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Notes

68* and 100% humidity at the start; 81* and 59% humidity at the finish (92 real feel).

I woke up nervous and excited at 4:45AM that Saturday morning. Upon waking up at a friend’s house in Fredricksburg, I got dressed, filled my water bottles and slipped out the door to drive to the starting area of the Dahlgren Heritage Rail Trail 50K race. After a 30 minute drive, I arrived at the red caboose marking the trailhead and parked before heading into the caboose for packet pick up. Next stop was to get in line for the 2-3 porta potties for the pre-race ritual. The pre-race safety/trail briefing began while I was in line and I continued listening once inside. A quick weather check on my phone showed that it was 68* and 100% humidity… Thankfully, it was also overcast and the trail appeared to be mostly shaded by trees.

Start -> Comorn Aid Station (4.0 miles)

Once we were all lined up at the starting line, the race director spoke a few final words and we were off to run 31.07 miles. The first .75 miles or so of the trail still had the Dahlgren Heritage Rail tracks laid, and some of the volunteers used a rail hand car to ride along side us as we started off on the journey. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Bun3vSZ_wk) When I sent Leah the video while I was at work, she replied that the pace looks painfully slow! At that point, I had started off at about a 9:50/mile pace, hoping to settle in to a comfortable 9:30 for the duration, so yes, it was very slow, but the miles began clicking by.

Comorn Aid Station -> Indiantown (8.1 miles)

After dumping my Nuun drink, I refilled my water bottle and filled my previous Nuun bottle with Gatorade at the aid station since I quickly remembered how much I disliked the frothy bubbles that Nuun can make when it’s shaken around. Somewhere right around 4.5 miles, I came to the realization that the pre-race ritualistic emptying of my bowels had not quite emptied things. I knew from the pre-race brief that there were porta potties at Indiantown (8.1 & 22.9 miles) and somewhere around the turnaround (which I definitely was NOT going to make it to). I was able to maintain a decent run despite my urges and I never stopped watching for a good location to hop off the trail should the need arise until I rolled in to the Indiantown aid station.

Indiantown -> Route 218 (10.9 miles) -> Panorama (12.5 miles)

After a thankful stop at the porta potty at the Indiantown aid station, I once again topped off my bottles with water and Gatorade. I also ate a few potato chips to go with the cherry Clif Shot Bloks I’d eaten sometime before Indiantown. I ate another 3 Bloks on the way to Panorama and was feeling good. At the Route 218 “aid station” there were a few people and a dog sitting in lawn chairs to support the runners as we passed.

Panorama -> Walmart (turnaround – 15.5 miles)

After Panorama, I began feeling the need to find a porta potty again, and found the second one in the race at 14ish miles. After a brief stop, I was back on the trail and heading to the Walmart aid station, where I hoped to see Leah and Claire were waiting. Unfortunately, they hadn’t made it there due to the horrible I-95 South traffic (so glad I didn’t drive down that morning). Once again, I refilled my bottles then tried to eat a few Cheeze-its. TRIED was the key word in that sentence. The crackers pretty much turned to the driest lump of unswallowable mass I’d ever attempted to swallow. I tried a couple of times to get them down before giving up. With some water and swishing, I was able to spit the lumps out of mouth and took a half banana for the road.

Walmart -> Panorama (18.5 miles)

Since the trail is an out and back course with permanent mileage markers, I was able to see where I was on the course without looking at my watch (which I was trying to avoid so as to avoid speeding up). At 18 miles, I saw the 13 mile marker telling me I was 13 miles from the finish – I still had a half marathon to finish. Shortly thereafter, the pain of cramps began and didn’t leave me until after crossing the finish line. At this point, my quads were cramping just above both of my knees making it very difficult to maintain a run for any given period of time. I figured I needed electrolytes and so I filled both of my bottles with Gatorade at the Panorama station and ate a banana on the way out of the station, hoping this would help my cramping quads predicament.

Panorama -> Route 218 (20.1 miles) -> Indiantown (22.9 miles) -> Comorn (27.0 miles)

These 8.5 miles all sort of blurred together as I fought with running for as long as I could between stretching and walking breaks to ease the cramping in my quads. At each station, I completely refilled both of my bottles with Gatorade, which I’d begun drinking as much as I could after my cramps started. The idea of breaking the race down into manageable chunks became critical, and I made it to each aid station (roughly every 4 miles). As I arrived at the Comorn station, I was greeted by a friendly volunteer who refilled my bottles and told me “you’ve finished a marathon.” While this was good to know, somehow it didn’t help stop my legs from cramping.

Comorn to the FINISH (31.07 miles)

The last four miles of the race were pretty much a rinse and repeat of: run – stretch – walk – run. Eventually, the railroad tracks appeared and I knew I was close to the end, so I forced myself to run through the finish – although it may have appeared to others as more of a shuffle. As I ran near the tracks, the handcart was there once again, filming finishers. A girl on the cart was cheering and taking pictures, which made me smile as I neared the actual finish line. Then finally I heard Leah’s voice cheering me on and saw her and Claire waiting for me. After I got through the finish chute, I found some water and sat down to enjoy a hamburger with my girls.