I FINISHED!

Me and Dave at the finish

What an experience!  And I finished despite the adversity of the start. About 200 of us got lost immediately!!  Yep, that’s no typo, about 200 people missed the pink flagging at one of the first turns.
It was dark and we missed it. 

Ron and I at the start - 6:30 am

Ron and I were running in the middle of the pack, chatting away and just following the herd.  There were no race volunteers to make sure we all turned where we were supposed to.   Half way down the 2000 foot descent to the river, we saw the lead group coming back up and yelling that we were all going the wrong way!!!!  Confusion, chaos described the scene on the steep paved hill we'd all just run down.  Some people didn’t believe them, some tried alternative routes that ended in dead ends, some reluctantly climbed back to the start to find the right route.  After screwing around for 5 minutes, I called Dave on my cell phone, and he found the race director and told her what was happening.  She was nonchalant.  Said she was working on it.  She told us to continue our descent to the river and we would find the trail there.  NOT!!!  Many of us did just that and found there was no trail.  Some turned around, and some, like Ron and I, decided to follow the shore of the American River to a dirt road that appeared to climb up to the trail at the top of the canyon where we could see runners who had apparently found the pink ribbon.

We slid down a shoulder off the road to the river where we began to pick our way through the shore rock and boulders.  It was slow going.  We played catch with a tennis ball and joked about the golf ball we found half buried in the mud.  Ron commented that the people who lost the flip flops that we found were probably worse off than us!  Ha!  We finally found our way to the dirt road leading up to the first aid station which was officially 2.5 miles in to the race.  On our way up, Ralph, a volunteer sweeper, met us and told us we were indeed headed towards the aid station.  We climbed the 1000 feet up the dirt road to find ourselves an hour in to a 50 mile race and only had traveled two and half miles that was not supposed to have any climbing, let alone 1000 feet in the first hour.  It should have taken us less than 25 minutes to get there!

It was like having an hour handicap at the start.  The adversity of running a 50 mile race had been magnified with the demoralizing realization that we might not make the cut off time;  that we might have spent energy that would keep us from finishing;  that Ron would likely not PR or win his age group again, and that I might not be able to finish my first attempt at 50 miles.

The good news for me was that Ron realized he had little chance of meeting his goals so he committed to run the entire race with me.   Little did I know how important his support would be until it started to get tough during those last miles.  I could not have finished strong without him.

The last 10 miles were tough. The ache in my quads was sharp with every step, especially starting to run again after walking.  Ron described it as if someone had taken a baseball bat to them and beaten them hard for an hour.  He was in pain, too and reassured me that no matter how many times you do these things, they’re always tough.

It was ChiRunning at its finest and the ultimate test of that technique, form, philosophy, whatever you want to call it.  The mind-body partnership, that is so critical to really running injury free and efficiently, was being put to its greatest test.  I relaxed into my lean and it was truly easier to run than walk once I got over that initial quad pain.  My quads screamed towards the end, but my calves, ankles, Achilles, back, everything else was fine. My abdominal obliques were sore at the end, a true testament to the use of pelvic rotation to manage my power without using my legs.  Thank you Danny Dreyer for creating ChiRunning!

Approaching an aid station around mile 32 - he always smiles when there's a camera around!

We managed to maintain a 12 minute pace or less over the last 5 miles and finished under the cut off time in 11 hours and 42 minutes. I think if we’d had a better start I could have done it in 11 hours.

Amazing to me, we ended up doing about 52 miles total with the second marathon faster than the first. 

I write this Sunday evening.  My recovery is going well.  I’m sore, but the constant ache in my legs from last night is gone.  Now it’s just hard to start moving, but once I get walking I’m ok.  I'm having some delayed muscle soreness in places I didn't expect, like my shoulders.  Now there's an interesting place to look at my form from a new perspective!

I will write more details about the race including lessons learned and funny moments about the run as I get more pictures from my dad and Carol, but for the moment, I just want to acknowledge how important the support of friends and family was to me!  

My dad was there at every aid station with his dog, Emily.  It was wonderful to see him there cheering me on, just as he has done all my life.  Dave, my husband, paced us in the last two miles when I was really hurting.  He calmed me the night before when my pre-race fears had me literally gagging over the toilet!  Yes, I was that anxious!

I could not have finished as fast and as strong without Ron running next to me, behind me, in front of me.  I admire his attitude and strength, his endurance and commitment to ultra running.  He is my friend and mentor, and we share a special running bond that comes from long runs and races together. His wife, Carol, was tremendous at each aid station! She bought popsicles and we had a special treat that a few other runners got to enjoy, too as she gave them away to avoid having them melt in the cooler.  It was 90 degrees!  An accomplished ultra runner herself, she greeted us at each aid station with a shout of “wahoo!” and seemed to know exactly what we needed.  It was the first time I got to see Carol in action.  She is amazing in her ability to support Ron.  And since Ron was running with me, I got to experience some of that, too!

Carol and Ron at the finish with his 2nd place medal for his age group

All my friends and family who weren’t at the race were right there with me.  My dad had my sister and my aunt and uncle on speaker phone.  My ChiRunning teacher, mentor and friend, Mary, was posting my progress on Facebook.  Her last minute advice about rest, stretching and acknowledging my training got me through the last week of tapering, not to mention the fact that there is a rare time when I don’t hear her voice in my head when I’m focusing on my form!  

And I met new people, and got reacquainted with recent new and old friends, all wonderfully supportive and dedicated to the sport.

It was truly a remarkable day that was about a running race, but it really was more than that, of course.  It was about who I am and overcoming adversities in life that aren't anticipated, and making the best out of it because of strength, commitment and endurance.  It was everything I wanted it to be and more.  From all this adversity came an accomplishment I can be proud of:   I ran 50 miles in less than 12 hours!

I FINISHED!

My friend and running buddy congratulates me on my accomplisment!