First let me just say that I hurt all over, I freaking hurt in ways I don't think I have ever hurt after a race..... the freaking hills.... the never ending uphill climbs seriously had me wanting to cry near the end. It didn't help that I barely got an hour's sleep even though I was laying physically in a bed from 10:30 PM to 4:something, Dorian's nose was stopped up again and he couldn't sleep. 

  Now for race morning, I got up at 5:45 AM (off the couch) and started getting dressed and ready to go pick my mom up and bring her back to the house to watch Dorian so DH could go in and continue moving machinery to our new location. Let me be clear, all I ate before the race was a Cinnamon Raisin English Muffin with some peanut butter and honey on it, maybe a bottle of water and then a Strawberry Banana Gu just before the start.

  There were only going to be 3 aid stations so I had my hydration pack with me as I knew the chances of my need for fuel most likely wouldn't fall in with the aid stations' timing, sure enough I was right.

  I knew it was going to be warm, 77 degrees at around 70% humidity.. I also knew that in the woods we most likely wouldn't feel any of the 12 mph winds BUT the trees would provide shade from the evil sun so that was good.... ... I was in wave C so I started about 4 minutes after 8 AM with some others and I could hear one woman talking about her past 50k races and 50 milers without realizing that she is a FB friend (face palm), but I moved ahead a ways feeling good and not thinking about the mileage. I try not to think about it during a half until around mile 7 or 8.

Mile 1 - 10:37

Mile 2 - 10:53

Mile 3 - 12:08

Mile 4 - 12:39

  We eventually got off the ATV trails and onto the biking trails, the twists and turns, the quick/small humps one after the other and then the much bigger, much more intimidating hills made their appearances. At this point I was realizing how much I hate the heat, how tired and achy my body and head was.... that's when Sarah, the woman who runs Ultras comes up behind me. Her words to me spoke volumes as she said my name and said I was doing a great job and my workouts inspire her. My first thought was "Who are you and where are you seeing my workouts??" but then the words sunk in and I couldn't believe that someone who trains and runs ultras can be inspired by my workouts, it was very uplifting and helped push me through the rest of the miles, I did my best to keep her in my sights.

Mile 5 - 12:32

Mile 6 - 12:59

Mile 7 - 12:30

Mile 8 - 12:50

   I really don't know why I am posting the paces as my garmin was off, by like a freaking mile at the end but I'll do it anyways Just before mile 9 on my garmin we hit the final aid station and I had them fill my 12 oz bottle with ice cold water while dumping ice cold water all over my head. The 5 minute break gave me some energy but not much and not for long, you know that feeling when you're out in the middle of the woods and there is no quicker way to get the f*%k out of there but to keep going down the trail.. and all you are craving, thirsting, can think about is ice cold water? A never ending supply of it, I don't mean your usual craving, but that craving deep inside, a want that is felt throughout your entire body and even your soul is craving for that ice clear delicious life-saving liquid???? Or is it just me who deals with this :P Well.. that feeling really freaking sucks damn it.

Mile 9 - 15:37

Mile 10 - 16:00

Mile 11 - 14:11

  Not sure what was up with my legs, but I tripped or had a lot of near trips, one almost taking me out around mile 10 or something. My feet were wanting to drag, even when hiking they were trying to kill me. There were lots of roots and shit, but some would just pop out of nowhere damn it.

    Around my garmin's mile 10.5 a guy coming back my way stops and says I'm 2 miles out or something like that... about a half mile down another guy is coming my way and says I am within a mile of the finish.... bullshit you guys are just being cruel and lying to me. I didn't want to get my hopes up, I wanted to be done and out of the heat and off these hilly trails so badly. As I was coming up around my garmin's mile 12 another guy is coming down and says the finish is just a quarter mile down the road. Sure enough I hit the road shortly after him and that is when I know they weren't lying to me. I had no kick, I had nothing but I kept going and just felt the relief that I was almost done.

   I finished at a clock time of around 2:32:07 while my garmin said 2:27:47, I don't know when I'll find out what the chip time was but I am sure it close to my garmin.

Overall: 51st place out of 140 

Divison Rank: 4th out of ?

   Won't know the actual chip time until probably tomorrow, and they promise tons of pics so we'll see. My bib number was 13, lucky 13 for me as Dorian was born on Friday the 13th. I am probably going to do my legs a favor and take the next 3-4 days off from running.

   As much as I hate warm weather races, I have to admit that I appreciate them because they remind me how much I love cold weather races, and it's a nice challenge even though I am a seriously hot-headed person whose head/skull seems to increase in temperature during warm/sunny weather. If I do decide to run this race again next year, I'll try to do more of my runs in the afternoons and with Dorian to acclimate as much as I can.

  It was a great Inaugural race, and really good, challenging experience and an awesome race to finish out the first half of 2015.

Too bad this wasn't a little cooler, sounds like a blast! Hurting legs and all, you know you want some more! I love trail running!!

Lol I do, but not the heat lol. But I survived and that is all that matters 

Nice job! Trail running is a bitch...

The trails are sure a lot different from the roads and those hills are always a lot steeper, if not bigger. I'll bet you'll be back again for this one. You'll forget all the bad parts and only remember how much fun it was.

The finish pic

Congratulations! Now get some sleep if you can.

Surprisingly I did get some, we went to bed around 10 or so and I didn't get up until 8:30

This frightens me... I'm running my first trail half in October.  Thanks a lot.  

 

Great job!!

Lol october will be much better.

Thanks

 

Nice job. If you work at it you can get even better.

I definitely think I will, I think I might make this my goal early Summer race next year. If I can keep my mileage between 35-45 all winter and pick it up around Spring, I might just register for the marathon distance if they add it next year