Soaked

I felt the urge to write today, on this lame cloudy morning. Was hoping for sunshine so I could skip work and make guacamole, but alas, my conscience kicked in and I find myself at work. Longingly glancing over my neighboring cubicle walls to see if the sun is shining yet…the moment it is, I’m leaving! (maybe… my conscience might keep me here…it sounds better to say that I shall conquer the day once the sun appears…)

Anyways, who wants to hear about the Superior 50k? It was a crazy-amazing day filled with lots of fantastic people and mud.

So, I spent the night before the race with 12 other people in a cabin at the Lutsen resort. It was super sweet to be able to relax knowing that I wouldn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn and drive many miles to the start. Or, feel bad for waking people up 5 hours before they really wanted to. So, SCORE! for not being that person.

It was really mild at the start. Not super cold, not super hot. The sky was grey and threatened to rain, but we didn’t get insanely drenched before heading out into the woods. Wooo hooo! It just started raining once we got into the woods… for the next forever…

P.S. I was nervous to the point of peeing 5 times within 20 minutes before the start.

The race director gave an epic speech and off we went down the hard road start (YEAH) for about ¾ of a mile until we got to the woods. And oh that first feeling of bliss when you know you get to spend the day in the woods!! It’s like an all-encompassing-hug/sigh of relief. I swear. I felt it as we got on the single-track and decided it was going to be a great day.

3 miles later… dun Dun DUN….

This is where everything went from “this is stupendous” to “HOLY CRAP MY ANKLE IS DEAD”. Yeah, my left ankle decided to go to the left when my body was moving to the right. Whammo. I started running like a drunken-sailor with a broken wooden leg. A few dudes ran by and asked if I was ok. I sort of said “yeah, peachy” with a plastered-strained smile on my face because inside I was ridiculously pissed. I seriously thought the race was over. Like oh great! I made it 3 miles out of 31… nice job wussy… So I just kept going. I knew if I took off my shoe, the race would be over. And who wants to do that???? I just proceeded to leave the shoe on and pretend like nothing happened…

Getting to the first aid-station was sort of a beast. A few intense climbs and insane down-hill got me thinking to myself that, if I feel like crap by mile 7.75 (the first aid-station) highly consider slowing it down and taking it easy. Well… I felt fantastic if I blocked out the throbbing ankle! So I just kept trucking. I distinctly remember calling out as I was leaving the aid-station, “WE MADE IT THROUGH THE SECTION OF DEATH!” because that is really how beastly that first section is. I heard a random clap, so maybe someone else agreed…

The next section, from what I had heard, was supposed to be mild and relatively flat. I agree with this on the way out. I had about 5 guys that were following behind me in this section and we had a great time. Ran smart and conserved the legs for the journey back. Besides the fact that I face-planted in this section, the only other highlight was seeing the leaders blaze back the other way. I hadn’t made it to mile 13 and they were already on their way back!! Flying. They were flying.

The turn around was pretty cool. There was a dude at the top of Carlton Peak that looked quite epic. I gave him a high five and proceeded to bomb back down the mountain. Returning to the second aid-station left me feeling a bit wonky. My stomach hurt and all I had tried to eat was oranges, so I chomped down on a bit of PB&J and drank a bit of ginger-ale. Didn’t go well, but didn’t lose it either.

Now, whoever said that the middle section coming back was nice and flat should be mildly kicked in the shin. Yes, there were no intense mountain climbs, but the mental challenge was ridiculous! No walking/hiking up steep cliffs to take your mind away from what you were actually doing. I bonked pretty badly. An amazing runner that I met on trail that day (BJ!!) sort of saved my life. He listened to me whine and complain for far too long. He eventually blazed by me… because I was ready to fall over. Which did occur just a mile later, as I was gallivanting through the forest. I was coming up to an intensely slanted boardwalk, and since my brain was sort of fogging out, I said to myself, “Andrea, you’re going to completely wipe out on this thing. You’re shoes are wet, the boardwalk is wet. Try not to break your face.” My feet came out from under me and I landed flat on my back. Well not really flat, more of like slanted due to the incline of the wet boardwalk. I let out a fierce wounded animal cry, collected myself, and continued on.

Finally, the last aid-station!!!!!! I was beyond excited to be out of the “mellow, flat section”. I needed to use the restroom. There were two at this aid-station. And the lines were 5 people deep. SERIOUSLY!!?? Then I realized they were all 25k’ers. OOOhhhh. Got it. At this point, I was walking in a delirious state, wanting to continue forward, yet needing to pee, but also wanting to lie down and sleep forever. After far too long, I went, came back out and saw a 50k woman runner heading out of the aid-station in front of me… That’s when I knew I had bonked pretty badly. I must have wasted a good 15 minutes in the “flat” section?? Most of which was bent over in a failed attempt to crawl into the fetal position. So, now that I had someone to chase, ONWARD!

This was the last great section. The section of 2 mountain climbs. Soldier up Moose Mountain, bomb back down, soldier up the switch-back of Mystery Mountain, bomb back down to the glorious road finish. Well, I caught back up to the 50k woman going up Moose. She was going at a slightly slower pace then I wanted to, but decided to just stick behind her and conserve. Once we got to the top, everything changed. I had a HUGE desire to finish strong. Like, “I am mud-trail-warrior, hear me roar, watch-out because I’m seriously not stopping until I get to the finish”

I passed the 50k woman and just started booking it. I came across A LOT of 25k’ers in those last 7 miles. It was sort of a challenge. I just kept saying every time I got close, “on your left!” or “on your right!” and they seemed to move. I didn’t collide or face-plant on anyone, so that was good. Bombing down Moose Mountain was fantastic. My body was in a state of complete runner’s high euphoria, so nothing hurt. Weird, right? It was like a 180 flip after bonking so badly in the last section. So I just went with it. No need to conserve anymore. This is what all of that conserving earlier on had been for! Push like there is no tomorrow to the finish!

After grabbing my lower back and stomping up the Mystery Mountain switch-back, it was “all down-hill” from there. Just cruised. Felt like I was flying. Came across some more 50k runners that had passed me a while ago. Cheered everyone on. Whooping and hollering. Big smiles. Lots of mud.

As I came out of the woods, and ran that last ¾ mile on the roads to the finish, a lot of things came to mind. First, was that I was insanely blessed to be finishing a 50k in happy spirits. Second, was the fact that my body DID NOT want to run on a flat surface. YIKES. Third, was that I couldn’t believe the race was almost over. Fourth, was that I knew I had dirt on my face because I could see it on my nose and cheek if I looked down.

And last, but not least, I was overwhelmed. I couldn’t believe that I would be finishing at the front of the female pack. Me. The girl who used to hate running. Who used to think that running 1 mile was pure torture and the concept of doing 5 was insane.

And now to be finishing a race on treacherous trail after running for 5 hours and 42 minutes.

Wildest dreams come true.

Everyone starts somewhere.

I believe that continued passion for active adventure leads to epic feats of human endurance.

Because after all, it’s just a 50k, right? J

Congrats to all of the other runners! And to the Storkamps for an amazing race day! Wouldn’t have been able to do it without the volunteers, either! Thanks to everyone that made the day awesome.

Cheers!