BUFFALO RUN 50 K
I can't really remember when I decided I needed to run a race this early in the 'season' as I tend to focus 100% on weather and snowboarding throughout the winter. BUT...after pacing 82 year old Grant Holdaway last year for his attempt at the 100 mile distance I thought I needed to be a part of the island adventure. An added bonus is that for some strange phenomenon my husband decided he wanted to train and do the run too. It was really fun to train and run with my husband during the cold months leading up to race day.
Training went fairly well for us and despite being interrupted with multiple powder days and a three week sickness that plagued us during the most important weeks of adding mileage I felt ready to go.
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| Ryan and I on a training run on the island, loving the solitude and warm weather! |
THE RACE-LAP 1
I felt better than expected on the first 25 K lap, loved seeing the 50 mile runners and all the HUMRS looked awesome. I ran pretty much the entire 1st lap except for a few switchbacks and was feeling strong heading back into Elephant Head Aid Station. Ryan and I decided to run our own race and not worry about each other ahead of time so I thought about how far ahead he was but didn't stress about it and hoped he was having a good first ultra experience. Kept up on nutrition and hydration with no issues and was thoroughly enjoying myself. Followed a cute girl from the left hand turn off and kept a pretty good pace around the island back to White Rock Bay/Start/Finish area. Was looking for Ryan assuming he was about 15-20 min. ahead of me and coming out of the White Rock Aid Station was my hubby who was nice enough to go back to the aid station and then head back out with me. We were on our intended target time for our first lap right at 2:42...THEN....
LAP 2....
Ryan was having some major calf cramps and I was having an annoying hamstring issue so we walked a LOT the first 5 miles of lap 2...but started to pick up the pace as we got closer to Elephant Head...mind game for sure! It sucks knowing what you have ahead and wanting to go faster but feeling like you just can't speed up. Salt caps helped both of us and we continued lap 2 through the switch backs and back to the aid station. Took turns leading and following and the weirdest thing is we hardly said a word to each other (this is NOT normal). At one point he stated that "This F...**ing sucks" and I stated that I truly needed Heroin injected directly into my hamstring....that is about all that was said for the entire 2nd lap. By the time we got to the last 5 miles we decided to just finish together and pushed through until the finish. Not quite the time we wanted (6:41) but for an early race and Ryan's first race EVER I am happy with the result.
POST RACE
Had a great time cheering at the finish line with the HUMRS and it was inspiring to see so many people including Ryan finish various distances for the 1st time. We helped tear down and pack up the UHAUL and then set up the truck for a beautiful sunset and quiet night camping on the island.
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| Sunset on the island |
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| Post race... |
Beauty=9 Toughness=6 Race Shirt=2 (sorry Jim, the stew rocked though) Me Post Race=9
