Saturday morning there were a couple hundred energetic and enthusiastic people of all ages gathered behind the Mueller Center in Hot Springs South Dakota.
At 6AM the group started moving down a narrow path through the local park and then eventually onto Argyle Road and the Mickelson Trail.
I was among these people and I had at this point no idea what I had signed up for.
This blog was started for me by me to write a bit here and there about how I would be progressing towards running an ultra marathon. Doing so has been my goal since some time late 2009 and was what I was working towards this spring.
In May I ran my first marathon, followed by another three weeks later. During this period I managed to injure my left knee from I'm guessing simple over use, all together I lost about two months of training. Once recovered, I seized the moment on the glimmer of hope and signed up for the 50 mile distance at the Lean Horse Ultra Marathon. I ran two somewhat long runs, then badly scraped my right heel on a nail sticking out of some wooden stairs. Another two weeks was almost lost.
Between my heel healing and this past Saturday there were a week and a half. I ran a single 12 mile training run, then took the last week off from all exercise.
Friday morning I left for Hot Springs, SD.
Google Maps estimated the trip taking close to seven hours. I planned on it taking six and came pretty close.
Leading up to this event I strongly felt my training was coming up short. But I'm also the sort of person who tends to jump into a challenge thinking I'd rather fail than not try at all. Worst case, I could walk the whole distance.
The drive to Hot Springs was boring, the road is more or less straight west for five hours, then a left turn and straight for another hour.
At the time of arrival it was 101 degrees. I certainly hoped that wouldn't be the case the next day.
I picked up my race package which included a nice if a bit plain sweat shirt. Then got checked into my motel room. Unpacked my gear, then headed back to race HQ to see what the cookout had to offer.
I didn't stay long, it was hot dogs or brats and whatever goes with it. Being on my raw vegan diet in preparation for the race I didn't participate.
The evening was spent getting packed for the next morning, eating dinner which was a liter of banana, cucumber and spinach all blended together and reading.
The next morning at 4AM my alarm woke me up, I managed to get out of bed after hitting the snooze button a single time.
First thing was breakfast, a liter of banana, spinach, cucumber and grapes blended.
Then a shower etc. before I packed my hydration backpack with things I thought I'd need. A bottle was filled with a mix of chia seeds and coconut water and I was just about ready for the day.
I had taken the bladder out of the hydration pack. I was to be using the backpack only for carrying equipment and rely on aid stations for water refills.
When the time came I walked the few hundred yards to the Mueller Center where the start and finish line was. After sitting for some time waiting, I saw Kyle and we talked a bit about what was about to happen. Kyle had signed up for the 100 mile race.
6AM came and we started running, at mile 4 we came upon the first aid station. I have yet to stop at the first aid station during a race and am not quite sure why they exist so early in the race.
Soon after we hit Argyle Road which is a rural type gravel road. It's basically hard packed sand or gravel and in this case it had lots of 1" sized rocks littered all over. For the next 12 miles or so, this would be the running surface.
Another mile passed and we encountered the first hill. Everyone stopped running to walk the hill and I followed suit. Not wanting to be the one running to the point of exhaustion and still have 40 miles to go I took a cautious approach. As it turns out. I'm a rather slow walker. At least seeing everyone pass me when walking made me think so. I guess this means training walks in preparation for the next race.
The first 15 miles had several hills, but the overall trend was climbing. The course overall had 3,967 feet of climbing over the 50 miles and should be considered an "easy" ultra marathon from what I'm told.
At around mile 15 I acknowledged that my training wasn't where it needed to be. I got winded too fast and easy. Not at all feeling like I did prior to running my second marathon in early June in almost the same location. Back then I felt like I could run forever, even with a knee injury I woke up the day after feeling like I could have gone for a run. At mile 20 I changed my Performance Series Injinji socks for a pair of Injinji Liners which are a thinner fabric. My feet were swelling a bit but I felt prepared with the backup pair of socks. I almost exclusively run barefoot in the Vibrams, but I was afraid of blisters and small cuts and felt the socks would prevent any nuisance issues from arising and making my life miserable. For the most part, that plan worked to perfection.
There were five aid stations before the turn around with the last one being a mile short of that point. I refilled my hand held water bottle at every aid station and at some stations I drank a bottle before refilling. While I felt like I drank enough, I didn't urinate the whole day and I must have consumed between 10 and 14 liters of water plus a liter of coconut water.
To Be Continued .....
Link to Part 2 of 2
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