USA 50k trail champs

This weekend I raced at the 50k National trail championships in Bend OR. I would call this blog 'abandoned in Bend' but Jim came with me so I guess I wont, even though no one else did, not to name names...
Bend took slightly longer to drive to than the race, about seven and a half hours, one way, or about 2 tanks of gas. After entering the race at another seventy bucks and finding a cheap hotel at 50 dollars I was feeling overwhelmed with stress and the pressure of how well I would have to race to make it worth 200 dollars.
I'd been studying the elevation map and had it memorized so I knew that it started at 6400 feet ( Joel assured me this was no big deal and will continue to assure me of this fact to this day), then went downhill mostly for 4 miles, then sharp up for one, mostly down till 8, up gradually till 13, down till 15, up till 18, down till 21.5, up to 24.5, then mostly down with a few spikes until the last mile. The strategy was that if I knew what was coming next I would not be so frustrated at having to run up hill for half an hour, like will it ever end?? The real course looked very different than the map.
When we got to the starting line I noticed that everyone, everyone else, not just being paranoid, everyone was carrying a water bottle. That was a little troubling but how thirsty can you get right? It's only 31 miles. It was a little bit cool when we started at 8 am and there was even some shade on the course. They had managed to find some trees in Eastern Oregon, quite a few actually, that was a pleasant surprise. I was practicing being positive so I had to remember that when we went up when we were supposed to go down that meant that the opposite was also true. There was a little hill in the first mile but nothing like Galbraith that I run up over and over for like 6 miles! It felt harder than Galbraith though- they all did. I was preparing for the steep hill at mile four, knowing I would know it right away but it never came. I looked at my watch and it was 50 minutes, oh dear I hope I already went up it! Then I felt a little better about the shallow hill I went up a while ago- had that been it? It must have been? A little better because that thing was not a short steep monster but also a little worse because that shallow hill had felt a lot harder than it looked.
The first aid station was not until 6 or 7 miles then Jim gave me some at ten. I had been fourth place all of the race, fourth for USATF and fourth overall. I hoped I could maybe catch someone as I have a lot of endurance. The next aid station was at 15 miles, that uphill section had been all shallow but very long, around 5 miles and was pretty tough. The short steep part i was expecting never came either even though it was so distinctive on the map. The next section was not as hilly as I was expecting and the next aid station came quickly at 17.5 miles. Then we went downhill until 21.5. I was running with a guy from Bend and he agreed that the altitude felt very high. At 21.5 it went back up as promised and up and up and up. I ran hard but it was hard just to run. It was about 88 degrees now at around 11 o'clock. I ran for ten minutes up the hill and I was just going to walk for a minute but my legs became cramped from dehydration and wouldn't run anymore. I barely made it to the next aid station at 24.5 walking but not very many people passed me then, even though it felt like it took forever and did.
They thought I looked really bad and because I threw up when I finally got water and too much of it they made me stay at the rest station and sit down and that was when a lot of people passed me. Though a lot of them sat down too! They gave me salt tablets and sports beans and made me eat pretzels when I asked if I could go now. They said they were worried about that, but I said I can run 30 miles, I do it all the time so I know I can make it. Then I walked down the hill. Right as I was leaving I heard a guy come up to the aid station and ask how much farther to the finish.
"6.5 miles." "Oh God!"
And you would have to be a runner to understand how you can go 24.5 miles but 6.5 miles is Oh God! 
I knew if I finished I would be All American and as I walked down the hill I was real frustrated that I had to walk, knowing that if I could run at all I could stop most people from passing me. So I started running to see if I could for a few minutes and it turned into the rest of the way. I knew Jim would be wondering if I was dead or what. But if he was expecting me to be dead at least he wouldn't be disappointed. When I came out of the trail and had a mile left he was there and I was a few hundred feet behind fifth place in my race. I tried to pick it up but it looked like I would run out of time. Then we turned the corner and I could see the finish line and I caught her, picking up 5th place in the USATF and my third national medal. It only took five hours and thirty minutes to get it and that is definitely longer than I wanted to be running. But at least I am the only one on my team who can say I ran five and half megas, though I don't know if the sitting at the aid station counts, so maybe only five megas. By the way, Joel said time doesn't matter on the trail course but he meant- time doesn't matter as long as you don't run 5:32! Time doesn't matter as long as you run 4:18.
So it did not go like I wanted but I'm glad I finished. My cat ran away because I was gone. I guess he was mad at me or something or maybe trying to find me. I guess I can understand his perspective- why does my person get to leave and not come back and not tell me where she is going for several days? I was worried. He came back a couple hours ago so I could write my blog instead of look for him- yay!