Saturday, February 22, 2014

Febapple Frozen 50

This race was a bit disappointing for me.  I signed up for the 50K and was excited about doing my first Ultramarathon.  It turned out to be the most unbelievably difficult trail.  It was a hilly trail run but it was also covered with a couple of feet of snow.  It was also very wet snow and there had been no grooming whatsoever.  It was just deep snow with only the holes from previous walkers and runners and some orange spray paint to mark the way.  There were two loops, one of 4 miles and the second of 6 miles.  After each loop we would reach the aid station again.  To do the 50K I needed to do both loops 3 times.  On my first 4 mile loop I managed to fall into one of the many creek crossings and land on my right knee on a big rock.  It took a minute for me to even be able to stand up again.  I limped for a while, wondering if I would even make it back to the aid station.  But the pain finally subsided and I was able to go on.  I was mostly walking, with very little actual running.  Each loop seemed to take forever and with each loop I was ready to give up.  As I finished up the second 6 mile loop, I was continually falling and with each step painfully twisting both ankles. I reluctantly decided that I really didn't have enough time to do the last 10 miles within the allotted time limit.  So I decided to call it a day at the 20 mile mark.  They allowed me to simply switch to the 20 mile race so I did get an official time rather than a 'Did Not Finish' for the 50K.

Now that the official times have been posted, I do have some regrets that I gave up.  I see that many of the 50K racers took considerably longer than the allowed time limit.  So I would likely have made it even if I had just continued to walk.  But it is easy to forget how totally exhausted I was at the time.  It took me over 7 hours just to do the first 20 miles.
I will do another 50K soon, but not one with steep hilly trails covered with deep unpacked snow.

However, it was a beautiful day and a gorgeous trail.  I did enjoy it in spite of the terrible conditions.
My friend Lisa met me and we went out to lunch and had a great visit.

The Trail

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