Saturday, April 16, 2011, today is the morning of my first 50K trial run. I woke up before the alarm, all fired up and ready to go! I packed up the bike and made my way to continental breakfast in anticipation of a fresh waffle at 6AM sharp, about 6:15 I finally got my waffle, apparently the hotel worker didn't felt the same excitement as I. With a full belly and a phone call from my girl friend I was ready to tackle todays adventure. After a short 8 mile ride to Sweet Water Creek State Park I was downing my running clothes when I heard this yell of Wohoooooo! Form the early morning shadows, looking past the guilty one I saw my friend and training partner Jon. We quickly took care of business and made our way to the starting line. As he told me good luck he quietly made his way to the front of the starting line, I knew they were in trouble...He had his Green shorts on! The race started at 7:30 sharp, we had a short road run to the trail. Looking to the East along this stretch of road was the still low sun rise behind some clouds which shined above and below the clouds that hung above the placed lake. Beautiful! A few steps later we were on the trail for the first of two laps. The first lap was great, we quickly hit a long water crossing into miles of fairly flat twisty trails until we cut back to the creek where the trail turned into sand and water for a few more miles finally leaving the banks for miles of flat easy trail until the subdivision aid station (my favorite) after this aid station we followed a water line clearing to a gravel road that lead to the very tough power line section. This section was difficult but lead to a nice clearing to "top of the world" where you could see the city of Atlanta along the horizon. However this didn't allow much time for sight seeing because you also cross paths with the leads...Yeah Jon was leading. Making our way back down the far left of this power line section was two very step valleys that finally lead back to the same sand and wet trials form earlier for about 2 miles until turning left and headed back to the start of loop 1. Lap two wasn't as much fun as lap one. Jon ( the winner ) said to go out very very slow until about 20 miles. Did I listen, No! So a few miles into lap two the ankles started to get tight, then a few miles after that my calfs started to cramp, then a few miles after that the hamstrings started to cramp. Have you ever had your entire leg cramp in mid-air as you're jumping overt a log? It's a really neat experience! By now I'm into the long flat section before my favorite aid station so I'm just trying to fuel and recover before the big hills. It well traversing the hills even passed a guy however at the top my calf cramped-up like I never felt before! I had to walk stiff legged like a zombie for about 30 yards until it cooperated, may be further, I wasn't about to stop moving at this point. Now back into stride and completing the finial top of the world loop I was back down the step power lines and into the woods for about a 7 mile jaunt to the finish feeling strong. As I left the last aid station chocololate-chip cookie in mouth feeling good and only 3 miles left I tried to pick the pace, thinking I can run a 5K with one leg tied behind my back, yeah right! About 100 yards in immediately my legs cramped up and had to walk so they wouldn't cramp up. With only a few miles to go I kept my stride and crossed the finish line in 5hrs 37mins which was much better than I expected. This was an awesome day with excellent trails that challenged me physically and mentally. A 50K trail run is very hard to complete and you need to be a little nuts to complete! |