A not-so-quick recap of yesterday’s TARC Summer Classic 50K.
I signed up for this race after my DNF at the TARC 50 miler two months ago. The Summer Classic was actually sold out but I put myself on the wait list, and fortunately enough for me the field was expanded. 
This was a low price, small race, which is perfect for this type of thing. We met up at the Medfield Sportsman Club (replete with dozens of animal heads – bears! – on the walls) prior to walking down to the bag drop/trailhead area. You might not think there are dirt roads in Massachusetts, but there are in Medfield.
I got to the start around 6am, at 6:45 we had a brief chat that covered the basics, then 7am we were off. The course map I posted earlier didn’t match the actual course very well, and I never really was able to orient myself accurately. The 50K runners started with an extra lap around a little pond (~0.7 miles) that also ended every lap, before dropping onto the bigger 10.1 mile loop.
I started out a bit quicker than I should have, and with the small size of the field didn’t have much in the way of crowding issues on the single-track. At mile 4 I had my first “incident” – a runner behind me stumbled a few times, and on one of them I looked back over my shoulder to check on her, which was immediately followed by me catching a root myself and going down. I’d rather fall than twist an ankle, and other than a bruised palm, a gnarly splinter and slightly embarrassed ego, I was totally fine. Fortunate to fall in a softer area. But lesson learned, focus forward.
My first lap ended at 2:07, and given that we had run the bonus pond loop so was more than 1/3rd through, I felt confident with my goal of a sub-7:00 finish. I gave myself a few minutes to rehydrate & refuel & left the aid station at 2:12.
The second lap proved to be more difficult. I was extremely careful going through the section where I fell in the first lap, and once past was happy to see I was past 13.1 miles. I started to sing a little made-up gummi bear song to motivate myself (the gummie bears go in, miles come out) then bam, I popped my right ankle crazy hard. Same joint that gave me such problems last year. I grabbed a tree to keep from falling and hopped/hobbled on. If you can keep a sprained ankle moving it’s less likely to swell or stiffen up, so that’s what I did. The next five or six miles were slow and painful. A guy at the secondary aid station asked me how I was doing at mile 16 – “lousy”. He told me it would get better, and it did, near the end of the 2nd lap. Another runner offered me some chomps near the end of the lap, and reminded me to take salt tab which helped immensely (I was trying to take one per hour but had gotten confused).
In total the second lap was finished at a much slower 4:36. At this point I was pretty well sure I couldn’t go under 7 hours. I let myself sit another five minutes which turned into ten. Swapped out the water in my hydration pack for gatorade. The final motivation to get up & out was seeing the 50K winner come through while I sat – dude finished three laps in the time it took me to get two. Ok!
I knew if I could start the last lap I’d probably finish, and that was pretty much the case. I didn’t have any more falling or twisting incidents here, probably due to the fact that I was picking my way slowly across the terrain. Many folks who were behind me who I had seen on various out & backs passed me on this last loop. Which was fine. I stepped aside & let them go. I walked most all of the uphills & steepest downhills on this lap and tried to run the flats.
At mile 26.2 I noted my time. This is a slow marathon, and I was only getting slower. Five miles to go. On a normal day this is my easy 40 minute run, but the last five here would take twice that.
At mile 29 I was at the high point of the course for the last time. To properly do the course we were supposed to loop a bench on top of a boulder, at a lookout point. I intended to take a photo up here on the last pass but at this point was barely making it. I lifted my knee to climb up on the boulder and suddenly every muscle in my leg started contracting spontaneously. The last few miles were treacherous, not due to my speed or anything, just because my legs were threatening to quit on me entirely. I used to have a problem with calf cramping in road marathons – this was the same 
thing times twenty. For the last miles, every time I bumped anything with a toe, a random leg muscle group would lock up, cramping painfully. I had to keep moving lest they seize entirely. At one point right near the end there were a few fallen trees covering the path. I had barely noticed these on the first two laps but on the final pass the simple act of lifting my legs over these felt so dangerous, any deviation from the normal shuffle carrying the risk of legs finally refusing to cooperate with my brain.
But shuffle on I did, through to the finish. Per my (probably inaccurate) GPS I finished 31.4 miles in 7:20:17, a 14:01 pace. My official time was 7:21, which put me in 21st place (of 42). I was surprised I wasn’t further back in the pack.
Post-race, I sat for thirty minutes or so, trying to get my legs to work again. Listened to some other runners around the finish discuss various medical maladies. They all seemed much better off than I felt. Finally packed up my cooler & very slowly worked my way back to the car for the drive home.
This was my first ultramarathon finish, and though I wish I had been faster I’m really quite happy with how it turned out. I couldn’t have run the 50 mile course given what was happening to my legs, so moving forward will be happy to experiment more with the 50K distance before trying something longer. To get better at this I do know I need to spend more time on trails than I have been. The trick is trying to figure out a balance between doing this and advancing my goal of getting faster at road running with an eye towards a Boston qualification.
Next up for me, a few shorter trail races over the next six weeks, followed by a big October where I plan to run four road marathons in four weekends (23 days) which, if I can do it, will bump me from silver to iridium level. We shall see. :)
Song of the week, Sorrow by The National.