Notes
Give me heat, give me wind, even give me snow, but don’t give me rain.
I usually love rain but can’t have it while running. I found that out about 1.5 years ago when I ran the Hartford marathon while it was pouring the whole time. I did not have a good time. And it was no difference at the AR50 yesterday.
The whole week leading up to AR50 I watched the online forecast hoping that this little icon, which indicated rain on Saturday, would simply disappear. It didn’t and sure enough, when my wife Linda dropped me off at the starting line at 5:30 AM, it started to rain. I had trouble keeping myself in a good mood.
At the starting line I met up with Dan Marinsik, with whom I would run this race together. He also wasn’t too happy about the wet conditions but at 6 AM we were all off.
Running on the bike path was nicer than expected. To my surprise my newly purchased 2007 Nike Pegasus were holding out the wetness better than I dared to hope. In fact, my feet felt dry all the way to the trails, which was a big relieve because my feet starts to hurt once they’re wet.
Along the bike path I talked to Dan. I also talked to Rajeev Patel and Anil Rao. I ran many miles with Rajeev last year at the Rio del Lago 100 and truly enjoyed his humor and good spirit. Sure enough, the rain did not let him down at AR50 and we enjoyed his jokes and he even sang along the way.
I also talked to Zombierunner Don Lundell and Barbara A. Elia. Those people are truly amazing and I am always inspired when I get the chance to spend a little time running with them.
Along the bike trail I felt pretty good. I’m a slow 4:22 marathoner but Dan and I covered the first 26 miles in 4:40. Dan urged me to go ahead and run a good race so I did. Soon enough I hit the trail and it brought back so many good memories since it is the same trail as with Rio del Lago 100. Despite the lifting mood I started to crash around mile 30 where I could feel the rain and the mud robbing all my energy.
Slowly but surely my running was exchanged more often with walking and the miles were getting longer. At mile 38 my wife called and she told me “Wow, only 12 miles to go”. I wanted to be as optimistic as her but I knew that I would be doing a lot of walking in those 12 miles.
While the running got more and more difficult I always got an energy push from the aid station people. They were truly great being out there in the cold and wet providing us with all kind of goodies including soup! You guys rock!!
Last but not least I arrived at the final climb up to the finish line. I was pretty tired and it was very difficult for me to walk up that first very steep section. Eventually I arrived at the last aid station with 1 hour and 20 minutes to spare to the cut-off time. That felt awesome and I was so ready to tackle the last uphill to the finish line.
Most other runners I saw were walking up the street. While running the Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing last November I learned a neat trick from Barbara Elia: 50 steps walking - 50 steps running. I tried it and it worked surprisingly well.
Soon enough I finally arrived at the finish line where Norm announced: “Number 264, my buddy Jakob Herrmann from Elk Grove. How are you Jakob!”. I gave him a big smile and a thumbs up. About 2 weeks ago, at the Pony Express, I had to stop at 50K instead of going all 50 miles and Norm wasn’t too happy with me. Or maybe because I was walking through the finish line instead of running it. This time I finished the 50 mile and I ran through the finish line
My thanks to RD Greg Soderlund for putting up such a great race. I will be back next year (hoping there will be no rain).
Jakob Bib#: 264