If you read my weekly blog post or if you know me, you will know my kiddo came home sick Friday unexpectedly. The plan was to head out in the daylight to avoid deer and such, and get to my hotel to eat and chill. Unfortunately, until I felt like Andrew's fever was under control, I refused to leave. I kind of set an ultimatum for myself in that if I couldn't get out by 7:30 pm, that I needed to stay home and get up at 3 am and drive. Lucky for me, Andrew finally went to sleep around 6 pm, and I was able to eat and get on the road. The drive was a little slow as my GPS took me down some 2 lane highways in back woods KS that had 0 amount of lighting, and I don't like guessing which way the road goes at 70 mph, so I kept it slow. I got in around 9:30 pm and took some time to unwind and had no issues falling asleep. As with some low key ultras, we didn't have packet pick up the night before. Instead, we had to be at the park and checked in by 6:45 am and my hotel was 7 minutes and one weird U turn away. I got up, fueled, sat around and checked social media, took a few bathroom breaks, and then hit the road. Checking in was easy, and I got my shirt, coffee mug and number, and still had almost an hour to kill. I just sat in the car and read a book via headlamp. I was a little worried though at first. I wore my Mizuno winter tights, mizuno long sleeved shirt, and my brooks light weight coat. I had lobster gloves (gloves where your hand is all together except your pointer finger and your thumb) courtesy of Mizuno, my head band that covers my ears, and my balega socks. I felt I was dressed for the wind and cold appropriately.
When I got out of my car to check in, most people were in shorts and tanks. Hmmmm....Must be an ultra thing? I will go ahead and say here, most everyone put on more clothes as the day went on, so I feel like I dressed correctly, but I was a little worried maybe I was over dressed at first. That is the beauty of light layers though, you can take things off and push up sleeves if need be. Anyway, as I was looking for a table to put my drop box on, one of the other runners told me to just set it up by the trail. Okie dokie, done. I grabbed a chair from my van and set my box in the seat. I will say this is the part of the race that made it so much fun. I didn't have to carry anything, as I was by my very close drop bag every lap (~1.3 miles). I never had to worry about not having X or Y or when the next bathroom break might be. There were porta potties right past the start/finish, as well as at another area of the trail. I could just concentrate on running and nothing else.
I don't have any pics from the race because soon after we started, it started drizzly rain and it didn't stop the entire time I was there. The wind blew, not sure how hard, but hard enough to be uncomfortable and make me feel like I made a good decision on my clothes. I was quickly drenched from head to toe, which once again made some super creative chaffing. Both of my feet had huge blisters and callouses on the big toe and below my big toe, I guess from being wet for so long. Live and learn. Okay, another reason why I so love ultras, especially looped ones now and out and backs. Every time one of the fast ultra runners lapped me, they would call out something like "looking strong!" or "good work!" or something inspirational or something to make me laugh. I LOVE that! Anyway, my phone kept dying, even thought I had it in an internal jacket pocket, and it had a hot hand in it. Stupid Iphone 5 batteries!!!!! Apparently on the second time it died, my head phones also shorted out and burned a black spot in my coat.
Boo head phones! I have some wireless ones, I guess I just need to use them more often. I listened to some Another Mother runner podcasts that I had kept just for this race. Those ladies gabbing seems to take my mind off of the pain and monotony. After one of the times my phone died, I hooked up with a girl going a bit slower than me and talked for a lap or two. I needed to talk for my mental health and didn't mind going a little slower. She had just run a half and decided that this race sounded like fun. Might I add she had never run a full!!!! SUPER SUPER GIRL POWER! My plan at first was to run everything including the two hills and try and stay under the 11:20 pace that I needed to in order to get a 50K in 6 hours. I started out great and kept battling, but overall I just couldn't do it fast enough. Even though the time shut off as I was on my 22 lap of 23 (so it only counted what I had up until the 21 lap, since that was the last lap completed), I saw that I wasn't too far from finishing up the total 50K, so kept running until I did. My watch says i hit 31.11 miles in 6 hours and 8 minutes.
Okay here is the weird part. I only ran maybe a quarter of the third lap and I hit 31 miles. Technically, each lap is 1.356 miles and you should complete 23 laps to get a full 31.07 miles. I have calculated, poured over data, and double checked everything. Usually when my watch hiccups, you notice, because I will have a 5 minute mile or a mile that is unusually fast. I don't see that on the data on my watch or on garmin connect. I only left the trail to go to a porta potty that was maybe 5 feet off the trail, and to my drop box which was in a chair that was also maybe 5 feet if that much off of the trail. I honestly don't know how I could have gotten 31 miles without the full 23 laps. Oh well, what do you do? That is a HUGE PR for me, but I felt like it was doable with the weather being on the cold side. Even if I had finished the entire lap, I would have still had a pretty big PR since my previous PR for the 50K is 6 hours and 50 minutes (thanks to the heat that day and me peeing blood) I guess I am going to go with my watch and celebrate, and try not to figure out why I was so short on laps, but full on miles. I need to find more fall or late fall 50Ks to do next year! I am for sure a winter weather runner!
