Mountain Mist 50K January 28, 2012

Prerace
Preparing for the race involved a lot more preparations for the kids then for me!  I got their things ready on Wednesday-Thursday before the race on Saturday.  I bought goodies (fruit loops and yarn to make necklaces, stickers, and poster board to make signs).  I made their lunches and laid out some play clothes that I wouldn't mind if they got dirty.  I checked the weather, too, since the sitter was planning to watch them at our house if the weather was too cold or rainy that day.  The sitter and I agreed that the Lodge (where the race starts and ends) would be a fine place for them to stay since the weather was going to be nice.  She brought her DVD player so she could show them movies.  Of course, when we got there, the big fireplace held their interest over anything else!  Below is the list I gave the sitter about activities to keep them busy over the six hours we would be gone.

List of things to do at the Lodge

I did get myself ready too!  I talked over clothing with Rick.  The temperature was much warmer than last year.  It would start in high 40s and end in the 50s.  Runners can add 20 degrees to the weather, and that is what it will feel like once you start running.  So shorts and shortsleeves it was!  No hat.  I wore a pair of gloves to the first aid station, and then I tossed them.  I later picked them up at the finish line since they were brought there by the volunteers.  I made sure I had put petroleum jelly under my nose (all of the wiping makes it dry and flaky) and Body Glide on my feet and anywhere else I thought it needed to go.  As usual, I took a shower in the morning to wake up my muscles and me!  We headed up the Lodge at 6:10 a.m. to get there to get our new timing chips by the 7:00 a.m. cut off.
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Someone was giving announcements when we got there--funny ones, like "Just remember, don't get your timing chips wet!"  The lines for the bathrooms were reverse what you normally see---the women went right in, and the men had to wait!  Not many women brave this race, I guess!  We found the sitter and paid her ("This is for 6 hours.  Should something happen to both of us and we need more time, we'll pay the rest later!").  We looked around and chatted.  It's so fun to be in the excitement of race day!  We had gotten our packets the night before at the Lodge (and some really cool Mountain Mist apparel too, that you can see in my last post), but today I needed to exchange my tech shirt (I wanted a men's since it fits better than the women's).
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After hitting the bathroom three times, I headed to the start.  Well, first I kissed the kids good-bye and watched them from a distance as they settled into sign-making with the sitter.  It's hard to be a mom.  I prayed for their safety as I ran and hoped they would behave for the sitter.
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We found a good position at the start (front and center, right behind the front runners).  Wow, it was a nice day up there!  I was not cold at all in my shorts and shortsleeves.  I did decide on sunglasses, but I had to wear them on my head through some of the overcast parts of the race.  I carried my water/gatorade in a handheld carrier since I remember the belt giving me trouble last year.
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The Race
The gun sounded at 7:30 a.m., and we were off.  And boy, what a fast start!  Rick says it's like a sprint to the trailhead, and it is!  Why?  Because once you get on the trailhead, it is single trail for awhile.  This means you are stuck behind whoever is in front of you, or you can risk slowly trying to pass one person at a time.  I remember walking during this segment in the past, all because I hadn't gotten to the trails quick enough.  So, we raced.  My first mile was a 7:27!  Once on the trail, I found myself to be in a comfortable position.  Rick, Kathy Youngren, and Mark Freeman were running a good pace for me to keep up with without too much effort, so I made it a point to try to stay with them.
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I loved running with Kathy.  She was running her 14th Mountain Mist.  She has won the women's division several times.  She is such an expert on this race and a great source of advice about the strategy behind Mountain Mist.  Hearing her thoughts on the race really helped me learn more about it.  She told me that she favors the more difficult second "half," and she cleared up the confusion I had about the "halves" that aren't half!  The first "half" of Mountain Mist is actually 16.9 miles, and the second "half" is about 14 miles.  But she says that they are divided this way based on the difficulty of the second section.  It is so much harder, that you will probably actually run it slower, even though it is shorter.  Even splits are good, but she is one of about 50 people to be able to negative split on this course.  This shows what a tough runner she is, and it shows that she knows how to correctly conserve on the first half.
