Prairie Spirit 50K race report

 A live race? YES!!!!!  I am so very happy to be writing a real life in person race report after a year of cancelations!  

Back up a bit. I have done this race and this trail as a fall race but never with stella.  The year I did it, we were  not allowed dogs, so she trained with me but had to stay home.  This race didn't exactly fit where it needed to in my schedule for training for my 50 miler, but post injury and everything being kind of thrown into the air, I had no clue if a 50 miler would even happen and my running partner was on board to try this race, so why not.  We officially had 36 miles for that weekend anyway so why not run 31 on one day and try and get the 5 the next?

Robin and I had hopped onto another plan that was slightly different than what we had been doing (4 days a week and doable mileage versus 5 days a week and high mileage).  Honestly post this training cycle, this will be our go to plan.  It seems to fit both of our lives (built in cross training days) and the mileage isn't horrible.  There are only a few weeks of 5 days a running, which my brain craves, but my body does not.  Fast forward to the night before the race.  We had both packed up and were ready to head out in the early morning.  We had horrible thunderstorms all night which I had hoped would mean lots of puddles for the dogs and cooler weather.  We had decided to not get a hotel room since there would be no packet pick up/pasta dinner the night before, but simply sleep in our own beds and get up early to head down.  Plus, this year they had decided to do a wave start based on what I am not sure, but since we were not elites, our wave did not start till 8.  Usually I would not be happy about such a late start, but I didn't mind as it meant we didn't have to drive down so freaking early.  We had about an hour and a half drive so we headed out around 5:30 am.  I drove the Tahoe so the girls could each have their own seat in the back.  Stella kind of gets ridiculous when she has to share space in cars.  She will always want to ride in my lap to stay away from others, which isn't very comfortable in Robin's car due to space.  I kind of drive like a grandma and our GPS sent us on a wild goose chase, but we made it there a little after 7 with plenty of time to pick up packets and get ready. 

You can see in the background all of the huge puddles around the start area.  It was like a small pond had formed overnight.  I had gone with shorts and a tech T and robin, who runs a little colder than I went with capris and tech T.  We layered on top with our running jackets, which came off about 2  or so miles in.  We both had our packs full of fuel and snacks, as we did not get there in time for our drop box to head to the correct place.  Oh well, it worked out fine.  We were able to take our vests off at the the manned stations and move things around and work together to get what we needed.  

As always stella got lots of love pre race and we both got lots of comments about our dogs running the entire race.  Yes, our dogs train with us so yes, they will be doing the entire race.  Sigh.  

Since we were the last wave, there weren't too many people heading out with us.  We socially distanced at the start and had our buffs up while we waited to start.  We also had to use our masks/buffs to grab our packets.  I got a really cute sweatshirt and also a T shirt that probably won't fit as it's woman cut and I am not in woman cut shape right now LOL.

After a brief jaunt into Ottawa and a little scary part on the side of the highway, we dumped onto the trail.  Before we knew it, 6 ish miles were down and we were getting a bit hot as you can see in my red faced photo.  The sun had come out and the breeze was there, but not cool enough yet.  The dogs had gotten pretty worked up from the excitement of the start and the excitement  of  all of the dogs/birds/squirrels in town.  Once we got on the actual trail they calmed down a bit, but were also getting a little hot.  The first unmanned aid stations was nice to see and we filled their water bowls with some fresh clean water.  We also were stopping many times in the puddles to cool them down.  Once they settled in they and we were fine.  

We train with 4 minutes of running and one minute of walking.  I feel like our training really helped us run strong.  We were a little fast at the beginning running around 10:30s on our run portion, but we quickly settled into a more manageable run walk of 11-11:30 on our run portions.  We stayed strong the entire race except the very end, which was on concrete and also uphill.  We decided power walking at that point was A-okay.  

I stuck to my one waffle an hour and supplemented it with Colorado cola Tailwind in one bottle and regular water in the other.  I was sweating pretty salty pretty quickly into the race as was Robin.  At the first manned aid station I took some coke and topped off my water bottles.  I don't remember eating anything else at that aid station.  

At the turn around aid station, I got an uncrustable PB and J and it was AMAZING.  I needed some real food and I also needed more Tailwind, so Robin helped me get my Tailwind into my bottle mostly.  She also got a Tailwind powder shower LOL!  We were chunking the race into fractions, so to be over half done (since the beginning goes into town) was a huge mental win.   Any time we felt down or bad we ate something and that plan worked pretty well.  A few times my tummy turned, but I was always able to get it back.  

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Robin liked running in front of me and I liked following, so that is what we did.  Several times I wanted to walk, but her steady plod ahead of me kept me from walking more.  We did cheat a few times on our walk run intervals if we had a mouth full of fuel, but other than that we stayed strong with our 4 minute run.  Honestly, we passed so many people that were in the wave before us that I will forevermore do this strategy in long races where I can accomplish this.  My first 50 had much more technical trail so it didn't make sense to do a 4:1 as I was walking up the hills several times.   My next 50 miler will also be on gravel roads so much more conducive to the run:walk.   

Since Robin had not previously done a marathon, we celebrated when we hit 26.2!!!!  Nothing like skipping over the distance to go the next one right?  I am so glad I convinced her to do this crazy thing with me.  

We honestly could not have ordered more perfect weather for our dogs to race in.  The cool wind especially  coming back was SO nice.  The sun stayed behind the clouds and the fresh puddles made it perfect.  This trail is FLAT as a pancake, but still fun to run.  The rain even made the trail soft.  

The two manned aid stations were amazing at taking care of us.  We had food (i had an uncrustable and some salted boiled potatoes and COKE) and we had conversation. Thanks to both groups for volunteering your time and help.  It is truly greatly appreciated and Stella loved the love.  At one point I told Robin we had 2 more miles and I had her put up two fingers  and then we realized it was actually 3 LOL!  This were her telling me off for getting her excited.  Trail math is always fuzzy.  At that point most people were walking so we passed at ton of people with our run:walk intervals.  I was SO proud of us for staying strong mentally and physically!  This was the STRONGEST ultra I have ever done.  I walked most of the ending of this race a few years ago and while it had to be done because of the heat, I had always regretted walking so much.   

The last half mile or so was straight up hill and on pavement and both Robin and I decided it wasn't worth trying to run.  Yes, it wasn't a monster hill but we were done mentally and physically and I think both of our stomachs were done, so powerwalking was just fine.  We crossed the line hold hands, crying a little, and so happy to be done.  Post finishing we sat and had some caffeinated Ice drinks and some snacks.  As always my body was not super ready to eat yet, so we got salty Wendy's fries on the way home and some sweet tea from Quick Trip.  All in all we had a great time and Robin finished her first ultra!!!!   I will write another post with the Good, the bad, and the ugly (honestly I at this time can't think of any ugly) when the Mile 90 photos come out.