It was a rough night trying to sleep on Friday. There was pouring rain and lots of wind. I got up a little earlier, ate breakfast and got changed. It was tough moving around in the early morning hours in the cold. For the 50 miler, it was a 6 AM start.
This is of course the make or break day of the Trilogy. Realistically, I didn't expect to finish, with the 14 hour cutoff. I just wanted to see what I could do and enjoy the experience. My training wasn't even close to where I wanted it to be. Mentally, knowing how much in rained overnight was draining. The trails were wet and muddy on Friday. I knew they'd be a disaster today.
Dressing was again tricky. Once again, I wore my shell over top of a short sleeve shirt. I was sweating a lot, but still also chilled at times. The temperature changed quite a bit on the course. I nearly made a last minute gear change. My shoes were still soaked from the day before. I elected to keep them on though, because they are my favorite shoes.
We started off in complete darkness this time and everyone had to run with a headlamp. I started a little farther up front on this day, but still about mid pack. The tricky part was that the cutoffs can be a challenge, but running the next day after 31 mountain miles was a new experience too.
I was actually quite surprised that the legs felt pretty good. I ran day one perfectly I guess. I couldn't mess around with the camera and GoPro today. We looped around the property again at the start. This time, we went back into the woods earlier though.
This was a tough, slow climb through some private property. We were heading up to West Virginia's high point, at Spruce Knob. It was incredibly foggy and the dampness of the air wasn't helping. I was drenched early.
Eventually, we came out the road. Luckily, I was up to Spruce Knob before the weekend began. I sort of knew where I was going. The fog made it nearly impossible to see, even with the headlamp. I was unsure if we were going to the actual Knob or not and nearly missed a turn. I waited for the guy behind me to catch up.
This road up to Spruce Knob was long and slow. I ran some and hiked a lot. It was a gradual uphill. It was definitely too early to be running. I couldn't see well, but at one point I turned off my headlamp and it was light enough to see without it. Apparently the rising sun would make an awesome view up there, if only it wasn't foggy.
I was surprised to get to the first aid station so early. My watch said 5.3 miles and it was supposed to be 6.9 miles. I was feeling okay at this point, but not great. I probably started low on calories. I did that at Bear Mountain too, so at least I knew I could push through an early low point.
The trail after Spruce Knob would've been a blast on a short run day. It was beautiful evergreens, but littered with rocks. I tucked in with two women and a guy. We'd run for a little bit and then hike for a little. I probably could've gone a little faster here, but I was being cautious. I enjoyed the conversation too.
The trail was descending a bit, but I was surprised that it wasn't dropping more. At one point, I saw Sarah go by us. A bunch of other people passed us as well. We were still well under cutoff pace, but I was wondering if we were going too slow for so early on.
I was feeling good, but not great, so I tucked right in with them. We then hit some nice ridge trail. The problem was that this section was super muddy. A few times, your feet would sink right in. It was frustrating to not be able to run a section that should be runnable.
I ate with this couple on Thursday evening. They finished pretty late on Friday. I was surprised when they passed me at this point. The woman had hiking poles and I'm thinking those would've helped me through the mud. I was impressed that they were doing so well. Me, I was just getting frustrated. My legs were losing it a bit too.
One of my big problems is that I pretty much already knew around mile 10 that I wouldn't be able to finish this thing. I wasn't in terrible shape, but not good enough either. I wasn't beat up, but my body was just moving slower than when it was fresh. I really concentrated on getting to the 25 mile aid station. That was my big goal. Whenever I got there, then I could assess the situation.
After the ridge running, we did some up and down along the meadow section. It was kind of familiar, as we ran up parts of it yesterday. One of my concerns was the aid station distance being off. If the next aid station was in the right location, then the distance between aid stations was much longer.
It turns out my fear was correct. It might've been over 10 miles between aid stations (at least according to my watch, which isn't always correct). There was a tough climb and I ended up passing the woman there. The trio I was running with got ahead of me. One of them fell on a slippery rock and I passed them before the Judy Springs aid station.
With so much time between aid stations, I took a lot of time at Judy Springs. I knew it was a long climb up too. I was interested to see how the creek section would be before the climb. I find this terrible in the 50K. It was great today though, as in the opposite direction, we were going slightly downhill. I ran a lot of it.