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She also told me about "Kathy's bench," which is around Mile 29 in the middle of a huge climb out of McKay Hollow called Rest Shelter Hill.  She says that her "rule" is that it's okay to walk the steep section up until the bench.  When you get to the bench, you must start running.  Keep going until you get to the top of Rest Shelter Hill.  I saved that information for later, as you will see.
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I joked with Kathy that Rick and I were just trying to beat each other today.  It was funny at the time because Rick did not want to beat me at all, but I had told him that I thought we were well-matched this year (no one was out of shape or injured).  It would be a good match between the well-trained (Rick) and the better-recent marathon performer (me).  It would be interesting to see how we finished, thought I think "sub 5:30" was in both of our minds.  I think we are still too "new" to Mountain Mist to be able to know exactly how to go about getting that time on the trails with any degree of accuracy!  
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Kathy had us laughing with her good-natured joking with the other runners, intrigued by her future races (131 miles in Hungary), and impressed with her knowledge of the trails she obviously loves so much.  She was a great distraction for a rather boring first several miles.  She went on to win the women's race yet again and was a well-deserving and humble winner.  I, who picked over my own outfit several times, found it refreshing to hear that she gave no thought to her outfit today.  She lets her performance speak for itself, as we all should!
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The best thing I did to prepare for the race was to memorize the minutes/hours of my split times last year.  So I knew "59-50-54-42-54-1:16."  This helped me so much to know when I should be getting close to an aid station, and it let me know that I was ahead of pace from last year's race in some sections.  I had it printed on duct tape on my water bottle holder, but memorizing it prevented me from having to stop and look.
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We all cruised into Aid Station 1 very easily (5 minutes ahead of my schedule) and continued on our way.  Unfortunately, I could not keep up with Rick and Kathy after we hit Aid Station 2.  I took some time to eat and then walk as I approached the Stone Cuts section of the course.  Already I was passing a few men who had started too fast.  This continued slowly throughout the morning (I improved my standings from 53 to 39 as the race progressed).  I saw the girl who was in first place injured after the Fern Drive Aid Station.  I knew that meant I was in second place.  This gave me additional motivation to keep running strong!
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The second half of the race was pretty lonely for me.  I ran most of it alone, passing a man every so often.  I ran with Eric Fritz, the new Huntsville Track Club president, for awhile.  He managed to kick some mud up onto my face and glasses as I ran behind him in the Land Trust section.  Yuck!  As for the trails, they were very wet and muddy, but they didn't slow me down like I had thought they might.  The Waterline Climb was very hard for me, not because I could not do it, but because my back was hurting and I had to stop and try to stretch it out.  I did this several times as I climbed the long climb right before the waterfall.  I also started saying to myself, "How bad do you want this?"  I repeated this phrase many times as I finished the last 10 miles.
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I could not believe my eyes in McKay Hollow when I looked up and saw Rick in front of me!  We were near the base of McKay Hollow, meaning that we had already run down "Suicide Drop" and were in the lowest portion before rising again to the mountain top.  He was climbing ahead of me, and I shouted "Hey there!"  He didn't turn around but shouted "Hi" back to me.  Just like that--"Hi"--no enthusiasm, so it was hard to read if he was in pain, "mad" that I had caught him, or what.  I continued to be able to keep him in my sight as we headed through the hollow (we have a rule---we each run our own race---so I did not expect him to stop for me).
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As we started the big climb out of McKay Hollow, I slowly began to narrow the gap between us.  Then, there it was--Kathy's bench.  My quads were burning, my breath was labored, and I wanted to walk so badly.  But I didn't.  I started my run/shuffle to the top, just like Kathy had told me to do nearly 5 hours before.  I passed Rick and uttered something like "C'mon" or "Let's go!"  And I passed Eric Fritz.  I think after that I was making audible grunting noises as I crested the hill.
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"There," I remember thinking.  I looked at my time.  5:10 with 1.7 miles to go.  It wasn't a matter of if I would break the 5:30, the question was by how much?  I ran as fast as I could on those tired legs of mine, just straining to the finish.  I will admit it here, though I'm sure it sounds a little crazy: I sang to myself out loud too.
  
