![]() A fifty-mile race when I had only run a marathon? All I could think was, “No way!” But what are friends for? I guess getting you to sign up for stupid, crazy events like Bad Water. They have a 50k option, but we skipped right over that given our first 50K would be in a training run and we wanted that buckle. Not to long after, my good friend and running compadre, Chris Coker, threw out a big dog, the Badwater Cape Fear 50 miler! Yes, fifty miles on the sand (39 to be exact), and 12 on Bald Head Island. The following year, in 2018, I got 2nd AG and cut my time by 17 mins and since then I have run a number of races up to marathon (only two total) distance. I got injured in the first couple of miles with and PF issues plagued me for months after, but I still managed to finish strong. In October 2017, Medoc Mountain 10 miler was my first trail race and longest race distance other than a 10K. I eventually ran my first 5K and placed first in my age group in January 2017 (it seems everyone places in their first race, haha). To put this in context, I’ve only been running since mid 2016 and was training for my first 5K in October which got cancelled due to Hurricane Matthew. Lo and behold I had no idea that I would fall in love with trail running (and soon ultras) and loath road racing altogether. Half marathons were more to my liking as I enjoyed the challenge and was able to recover from them fairly quickly. I figured that marathons were going to be few and far between. After just missing my goal time of sub 4 hours by three seconds, I could barely walk. After running my first marathon last November in Richmond, I could never fathom running an ultrarace. I crossed the line in second place, a little under 68 minutes, two and a half minutes behind Ben, and about two minutes faster than I figured I’d go.Where do I begin? I suppose I should start off with a little about my ultra-running career (or lack thereof). ![]() After trundling through three loops last year, it was nice to make a right to the finish on my first loop this year. ![]() There was one final big grass loop and I picked it up a bit. One more quick jaunt through the last wooded section and I popped out by where we started. When I got out to the bathrooms by the RV camp area, I knew I was basically done. Somewhere in this section, there was some stairs I managed not to fall down, and some twists and turns to make back up the elevation, all I managed to push well enough. I pushed the ensuing downhill and focused solely on running to the next marathoner, reeling one in, going by, and setting my sights on the next one the rest of the way. The next few miles meandered about and as I got to mile 7, where you can sort of see the start area through the woods, I got a mental boost, knowing I only had 3 miles to go. Once back along the river, I began to come up on some marathoners, which helped me stay mentally engaged. ![]() In retrospect, it would have been far more prudent to use a modicum of caution here, seeing as how I was already pretty sure I was not going to catch Ben, and a rolled ankle (or worse) would have derailed the rest of my Fall plans, but damn was it fun! I literally was yelling WEEEEEE out loud the whole way down. I grabbed a quick water at the aid station and proceeded to recklessly (Ari would probably say stupidly, I would probably agree) bomb downhill back toward the river.
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