Notes
Expensive and painful lessons learned. I was probably too injured to have started this race, but I did learn some things that will be really valuable next time. Also, trying my first 50k in the mountains off of 2 months of shit training recovering from and tapering for sub par marathons was just a bad idea all around. Alas.
After licking my wounds and doing some serious consultation with Dr. Google, I think I have a grade 2 lower abdominal strain. That seems most likely--which is good since the treatment for at is rest, then core strengthening. I don't think it's a sports hernia (which would likely be the end of the road for me.) Very frustrating injury though in that unlike the hamstring or even PF it does not hurt at all except to run. And then it hurts A LOT.
Apart from the injury, I went out too fast and didn't fuel early or often enough for the first half. The ending would have been ugly even if i'd been able to continue.
By mile 12 or so, I was already bonking and had that lightheaded uncoordinated feeling. I started taking Gu more often then but it was too late and I would have been chasing the game the whole rest of the way. That's also about when the pain in my lower abdomen was becoming a serious problem. That part of the course--the lower section below trapp hill road--was some of the most difficult too. The footing was really variable, there was some single track and some meadow and some cow pasture with ankle eating holes everywhere. But I made it into the aid station after the first loop feeling "okay." On the way out my lower abdomen was really painful and then on the long climb from 18-20 I was forced to walk. I figured I'd wait until the downhills on the other side of the 20 ish mile aid station to make any decision. But on the downhill it was clear I couldn't run at all. It was really frustrating. I would walk a bit and yeah I was sore all over but my hip/groin/ab wouldn't hurt at all and it I'd start questioning whether it was really an injury and was I just being a wuss--then I'd try to run a few steps and the pain would just be searing. So I basically did this walk/shuffle/try-to-run/walk-some-more routine all the way from 18 to trap hill road at 24, then I walked down the road to the start/finish to officially quit the race. It was like 88 degrees by then to boot.
I found Gina and the girls. They had figured out something was wrong. I got the keys and walked over to the car by myself, changed in the parking lot and grabbed a Tribute IPA out of the cooler. Walked back over to the hoopla, sat down in the shadow of the inflatable mammoth and downed that bad boy. Then I wanted to get out of there so we went into town for lunch.
It wasn't a great idea to try and "squeeze in" a mountain 50k at the end of what was already a shitty season of training. But I know a lot more about what it will be like to race one of these things than I did before and many of those things I couldn't have learned by listening to other people and needed to experience for myself. So there's that.
But, still ... shit.