My eyes are small but they have seen
the beauty of enormous things
Which leads me to believe
there's light enough to see that

You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?
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Sound familiar?  That song has now carried me to two amazing finishes, and I give God all of the credit for both of those runs.  It's so amazing how He carried me over those last 1.7 miles.  I saw the finish clock and my kids.  What an awesome moment!  5:26:29 and second female!  Rick finished right behind me in 5:28:52.
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Fuel
I ate when I wanted to and what I wanted to before, during, and after this race.  I would literally stand at the Aid Stations and wait for my body to tell me what looked good.  They had a ton of choices!  I didn't think about what I "should" be eating for fuel.  I just ate.  Here's a list :)
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Before--2 Honey Stinger Waffles (Vanilla)
Aid Station 1--Handful of M&Ms
Aid Station 2--2 Pretzels (had peanut butter in them!) and Handful of M&Ms
Aid Station 3--1/4 Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Aid Station 4--Bite Size Twix Bar
Aid Station 5--2 Quarter Potatoes Dipped in Salt (mmmmmmmm!)
Aid Station 6--5 or 6 Saltine Crackers
During the Race (at other places)--2 Packets Orange Clif Bloks with Caffeine (minus one that fell out), Powerade added to my bottle at each Aid Station)
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After the race, I had two pieces of pizza and a piece of cookie cake.
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Post Race
I used the kids' wet wipes to clean up the dried mud on my hands and upper legs.  There was way too much mud to get it all this way!  I wished I had remembered to leave a change of shoes with the sitter.  My feet HURT, mainly the two big toes on the sides.  They were wet and rubbed for 31 miles, causing two big blisters to form, one on each toe.  I ended up walking to the car barefoot.  I claimed my prize for second female--$50 from North Face and some cool Mountain Mist arm warmers, pretty much winning back the money we used for the sitter!
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That night, we took the family to Duffy's Deli at 5:30 p.m. for the post-race party.  It worked out great, since they had just set out the food--white chicken chili--and it was free!  We bought drinks and a dessert to split.  Once people started arriving, we enjoyed swapping stories of the trails.  Rick was teased for being "wifed" (I passed him at the end, like getting "chicked"), but he was so sweet and said something like he felt no shame in getting passed by a strong runner like me.  I thought that was so nice of him to say.  He also said that he was encouraged about longer distances now, following some disappointing marathons and ultras in the past.  He took almost 30 minutes off of his old PR and can hold his head high with a sub 5:30 in Mountain Mist!  The best part of the meal showed up with the race directors, Dink and Suzanne Taylor--leftover cookie cake!  I got two pieces that were covered with icing.  So yummy!
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Reflections
I took Sunday off.  Well, okay, we took the kids ice skating for a friend's birthday party.  I was sore all over---but my ankles and lower back most of all.  My blisters were hurting in the skates, and I was straining to hold up a wobbly four year old.  Kind of hard.
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Many of the local track club men (mostly from the Fleet Feet team) participated in a taco-eating contest on Sunday.  The pictures were just hilarious!  I guess if anyone should do a taco-eating competition, people who ran 31 miles the day before certainly qualify!  They brought in the race time clock and everything to Taco Bell.  Oh my!
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Monday, I ran 6 miles with my group with little problem.  Then later that day, I felt very tired.  I had to lay down for awhile, and I had some shortness of breath (this is usual for me the day after a marathon).  Today (Wednesday), I was able to run 6 miles and still feel good throughout the work day.  So recovery is going well.
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I am happy with my time--a new course PR for me by about 11 minutes!  I am excited that I was able to quickly acclimate to the trails after only two training runs on trails.  I hadn't seen the first half of the trails in a whole year!  I'm happy that I have a very good "training run" for my upcoming marathon in March.  And I'm ever so grateful to God for giving me a strong body to carry me to the finish line on Saturday.
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Here are some pictures courtesy of We Run Huntsville and Gregg Gelmis:

The start line 

Me around Mile 17

One of many stream crossings

Comparisons of my time at the 6 Aid Stations (2011, 2008, 2012):  
59:44  (1:05:45)  54:52
50:25  (1:00:54)  50:11
54:59  (1:12:31)  55:30
42:06   (52:31)    39:19
54:29   (1:09:08)  53:50
1:16:08   (1:43:01) 1:12:50

Bib number, prizes for 2nd female, and finisher award