Tuesday, December 13, 2011

JFK50 Mile Race Report

The morning started off early at 3:15. I got my breakfast muffin down along with a banana and some Gatorade. I felt great and was really excited for the day. I got to my parents house and away we went to Boonsboro. When we arrived I put my Perpetuam bottle together and went in to the pre-race meeting. I changed into my running clothes and got myself all ready. I threw my gaitors on my shoes stuffed my pockets with Gels, fruit snacks, snickers mini bars and away we went.
            We walked to the start line which is about a 1000 yard walk. Everybody was cold but I felt great, race nerves seem to do that to me on a regular basis. We passed the lawyers office where the sign said it was 31 degrees….. perfect! I had just enough time to walk up to the start with the other 1200 starters, tell my wife I love her and then the gun went off.

Away we went, 1200 people at a fun strolling pace. After the first mile I literally felt like I could do this forever. At mile 1 we started going up, and when I say up, I mean up. We hit the Appalachian trail and continued our ascent to the clouds.  Only a few people were running at this point. When running an ultra marathon you have to walk the up hills or you will be toast by mile 20 and your day will be ruined. So up we went, 1200 feet in 4 miles. That’s 12 football fields if you were going straight up. We were at an 8-12% gradient so it seemed like it took forever. Once it started going downhill the fun trail work started. Within a quarter mile I heard a yell. Around 30 seconds later I saw a guy on the side of the trail with blood pouring out of his knees. The rocks were everywhere and unforgiving. People were dropping and twisting ankles but we all kept motoring on – it was a blood bath.
            At the 6 mile mark is where I saw the worst injury. It was really quiet on the trail, all you heard was the sound of twigs breaking and people breathing – then a thud. I knew it was bad, when I caught up to the scene I saw a women rolling over to her front. She was crying and barely moving. I knew her day was done and felt awful. This lady has been training for 6 months for this race and it was over 6 miles into it and not to mention the hours she is about to spend at the hospital fixing her broken body. The Appalachian Trail does that to people. It eats you up, chews you and spits you back out, and if you can keep going, you will feel it later on in the race. Lord knows I had my fair share of close calls – at least 25-30 ankle twists.

I guess all those ankle strengthening exercises were worth it. When I saw this sign I knew I was close to Weverton Cliffs and knew I would soon be seeing my crew. That always puts a good thought in your mind.
            15 miles in I finally got to see my crew. My wife, parents, brother (who ran JFK in 2010), my sister (who is the best runner in the family), Tony, Josh and Ashley. Seeing your crew is fantastic, it's such a high. Once I found them I took a seat in a chair and took my trail shoes off and threw on my road shoes. I changed my shirt and took my ear warmers off and threw on my hat. I also had an extremely hot cup of soup. It was needed though. (See the ChesapeakeMan 2011 race report for details). I needed the sodium. After a few mins Tony and I left as he was going to pace me for the next 12 miles. The good news is the Appalachian Trail part was done. The bad news is I would be staring at the same scenery on the C&O Canal for the next 27 miles. A marathon of this…..
...and yes there were cyclists on the canal telling me when I had to move when I was in there way. I guess they didn’t know there was a race going on and we have already ran 20 miles at that point. I was holding in my anger but I noticed my temper was starting to get short.
Tony and I were ticking off miles with ease. We started a 15 min run, 2 min walk interval. Once again, if you try to run the whole thing, you will burn out by mile 40 and will be walking the entire last 10 miles or won't finish. Trust me. At mile 20 we passed a bunch of marines. They were starting their walk interval. One of the Marines told the Marines behind him to ignore Tony and I as we ran past them because we (Tony and I) will burn out and they (The Marines) would pass us later on in the race…… Challenge Accepted!
I was feeling good and sticking to my nutrition until mile 23, this is when a girl and 2 guys ran up right behind Tony and I and fed off us for a mile. It literally sucked the energy right out of me. It was breaking me with every step. They wouldn’t pass us even when we slowed down. I don’t know what it was, but I was going to a bad mental place here. Doubt started creeping into my mind. Eventually I ran behind Tony and forced them to pass. I started feeling a little bit better but then it got hard to eat.
            We met up with my crew again at mile 27. Here my wife forced me to change my socks (which I wrote down exactly like that on my itinerary “Force me to change my socks at mile 27, I don’t want blisters"). When I took off my sock I saw my heinous toes. Two of my toenails had large blood blisters underneath. One of them was definitely going to fall off eventually. (I’m proud to say it’s still on my foot … but barely)  I also drank some soup and re-stocked my water bottle at the aid station. My dad wanted a picture so he had us all look his way, little did they all know that I swore I was going to pass out right then and there. I managed to stare at one place on the picnic table and talk to them – faking it that I was okay. I knew I had to erase the doubt so I was eager to get started running. I also knew the pass out feeling was all in my head and would go away. I felt the same way at ChesapeakeMan and I survived that, so I knew this was just par for the course.  
My brother was going to pace me for the next 10 or so miles which was fantastic since he ran the JFK50 Miler last year. He knew exactly how to pace me. He knew exactly what to say and how to say it to me. I was irritable at this point. I already ran a marathon and knew I still had over 20 miles to go. I took an Uncrustable with me but could only manage to get down 1 bite of it before tossing it on the ground. These miles seemed to tick by fast. My brother was so encouraging. He would tell me that I was breaking one of the marine guys who had sped up past his marine buddies. He also told me I was doing great, and looked okay. At mile 33 he told me this was the point where all the miles were new. This was the farthest I have ever ran before. I was feeling pretty decent at this point, the bad minutes were equal to the good ones, however my body was going through something wierd where I couldnt tell if I was hot, cold or comfortable- temperature wise. It was like I couldnt feel my temperature. This worried me for a few miles but when away after my left hamstring started hurting and became all I could think about. It was literally a mental roller coaster and I was prepared for that. We got to the aid station which was decorated like the north pole and I grabbed some M&M’s. Santa was even at this aid station along with his elves. Santa passed my water bottle to his elf who filled up some new water for me. I then looked to my right and saw a guy grabbing a cup of coke, I looked up at his face and saw there was a huge gash in the middle of his forehead with dried blood dripping all the way down his face.

