Rockin K Marathon Race Report
I wasn't sure this weekend that my training was up for this, but Steve told me I was ready, and I decided to run it, just to try and run it smart. I had a strategy all lined out and stayed with it for the first 8 miles. Ran the downhills and the flats, and ran them pretty well. Walked the uphills. But then came mile 8...
From the beginning.
At the pre-race dinner Friday night got to see a lot of familiar faces, ultra running friends. Made a few new ones. It's always a lot of fun, more of a family feel than a pre-race feel. Shirt was cool, free GU, some coupons and I won a pair of injinjis. You run with cow tags instead of bibs for numbers, yellow for marathon, red for 50, with your name, number and the year. Pretty cool, huh?
The race director told us that with the sun coming out and the heat of the afternoon the next day to be aware that there might be rattlesnakes. FREAK ME OUT!. But not enough to keep me from the starting line.
Saturday morning we left our hotel and headed south in a fierce thunderstorm. But when we turned west, we drove out of the storm and Lake Kanopolis hadn't gotten rain. Yippee! We only had 15 minutes to check in and use the facilities before Phil said go.
It was beautiful. Spring was definitely in bloom. This was shortly after turning completely into the trail. (Yes, I was far enough behind by this time that there were no people in my horizon).
I am working my way down to where this string of people is. See the water? Had to go through it. First time my feet got wet. 3.10 miles in. Ankle deep. I sloshed for the next few miles. It was about this time that I heard rustling behind me as well as what could best be described as growling. Cat type growling. I know there are mountain lions at Lake Kanopolis. (I had also just watched Grey's Anatomy where people got mauled by a lion). I was sure a mountain lion was about to land on me. I turned around to meet the beast head on, but it was just another runner with a very strange breathing habit. Sounded like a mountain lion, growling. I was able to put my fear of being mauled by a mountain lion to rest and focus my anxiety on the multiple rattlesnakes I was going to encounter.
This was going uphill, very pretty, lots of rocks. I had been climbing for a while and wanted a break, so I stopped and took a picture.
And this was water crossing number two. After winding through the woods at this part of the trail, very narrow single track, lots of foliage (OH! I left out the warning about ticks, but we warned about them too) I was running high up above this small creek, seeing people going the other direction on the other side, so I knew I'd be crossing eventually. Eventually I crossed, through the creek. This one was almost knee deep on me. My feet were almost dry, and now I was back to sloshing.
Another break cause I was tired. There are beaver dams. (Am I afraid of beavers? Not sure yet, but probably). The beavers had been working on this tree. I thought it was pretty cool.
Along with the water crossings, there were two barbed wire fences we had to cross. They were kind enough to wrap blankets around them.
I had climbed from the bottom of this hill and stopped to catch my breath and took this picture of where I'd just climbed up...
And was still winded, so this one of where I was still going.
This is from the top of the bluff. I was scared to get too close to the edge of the bluff. I'm scared of heights and the wind was fierce. It was blowing me around. When I had a tailwind it was great, the headwind sucked, and in the crosswind I couldn't keep my balance.
Another one of the bluff, the rock to the right of the picture was a straight down drop.
Water crossing three (four was pretty much like this too, and was less than a quarter mile away). This is looking at it before I went in, while I was dry.
I took this of the group behind me, it ended up waist deep on me. This is what it looked like from the other side when I was wet.
My award.
What happy trail running shoes look like. They were dirty and wet and very worn out, but quite happy.
At mile 8 my right calf cramped. All I had with me were GU and water, so I loaded up on them for the sodium and potassium and downed 16 ozs. of water, but everytime I tried to run my calf would cramp and shoot pain up my leg and my knee would buckle. So I walked, sped walked, and jogged as much as I could. When I got to the aid station I popped some endurolytes, ate a turkey sandwich, a couple cookies, boiled potatoes rolled in salt and a banana.
Dennis and Mark, two of Steve's good friends were working the aid station and they took good care of me. I felt like I got special attention. (I did.) I ran out for the Big Bluff loop hoping I had fixed the cramping, but no such luck. It continued to bother me. The loop included the pictures of the bluff I have above, and there was one climb that was muddy and steep and I had to crawl up using my hands.
I came back into the aid station at 18 miles and took more endurolytes and headed out on the stretch to the finish line. Finally, FINALLY no cramping. But at this point I was so tired from the heat, fighting the 22-27 mph winds and the cramped calf that my run didn't resemble much running at all. I did real well (in my opinion, don't tell me otherwise) for the next 3 miles and then had a spell of I-just-don't-care-anymore and began to walk. When I came out of the second waist deep water crossing I had 2.2 miles to go. I looked at my watch and realized I had been out there an awfully long time. At the rate I was going, I would be out there much longer. So I sucked it up and ran the last 2.2 miles in. Feeling pretty good. Ran up the hill to the finish line. Back down the hill to the car, .2 miles away to put on dry clothes, and then drove to a closer parking spot (so I didn't have to walk back up the hill).
Walked around good, felt good, food was great. Waited for Steve to finish the 50 mile. Cheered for the 50 milers as they finished, talked to volunteers. Steve finished and after saying goodbyes and eating we headed home. We stopped to eat (a full meal, 45 minutes later) and when I got out of the car I thought someone had put my legs in a vise.
Saturday night I woke up everytime I turned over, my lower body hurt that bad. Got up Sunday morning for church and my left foot was swollen, big blister under the big toe, losing the nail off the middle toe, stiff and sore. And my right calf and the back of my right knee are swollen. My legs are covered with thorn scratches and I have a big knot on my arm where I ran into a tree and stabbed myself.
I encountered two snakes, and one was about 5 feet long and very scary, and I looked up the pattern on the internet and I'm pretty sure it was a rattler. I was backing away from it and it was scurrying away from me. It probably couldn't tell you what color my skirt was either. We were both afraid.
My hardest and longest marathon ever. I also overheard three guys comparing their garmins and they all said the marathon was actually 26.79 to 26.82 miles long. Furthest I've ever run.
504 minutes and 55 seconds. Way longer than I wanted. I would like to say I enjoyed all of them, but that would be a lie. Steve took 50 minutes off his time from last year. So very proud of him. And he believed in me, and he was right. I did it. (I found out after the race that he checked on me with the volunteers everytime he went through the aid station).
I loved this race, and I will do it again.
You can check out
Steve's race report .
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