By now, one of the women went ahead of the other woman and the guy. I ran behind the duo, but then they eventually lost me as we headed up the steep climb. This was tough, but not quite a bad as I expected.
I hated the climb, but what I was looking forward to was 6-8 miles of 2,000 feet downhill to the White's Run aid station. I thought I had a decent cushion the cutoff now. The question would be whether I wanted to push up the climb after that aid station.
This section was supposed to be a gradual downhill, at least I and others though that. It did go down some, but it was a lot of ridge running and it went slightly up and slightly down. At least it wasn't muddy. I was frustrated by the terrain and not feeling great, so I ended up hiking a lot.
Around mile 20, I saw the two leaders. That was another kick in the gut, as they were probably already at mile 30. Gradually, I'd see more and more people. I was going slower and slower. I should've probably forced myself to run more. Instead, I was getting so upset by the course. I do get mentally tougher with the more ultras I do, but that is definitely still a major weakness of mine. I know how to keep moving, but I just don't do it fast enough.
I kept wondering when we'd get off the ridge. I knew we'd eventually end up at the bottom of the mountain. We weren't going down though, at least not much. At one point, I saw I was still at 2700 feet and had another 500 feet or so to descend. It was good to see more and more people coming back though. I knew I was getting closer.
At times, passing was tough, especially later. There were sticker bushes all along this ridge. I caught the couple from dinner again. There was a great pipeline view at one point, but I didn't get to take it in much.
It still looked good for me to make the cutoff. However, knowing that mileage is often off by a mile or so, I realized I should start pushing it more. My only goal at this point was to make the cutoff.
I kept cursing, wondering when the descent would actually start. Finally it did. I was really booking. I knew I'd be close and one guy coming up noted the same thing. This was a fun cliff switchback. Luckily, it was pretty runnable. I was very thankful to everyone hiking back up it. They moved out of my way and saw I was chasing the cutoff.
I had left the couple now and was on my own. I pushed and pushed and pushed. I could see that I was getting closer and closer. The one question was whether or not the aid station was right at the bottom or perhaps down the road a bit.
Thankfully, it was basically at the bottom (after one more creek crossing). I saw the duo from earlier heading back up. They were a few minutes ahead of the cutoff. They were awesome and actually finished at 14:01. That's one minute over the official time, but still impressive.
I made it down to the aid station just in time. I had 3 minutes to spare. The guy recording numbers, Joey, told me to hurry. I told him I was done.
We hungout for a bit at the aid station. They had watermelon and strawberries. The couple came in and then another woman. A younger woman had stopped too, after coming in a few minutes before me. It was kind of cool that I was the last person to make this cutoff.
I got a ride back from Joey. As we were driving away, we heard a woman yelling to wait for her. Apparently it was actually his wife. She got into the truck and I was confused. It was Sarah, who I had seen all weekend. I asked what happened to her, because she was well ahead of me. Apparently she took a wrong turn and added miles.
It was nice to get back to The Mountain Institute early. I didn't have to fight for showers and could relax for a bit. It was a beautiful day. Incredibly, the winner came through around this time. I actually dropped my watch in the Whites Run aid station area. I wasn't even sure how to get all the way out there on the back roads. Luckily, I can navigate well and I found it. Some guys were camping there and happened to have my Garmin. What luck!
At least with not going too far, I didn't destroy myself. However, I also didn't get to push myself into the deep and dark place that I thought I might have to go in this one. It would've taken that to finish and even then, I doubt I would've. I didn't quite know how to run this day. In hindsight, I probably should've pushed more early. However, I might've really blown then and not even made it as far as I did. Who knows exactly. It is all part of the learning experience.
I'm also not sure if the mud helped or hurt me. It kept me in check. If it was less muddy and more runnable, would I have simply blown up earlier? Who knows?
I'm now fresh enough heading into the half marathon. I know that I can certainly finish that. My early goal was to just get to White's Run in time and I did that. It would've been nice to make it farther, but I got about where I expected coming into the weekend. Going over 50K again on this day would've been nice. Regardless of the outcome, I had a blast. This is such a great event.
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