He was covered but he seemed happy. In fact, I’d say he was probably in a better mental place than I was and he took a hard fall in the first 15 miles. That guy is a trooper. When we left the aid station my back was starting to seize up on me so I had to have my brother carry my water for me. I felt awful for having to do this because he didn’t make me carry his water for him last year, but I think it saved my race. My brother is a lot stronger person than I am mentally. He seemed to take things so much easier than I did at JFK – unless he was faking it like I did. We finished up at mile 38. At the aid station I saw some Mountain Dew and drank it waiting to see what it would do to me. It was the most delicious thing I have ever had.
            We all grew mustaches for Movember which was a campaign to raise awareness for prostate cancer. My sister was going to pace me for the next 8 miles. It was so neat when I got to see her come out with a painted on moustache, it put a smile on my face and whenever I felt bad during the next 8 miles it was nice looking over and seeing a stupid moustache on her face.

 After mile 42 my sister and I left the C&O Canal and entered the last 8 miles on the roads to the finish line. These roads were super hilly. Lots of walking up the up hills which I didn’t mind - I loved the break. My sister was a great pacer, I asked her if she would ever do JFK and she said “NO”. I believe her. When you are doing it, it’s not the most fun thing in the world, but it certainly is a blast. How that makes sense, I don’t know.
At mile 44 we ran past a girl who was crying uncontrollably as she was running. I wanted to say something to her to try and boost her spirits but couldn’t get anything out. My sister usually would have said something to somebody in that place but she had her hands full with me. A few days later I went online and stumbled upon that woman's race report - so she did finish the race, and only 10 mins behind me (not that I had a fast time or anything). Good for her! My sister and I ended our run at mile 46. 4 miles left!
            We got to the aid station and I sat in my comfortable chair. I was so excited, I knew I would finish the race but I didn’t want to go out and run because I hated those rolling hills. Tony told me I had 45 mins to do the 4 miles and I would finish sub 10 hours. I didn’t care. I could have cared less what my time would have been. I was relaxing and comfortable and I was okay with that. Eventually Josh and I strolled off for the last 4 miles. We talked about training and running and it was nice and relaxing although it seemed like it took forever. I was done with these rolling hills. My legs and feet were screaming at me. Every step hurt all over. The bottoms of my feet felt like BBQ, my quads and hamstrings were sore to the touch. I love the pain. That’s the one thing I can deal with. I might not be strong mentally, I might cast a ton of doubt upon myself, but when having to face pain, I will always win. I love it. It’s what makes me feel alive and makes me know that I’m doing something pretty special.
We went through a traffic light and had about ½ a mile left. Josh and I shook hands and he took off to the side as pacers aren’t allowed to run through the finishing chute.

There was a lady around 10 yards in front of me so I slowed down so she could finish the race alone and really soak up her memories of the day. Then it was my turn. The crowd was cheering me on and I couldn’t help but smile. I made it! My stride may have been broken and I haven’t been able to eat anything for the last 10 miles but I made it somehow. Then with 20 yards left I heard the crowd cheering some more, I knew what was happening. I was getting ready to cross the finish line when a women and a man raced to the finish line and crossed the line exactly 1 second before me. She celebrated by waving her hands to the side just as the race photographer was taking my pictures. Bam… a hand in my face for my finishing picture at my first ultra marathon. She walked up to me and congratulated me and wanted to shake my hand. Keep in mind my temper was super short at this point so I jumped at the chance to yell at her for ruining my racing picture. "I just ran over 10 hours and I wont get to see myself crossing the line. Thanks!" I was pissed. I told her I wouldn’t shake her hand. Now I know she ran a long time today too, but in JFK you can apply for permission to start the race 2 hours before the general field. Normally people have 12 hours to finish, if you apply for the 2 extra hours, you get 14 hours and you start at 5am rather than 7am. So she was 2 hours behind me and ruined my picture. No wonder she had the energy to sprint to the line. I was infuriated. I explained to her that in ironman events and ultra marathons that unless you are going for the win or a qualifying time you don’t do what she did. You let people finish by themselves. It’s an unspoken rule when it comes to ultra marathons and Ironman’s. Maybe I was a little mean, but it wasn’t right. Anyway, they gave me my medal and I went and found my crew and my wife and gave her a celebratory kiss. My body was done, my mind was done, but I was elated. And those Marines.... I saw them finish 10 minutes after me. That was a victory in itself. Challenge won! So 10 hours and 7 mins after starting I finished! And that felt great.
            It’s amazing what the human body is capable of. In only a year and a half I went from struggling to run a single 10 min mile to running a 50 mile ultra marathon. I just completed something that less than 0.01% of the US population has done. However, I believe anybody is capable of completing such a feat. All you need is to do the training and tell yourself that you will finish. If you do that, you will finish. The human mind and body are so strong and it honestly saddens me that some people go through life never knowing what they can accomplish. They never know how strong they really are and they never test themselves. Some people say they would never want to run that far. I thought the same thing. But I love being in the best shape of my life, and I love testing my mind and body. And being able to accomplish these goals with your family and close friends is something that could never be put into words.

.... and for the post race toe picture! Yes, some of those nails are going to end up falling off.

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