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| Early morning sun on the All American Trail |
Saturday, January 28th, 2012
NC Fat Ass 50K along the All American Trail in Fort Bragg, NC
sponsored by the Mangum Track Club
My first ultra event! I couldn’t resist throwing my hat in the ring on this one as it was being held exactly one year to the day from when I first started running. I’ve come a long way in the past 12 months and felt that this was a fitting celebration of that.
What is a "Fat Ass" event? Well, in the running world, the term "Fat Ass" generally implies no registration fees, no awards or medals, no aid, and no whining. Gotta love that type of advertising for a running event. This was an out and back course along the All American Trail skirting the edges of Fort Bragg. Predominantly pine forest woodlands with a compacted sand and needle strewn footbed. It was an absolutely gorgeous day with morning temps in the mid to high 30's and afternoon temps topping out in the low 60's.
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| A view down the trail |
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| Staying warm before the start. |
The registration field was limited to 75 folks. (I don’t think they counted the two dogs that participated in that registration cap, but I could be wrong.)
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| Pre-race briefing |
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| One of the race "officials" |
Race Strategy – Going into this ultra I really didn’t have a lot of experience to draw upon. I have an “A race” scheduled for mid February where I was going to be trying to significantly improve upon my previous marathon time. I didn’t want this ultra to be an all out effort. Rather a long run with a bit of “oomph” if you will. As I lay in bed Friday night contemplating the upcoming race, I settled upon a goal of somewhere between a 12:30 and 13:00/mile pace. With my “magic mile” still being just under 9 minutes, I felt that this was a challenging enough training run goal while still leaving me some gas in the tank for my marathon at The Donna on Feb 12th.
I wanted to start the race slow and finish strong and that’s exactly what I did. The first half of the race, I was pretty much dead last, but I was content to do my 1:1 ratios and chug on through. The trail was fairly forgiving. Not completely flat, but definitely not so challenging as to leave you gasping on the climbs. I knew that if I stuck to my strategy, I’d reel in the folks that had gone out too fast and were suffering.
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| Beautiful blue skies |
My one “issue” during the first half was a pain in the front of my left ankle. At around mile 10, I was feeling a sharp pain in the front of my left ankle with each step. I had on gaiters and so I was not able to see the front of my shoe and rather than stop my run and fix the problem at hand I stupidly opted to motor on and tough it out. Ahhhh! Wrong decision.
I’d recently tried re-lacing my running shoes with a different methodology to free up some more space in the toe box and hopefully prevent more lost toe nails. Well, in the last week or two, I had noticed that this new lacing pattern had put some pressure on the front of my ankle and resulted in some discomfort. So I dialed back the lacing pattern to leave some more holes open, but today showed me that my fix had been insufficient.
Again and again on my longer distance runs I am reminded of the importance of dealing with difficulties in the NOW. A tiny niggling pain might be nothing on a 5 or 6 mile run, but compounded over 20 or 30 miles or more, they become major problems. As an ignorant newbie, I waited until the pain became absolutely unbearable (at around mile 15) before I addressed the problem. Finally, after reaching the turnaround point, I unlaced my shoe an additional eye hole to release the pressure, popped 2 ibuprofens and motored on. It took another 2-3 miles before the pain dissipated, but finally I felt some relief.
Interestingly enough, I think my 2nd half was faster than my first. I stuck with my Galloway intervals the first half (last place runner be dammed), but at the turnaround, I honestly felt a bit of a surge. This was the first time where I started to see runners in front of me. Except for the first mile or two, I had felt very alone. I was OK with that, but it was rather isolating. Once I got near the turnaround point, I saw runners on their return leg and started to see runners off in the distance ahead of me. The human contact seem to energize me and I set my sights on runners that were in front of me and slowly reeled them in.
I was tired, no doubt, but I still felt strong. At mile 17 a herd of 8 or more deer crossed the trail right in front of me and their energy and beauty revitalized me.
I’d gotten into a rhythm where breaking my running stride to switch over to walking actually became a bit more painful. I found myself altering my run:walk ratios to more of a 3:1 or 4:1 depending on the terrain. It really hurt more to walk than to shuffle run.
