Notes
My first 50 finish. Apparently the second time is the charm. It's not the race I'd hoped for, but it is done. Next time, if there is a next time, will be better.
I spent Friday helping to set up the aid station, then dinner with NTTR folks, then back to work to load drop bags, haul them to DamnNation and then unload them and sort them. When the work was done, I headed south to find my hotel and catch some winks. I set my alarm for 4:30am, but it turned out to be unnecessary as the raging thunderstorm woke me up about 4:15. I got ready and after getting soaked to the bone by just loading my stuff into the truck - headed north to the park.
I ended up parking almost a mile from the start - there were 750 runners registered. It was the first time Rocky has ever completely filled. Crazy. Anyway, hung out in my truck waiting on the rain to ease up. When it got to be about 6:30, it was still raining, so I put on my jacket and walked to the start line. Tons of people were huddled under the giant aid station tent with lots of crew and family standing outside in raincoats and umbrellas.
I don't mind running in the rain, but lightning and thunder are about the only weather related exceptions I will make for not running. It was also still dark and I had made the decision the night before to leave my headlamp and my drop bag at DamnNation instead of at the start/finish. To put it simply, this day was not looking to be off to a good start - at all.
The first two hours was in a thunderstorm making for a super muddy mess all day long. The first lap was great and I was on pace for about a 10 hour finish. It turned out that leaving the headlamp was not a bad decision, between the lightning flashes and all the other runners around me with their lights, I was okay.
The second lap was okay - I had already changed my shoes and socks at about halfway but by the end of the second loop my feet were starting to kill me because of the mud. On pace for about a 12 hour finish.
At the time, I thought it was just sore/tired feet and I would just make due. It wasn't until the race was done, that I counted about 20 blisters between both feet. Ouch.
The third loop, I was reduced to a walk for almost all of it. Except for a few brief moments, it was like walking with cheese graters for shoes. All my stabilizer muscles were shot from slipping around in the mud all day. Not fun, but no fucking way in hell was I going to DNF unless I broke something. The third loop took me around 7 hours. 7 hours of 16.x miles of pure fucking misery.
I got to see a ton of NTTR folks at the DamNation aid station during my six times passing through. There is no way I would have finished without their awesome support. I also ran into a few people out on the trails that I've met at various races over the years. I also got to see SRLopez a couple times.
All in all, it was a great day. I spent 7 hours on Saturday swearing up and down that I would never do another ultra. But now, I'm thinking I may want to run another one, but faster. I must be stupider than I thought.