I just ran my first 50k. I wish I could say it was my last too, haha just kidding.
My transformation to an ultra runner started only recently and not easily. Six months ago I was on a run with my coach Joel when he said I had to run a 50k, well not ‘had to’, ‘get to!’ and not ‘a’ 50k, ‘the’ 50k, over and over and over. I cried. The 3k steeplechase was my favorite race. I thought the 10k was kind of long to be honest.
Last Friday, the 4th, we- Joel, his dad Jim, my teammate Cory and I, left for New York to run the USA 50k Championships. I was excited because at least I had finally gotten my uniform the was promised to me in June the night before.
I can't sleep when I’m nervous or excited or in a strange place or all three, so that night didn’t go so well nor the next night. But that’s okay- I have replaced sleep with running.
The 50k course at Caumsett Park is a 2.4ish mile loop with two out and back straight aways that add up to a 5k and you do it ten times. I like the 5k so I should like the idea of running it ten times in a row. It should be 10x the fun right?
Waiting at the starting line is the worst torture there is. They say we have three minutes, then two minutes, one minute, 15 seconds, 10, 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 and bang! Finally free to run off the tension that has been building up for well, months, but has been unbearable the last three minutes I run the first mile- which is a nice sloping downhill way too fast- oops. Aw, if only they all felt like that. The next mile already seems longer as it goes back up and then out and back down a pothole ridden trail that as the hours pass as the rain starts slowing starts morphing into one giant puddle.
The next out and back I like. You go around the finish line and a roundabout and a magnetic strip that beeps when the chip in your shoe runs over it- counting up your 5ks done. Each one of those beeps is like a mini finish except you have to finish them all for any of them to count.
The second loop starts with the nice downhill mile again, then up again but trying not to think about that. It shouldn’t feel steep already should it?
Beep- beep
The downhill mile saves me again, every lap. I try to think about it along the up which gets steeper and through the potholes which get wetter. My coach gives me FRS and a Gu that is not my favorite flavor but stops my tummy from eating me! That was nice of him- I will try to fight this urge to run bad to show that I should not be a 50ker, haha.
“Two to go,” the officials say when I go past this time. Yes- only a 10 k left! Who knew that that a 10k would mean almost done now? My teammate Cory is done which I take as a sign that I will finish soon now too.
One to go. I‘m going to finish! I’m going to be an All American! My time is not what our best dreams were but it will be good enough that I shouldn’t have to run home- ha, that was a joke right Joel? Oh well, now I wont have to find out.
Beep- Beep!
Can I stop running now?
For the time being. As soon as I stop running my legs realize what I have been doing to them the last four hours. Why if I’m done do I still want to cry? I’m standing in the rain, soaked through the skin, every muscle in my legs aching- muscles that I did not know until this moment were even there, thinking about every 50k yet to be finished. But this is a good thing- hundreds more chances, more opportunities. I’m a runner for life, I guess this 50 k thing is just something I will have to get used to.
After spending the rest of the day lost in New York, trying to catch our plane (not hard to catch actually, late in fact, sitting on the ground not moving in fact) (and dang who knew airplanes were soooo uncomfortable, I just want to be lying on the floor), I finally get to sleep the next morning at 5 am, 8am NY time. Sleep should come easily after you’ve spent the last 26 hours awake where 4 of them you ran 31.07 miles in right? Answer: not if you’re thinking about the 100k which my coach tells me I have to, I mean, I get to run now.
Dang it.