At about the 30 mile point, I caught up to 2 runners who I had been following for miles. Sean and Anthony had been leading me for the past hour. We were all doing walk breaks on the uphills and pounding away at a run where we could. It was heartening to me to always have them in my sites. This went on for some 7+ miles. Each of them had been running their own race, Anthony in the lead, Sean just a bit behind. At one point I saw them reach out and offer a handshake to one another as Sean closed the gap. I knew that I’d like to hang with such friendly runners ;-).
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| Just crossed the finish line! |
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| I'm an ultra runner! |
So at the last mile or so, I kicked it up a bit and caught up with them. I just said a casual hello and said I’d like to hang with them. We ran the next mile completely in sync, just getting to know one another and enjoying our fellowship. Once we saw the finish line up head, we all three took heart and tacitly agreed to run it on in. Stride for stride all three of us headed up the final hill to the finish. I don’t think any of us cared who was first, we just did it together.
Post race: Delight, celebration, euphoria…Those first few moments of crossing the line were magical, but what I may have enjoyed even more was the easy sense of fellowship that I fell into immediately following the race’s completion. (Taking a quick discreet sponge bath in front of my vehicle and changing into dry clothes was pretty heavenly too.)
Mark Long, the event coordinator, would hang out at the trailhead until the very last runners came home. Several of us set up our chairs behind his vehicle to enjoy the warmth of the afternoon sun. Plenty of food and beverages at hand, stories and laughter to share. A nice way to close out the day. I was so happy and content. A huge thank you to all the runners, the volunteers, the Mangum Track Club, my trail angel (Don), and Mark Long for all their hard work in making my experience such an awesome one!
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| Enjoying a celebratory beer! |
My husband, Paul, had commented to me a few weeks earlier that my newfound running endeavors were my replacement for the Appalachian Trail. While nothing can ever replace my Appalachian Trail experiences, my honey has it right on so many levels. I’m a happy, happy camper and feeling “at home” for the first time in many years. Cheers!
Some technical notes for the geekier folks (me included):
Gear: Asics Gel 3020s, Injinji toe socks, Dirty Girl Gaiters, running shorts, Moving Comfort Fiona Run Bra, Under Armour Charged Cotton Tee, Asics arm warmers, Nathan Intensity Hydration Vest (70 oz capacity), Amphipod Handheld 20 oz water bottle, Garmin 310XT, Gymboss Interval Timer, iPhone set to track my run using Endomondo, Under Armour Visor.
Fueling and Hydration – Started the run with a hand held 20 oz bottle filled with a slurry of Hammer Perpetuem and Hammer Gels with a little bit of water. Just about as thick as pancake batter. I was able to pack 1000 calories into this flask. I also wore my Nathan Hydration vest with 70 oz of water.
My plan was to try and consume roughly 150 calories per hour and about 15-20 oz of water per hour plus 1 or 2 Endurolyte capsules for electrolytes depending on the heat. This race started with temps in the high 30’s and finished with full sun and temps in the high 60’s.
I had set my Garmin to go off every 30 minutes. This would consciously remind me to down some calories and pop an Endurolyte. Early in the run, when the temps were cooler, I probably averaged just 1 Endurolyte per hour. By noon though, I had upped that to one Enudorolyte every 30 minutes. I had experienced some calf cramps in my previous marathon (Raleigh City of Oaks back in November 2011), so I was trying to avoid repeating that situation. Current system worked like a charm.
At the turnaround point (15.5 miles), my water was just about out, so I refilled my hydration pack. By around mile 25, my fuel bottle ran out. Luckily, my new friend, Don Dees, had left me stashes of bananas and PB and J’s along the course and I availed myself of those to power me through the end. I had some pop tarts stashed in my backpack as emergency fuel, but I really was feeling averse to high sugar food during the run.
The aid stations that we were offered at this Fat Ass event (3 stations) had potato chips, pretzels and cookies. I mostly just took advantage of water to wash my face and grabbed a very small handful of salty chips before moving on. The sugary goods had no appeal for me. I had some stomach/GI upset at my first marathon and in hindsight, I think it may have been from the M&M’s I scarfed at a couple of the aid stations. I have since learned that what I really crave on these longer runs is non-sugary carbs. Bananas, PB&Js, my Hammer products.
I never felt like I bonked on this run. Yes, I got tired, but I think my fueling and hydration were pretty consistent throughout.
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| Trail profile from my Garmin |