Even though I didn't get the buckle, I did get a PR (I think) and I got a super cute blue pull over and a new coffee mug. I loved the race (minus the rain) and I loved the concept. I was never bored. I liked the looping because I knew where I could make up time and where I would have to walk. There was no cover, so if it were a sunny or hot day, you would roast, but that wasn't an issue. The aid spread was amazing and I tried Mt. Dew for the first time while running and loved it. Honestly, I can't do races anymore that don't have coke or mt dew at the water stops, or I need to start carrying coke in my handheld! I should have signed up for the 12 hour race, as there was an option that as soon as you hit the 50K mark, you could quit and get your buckle. It looks like only 1 person actually did that, and I would feel horrible for doing that, but it was an option. I would like to say that I would be back but I kind of like trying new races every year (with the exception of Chicago:) . I am really, really glad I tried this race and would highly recommend to others! We shall see how next year plays out!
I had to get in my car and drive back to Wamego post race, since my crew wasn't with me. While it wasn't the most fun thing in the world, I did it and am super sore as I type this. My hip isn't happy, the chaffing sucks, and my blisters are popped, but I am still smiling!!!! A PR is a fun thing to help carry you home!!!! I got a large sweet tea and drank every drop of it, and then ate the ice to stay awake and engaged while driving and when I got home, I took a nice long epsoms salt bath. I hate to say my kiddo is still incredibly sick and I am hoping my post run immune system can fight off whatever he has. If not, this is a nice long recovery week and if I have to spend it in bed, so be it. Looking forward to the pictures I saw them out taking and looking forward to some down time before my next training cycle picks up! Congrats to all of the runners who got buckles and won awards and a HUGE congrats to my new friend Jacalyn who battled through and got 104 miles in 24 hours!!!!
5TH ANNUAL
KUS 6/12/24 HOUR RUN
CHAPIN PARK, WICHITA, KANSAS
NOVEMBER 11, 2017
USATF CERTIFICATION KS15022KH
6 HOUR RESULTS
Place Bib Name Ag S City St Laps Dist Time
===== === ================== == = ============ == ==== ======= =======
1 108 RYAN HAHN 28 M BERRYTON KS 32 43.3984 5:52:14
2 106 MATT DORSEY 36 M GRAND ISLAND NE 30 40.6860 5:49:02
3 117 ERICH RANZ 40 M WICHITA KS 27 36.6174 5:49:48
4 118 ELLA REUSSER 31 F WICHITA KS 26 35.2612 5:53:14
5 122 MIKE STOUT 39 M WICHITA KS 25 33.9050 5:44:49
6 107 ZACK GINGRICH-GAYL 38 M WICHITA KS 25 33.9050 5:48:05
7 123 CURTIS WHITTIT 29 M WICHITA KS 25 33.9050 5:51:42
8 121 MINDY SELF 31 F WICHITA KS 24 32.5488 5:54:51
9 116 TYLER PATTERSON 33 M WICHITA KS 24 32.5488 5:57:43
10 101 AARON ASHWORTH 35 M WICHITA KS 23 31.1926 5:45:00
11 111 ELIZABETH MACKENZI 44 F WICHITA KS 23 31.1926 5:51:14
12 112 JOEL MACY 18 M WICHITA KS 23 31.1926 5:52:43
13 113 ADAM MONAGHAN 34 M WICHITA KS 23 31.1926 5:52:43
14 110 GARY LIND 44 M INDEPENDENCE MO 23 31.1926 5:53:07
15 119 DONNA SCHMIDT 54 F WICHITA KS 23 31.1926 5:58:24
16 105 CASSONDRA COLEMAN 39 F WAMEGO KS 21 28.4802 5:46:22
17 109 MICHAEL JOHNSON 55 M SALINA KS 21 28.4802 5:49:57
18 120 LYNDA SCHULTZ 54 F WELLINGTON KS 19 25.7678 5:51:58
19 115 JESSICA PARKER 39 F ANDOVER KS 19 25.7678 5:57:01
20 103 DAVID BOLE 34 M WICHITA KS 18 24.4116 5:47:58
21 114 JESSICA MORIN 50 F HALSTEAD KS 12 16.2744 3:13:18
11/11/2017 1:00PM
Results by Timer Guys (Posted at www.timerguys.com)
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