timing the race. How could I be anywhere else?
Mitch gets his instructions for the night. He helped for hours with the timing, went home just before daybreak, and then came back out to work some more.
Caroline is prepared to run her 2nd 50 miler. Susan, in the salmon top, ran the whole way with Caroline, and also recorded her second 50 mile finish. The lanky dude on the left who resembles a pale Kenyon, is Glen, who was trying his first 50 miler this night. His big sister Cassy to his left, was his pacer in the later miles. Suffice to say that Glen aced his first 50 mile test.
The awesome yellow tech shirt I had on was furnished by my friend Ken aka K2. I think he could have marketed them, as a lot of participants were fascinated by them.
Charis ran all the long night training runs with us, and was pumped to get the race underway. She also gets an A for her great finish.
Lyle also ran several of our runs to NSU with us, and he ran the entire way with Charis. Kind of like having a pacer for the whole distance! Great job, my friends!
My ace-up-my-sleeve was my crew babe Dana, who stayed up all night and well into the next day tending to my needs. In fact, I rarely even needed the aid stations. It almost seems like cheating. Love ya Babe!!!! Thanks to Susan Westmoreland for taking this pic.
Janet is all smiles before the run. And every time I saw her after that on the out-and-backs, she was still smiling. This was her first 50 miler, and first ultra. She took 2nd in her age group.
Roman prepares to drink wasp extract. Vespa. I actually think this is a good race strategy, and have used Vespa at times with good results. I would love to get a hookup with Vespa as a sponsor. HINT HINT!Roman finished his 3rd 50 miler in less than 9 months. Roman fought blister isues--a common theme in this race, and really gritted out a finish. Just the thing it takes to finish a 100, which is in Roman's very near future at Lean Horse.
I don't have a lot of pictures during the race, as I left my camera with Dana. Figured it would have been sweaty and even thought it is waterproof, a sweaty camera takes foggy pix. Dana took this picture of David Wood, one of the OTRA guys who along with Brett Sholar and a few other friends, manned the other major aid station on Turkey Mountain. Many many thanks, guys!!!
Just before midnight, Brian made a few announcements. He had our attention, as well as the attention of the media.
And then at the stroke of midnight, we were off.
I really felt like everyone was going out too fast. I usually think that--like in every race!! Maybe, just maybe, it's just that I am slow. Ya think? I ran the first lap at a steady pace, even a little spirited at times. I was still near the back of the pack, but maintained a 11 minute mile pace, and finished my first 10.3 mile loop in just under 2 hours. I knew I probably would slow down a little on the second lap, and I was very correct in that assumption. My next lap was in 2:35, some 35 minutes slower. That's a good 3:30 per mile slower for you non-math majors. I was in trouble. Considering it was likely that I might slow even more as the race wore on, not only was my lofty sub 10 hour goal out the window, but the possible PR, the sub 12, and even a finish within the 14 hour time limit was in question.But, I had arranged pacers for the last 3 laps, as was allowed--and what a difference they made!!!
Great friends Arena and Tom paced me on the 3rd and 4th laps. When I left out on lap 3 with Arena, I thought I would have to walk a lot as I did during lap 2. But in less than 100 yards, I initiated a shuffle that turned into a jog. Arena and I settled in on about a 13 minute per mile average for 6.5miles, and then picked it up after the Turkey Mountain aid station. From there, it was a mile long downhill, and then a flat 3 miles to the start finish. We managed to pick off a few runners along the way, and I was very pleased that we got in under the 2:35 mile time that I spent on lap 2. Then, Tom took over. We headed back the opposite direction, heading back to 71st Street, and up the mile long hill to Turkey Mountain. Tom and I run together a lot during the week, and we always push each other. He did a lot more pushing from miles 31-41 as he had much fresher legs, but the last mile of his loop was out Tuesday/Thursday race track, and we caught a lot of people. Another loop under 2:30. I did stop and sit down and ate a bit of breakfast casserole made by Sandra!
OMG, it was so delicious!!! Sandra had made 6 or 7 pans of all different kinds of breakfast casseroles, and the one I had was heavenly!!
I know I should have never posted this picture. It is one of a slobbering old man who smells bad and chews with his mouth open. But it brings back such fond memories of this food, which actually gave me an out-of-body experience.(Or possibly a too-much-in-my-body experience?)
Well after I got through grazing, Tom passed me off to my nephew Jeff. Jeff and I took off, and after we crossed the pedestrian bridge, and headed south, the rain set in and rained hard off and on for the rest of the race. We fought a fairly stiff headwind and stinging rain, and yet still caught a few people on the way back to the Turkey aid station. There, I hooked up with my crew babe, and laid down on the concrete and stretched my back. My feet were hurting, and what were once hot spots were now full blown blisters on the arches of my feet. I never blister there. I had the usual pinky toe blisters that I usually deal with, and blisters on both heels that felt like bruises. But, running/jogging/shuffling felt way better than walking, and it got us to the finish quicker--a good thing. We headed out to knock the final 4.5 miles out, and once we were running downhill, we passed about 4 more runners. One runner--Bill (I don't know his last name) passed me back, and used this to burst of energy to sprint to the finish. But all the other people we passed we kept at bay. (I am not at all competitive, but I was glad to not be DFL, but in the mid-to-back-closer-to-back-of-the-pack.) I finished in 12:35. And I am very happy with that. Just think, if I could go out and do it again, I might flirt with a 25 hour 100 mile time--that's good any day for me. Makes me think I might have another 100 in me.More thanks are due. Earl stayed the whole race, and even helped pack everything up.
Earl made the timing a lot less work by his hours of volunteering.
Jason and Lisa had intended to work maybe 6-8 hours, but instead stayed all night and clear until the race was over at 2:00. They manned the start/finish area, and were worth their weight in sac-so-soft.
Kristin and Susan helped serve breakfast, and cooked all sorts of breakfast goodies. They had help from Laurie and Derek, the other Laurie, and I am sure I am forgetting about someone else. Please send me a comment or email and I want to heap praise on all who helped.
You all know I love blister pix. I had some doozies. Today--Tuesday night, they are a lot better, but I am still limping around--but I am itching to get out to run.
My blisters were nothing compared to my friend Kirk's. He fought a nasty blister for much of the race, and ended up finishing his first 50 miler.
He fought disorientation, dehydration, fatigue, nausea, and with the help of great pacers, he kept at it and got his finish. Congrats.My friend Ken aka K2 also finished strong, and that rascal had NO BLISTERS!! What a freak!
Finally, I think this will become a pretty significant race in the ultra world. There are not as many 50 milers as there are 50Ks, especially in this area. This one IS a good PR course if you don't mind some pavement. It's definitely one to put on your list.
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