The night before the race I met up with Christy, Liz, and Hagan for a pasta dinner at Picasso's. The weather was absolute crap- it had rained all week long and we were worried about the state of the race course. The NFEC website promised that the run would take place rain or shine.
I woke up early Saturday morning, had some coffee and a blueberry muffin from the co-op. I dressed in layers- it was an overcast day and pretty cold out, about 38 degrees. I wore my new Pearl Izumi fleece-lined running tights, a long sleeve base layer T with a short sleeve T layered over it, plus my windbreaker jacket and fleece gloves. I decided to carry my water bottle with my water/heed mixure for the entire race. I like hydrating constantly. My distance wasn't set to start until 10:00 AM, but the drive is about an hour so I left the house at 8:15 AM. I got there in plenty of time, picked up my packet, put on my timing chip, ate a Gu pack, and waited about 20 more minutes for the race to begin.
They didn't stage us so we just lined up and started when the gun went off. It took about 7/10 of a mile to get to the actual off-road section. Once we hit the trailhead, we hit the first big climb, a huge hill that went on and on. This weeded out the strong runners right away. The pack immediatly started to get strung out. My game plan from the get-go was just "finish," so this is all I intended to do. No pressure, just do my best, run as much as I can but save my energy and walk up the big hills. So I did.
After the big climb there were several rolling hill sections, but at mile 4 we came upon a relativly flat section that lasted for about 2 miles. A small group of 4 of us were running together for this entire section. I was wearing my Garmin, so I knew what kind of pace I was keeping. We did 10:30 miles for miles 4-6, then hit another hilly section in which I lost the other 3 people.
The first aid station was at mile 6.5. Thankfully Plymale was there to take my gloves and jacket which had become a burden. After ditching my stuff, I grabbed a water and a Gu and went on my merry way. I was pretty much by myself for the rest of the race. I ran whenever I could, but walked up the big hills. I just chugged along, and totally took in the gorgeous woods and fresh fall scenery. The trails had a few muddy sections and the fallen leaves played optical tricks on your eyes, but the trails really weren't that bad. The sun came out at noon, and it was even prettier out. The shade from the trees kept it from getting too warm. Checking my pace, I was making decent time so I set a goal to finish in under 3 hours.
I didn't pass by the aid station again until 1.7 miles from the finish. I was glad I had packed my Heed- they should have had another aid station at like mile 9.5 but they just had the one. I was started to really hurt at this point, my knees were fine but my calves felt like they were going to knot up, and my hips and shins hurt. I was walking quite a bit at this point, but then some of the folks who had been out running the 30 mile loop passed me, so that inspired me to get the lead out again. The last part of the race was running down the huge hill we ran up in the beginning. I was pretty happy about this and felt like it was pulling me forward. It was funny to see all the layers of clothing discarding along the side of the trail- hats, gloves and jackets.
Once I got to the bottom of the hill I had about .7 miles to go on the pavement. I wanted to walk but I just couldn't because there were cars everywhere- people who had done the 10K or the fast 13.1 finishers were exiting the park as I was running in. Once I came around the bend and could see the inflated red arch I had one thing in mind. Keep running towards the red arch. When I hit the grassy straightaway, I picked up the pace and "sprinted" through the finish. Hooray!
The NFEC crew before the race- Hagan, me, Christy, Liz
Mile 6.5- feeling suprisingly good (obviously)
Finish!
***
Saturday night, the same day as the race, was also the date I had agreed to host a party at my crib. Tawnya and Matt have been collecting cases of beer through thier Miller connection, and needed a place to host a party for our group. As one who loves gatherings, I volunteered. I do wish there were more hours in the day though, because I did not have a chance to nap after my race and thus was pretty sore and exausted by the time the party started. I slammed an energy drink, and the adrenaline kept me going. I had spent the 4 hours leading up to the party cleaning the house and making butternut squash soup and sausage balls. Thankfully my darling AJ was there as my right-hand man to assist with the preparations. The place looked pretty nice, I must say, and the party was a blast. At one time we had 27 people there, all mingling and wearing wacky vests. I took a few blurry iphone pics, but they aren't fit to be seen. The party disbanded around midnight at which time most of us ended up at the Crystal.
An epic finish to a great day. Good times!
