A few weeks ago we joined forces with Stonegate and her family and had a garage sale. As often happens when you have a garage sale, you find things that you forgot that you had. While searching through boxes and closets I came across the following book ….
This book brought back a sea of memories for me. You see, years ago my friend Sally Edwards reached out to me and told me that a friend of hers was writing a book about women conquering triathlons. Â She wanted me to contribute a story detailing my very first attempt at a triathlon. So I did. My story in this book is called The Monkeys on My Back. When I found the book, I reread my story completely forgetting what I had written.
Essentially my story was about all the doubts in my head (aka those monkeys riding my back dragging me down) and how I defeated those monkeys and doubts, tossing them to the side as I completed my first challenging race.
Since my last post, I debated even writing another blog post. That race left me pretty beat up physically and mentally. Months ago, when I was feeling super strong and invincible, I signed up for the American River 50 mile race (again). Then Salmon Falls happened and I was left cursing myself for signing up for 50 miles after feeling how I felt after that last 50k.
The monkeys were back. Clearly.
I took a week off from running trying to nurse some aches and pains and I saw my miracle worker Dr. Lau. I didn’t know what to do. How did I think I could run again in four weeks?
The time off was good. I focused on stretching, foam rolling, eating well and catching up on lost sleep. The latter is hard to achieve with two little ones. 🙂
When yesterday came about, Pigeon had wanted us to go run our last long run before AR in the canyons. As much as I love the canyons, those monkeys were telling me I was crazy. We have done this run before (you can read it here) it was hard and it hurt. Yet we needed the hours on our feet and in the back of my head, Â I kept telling myself that the canyons are way harder than AR despite AR being more than twice as long (my brain works in mysterious ways).
Bright and Early
Pigeon and I left town in complete darkness and arrived just as the sun was rising. We parked at Michigan Bluff and got ourselves ready. We both knew it was going to be a warm day but it was pretty chilly to start.
I didn’t know what to pack for fuel. I wanted to test out a bunch of new things so my pack was pretty jammed with all kinds of new to me fuel for the day.
As we were about to embark on the trail, another car arrived and out popped three other runners and a Doberman mix. Of course, another doberman encounter. Luckily, this dog was well trained and did not bother us too much.
Heading down down down
This run starts out with a nice long two mile descent. It is rocky, technical and pretty steep. Dr. Lau’s advice kept ringing in my ears (“Don’t run down hill, save your knees”) but of course did I listen? Not really. I was careful and hesitant. I made sure my foot placement was good and I worked really hard on my form as I was going down, but I didn’t walk.
Of course in typical Trailmomma style, I had to make a quick pit stop not more than two minutes into our run. However, that would be the last of my tummy troubles the entire day.
Once you get to the bottom of that descent, you cross a nice little bridge and then begin a super long four to five mile climb. I had forgotten how much “up” this side of the trail had until I was hands on my knees hiking step after step.
Taking a break to enjoy the views.
The climb seemed to move pretty quickly though because before I knew it, we had reached the fire road section by Deadwood Cemetery. We caught up to the other runners that were out on the trail and had a nice chat with them.
Those runners stopped at the water pump to refill their bottles while Pigeon and I continued on towards Devil’s Thumb. The last time we ran this route, we stopped at the thumb and turned around. Today, we sat there debating back and forth as to whether or not we should climb down Devil’s to the swinging bridge. I’ve climbed Devils a few times. It is not an easy section. I have never run down it however.
My left knee had been only slightly making itself known on those earlier miles but I was afraid that the steepness of Devil’s would send it spiraling into a sea of pain. I took two Advil as a sort of preventative measure and down we went.
Fire Damage
Last year’s massive fire has destroyed quite a bit of this beautiful land. Seeing all the charred tree stumps and branches was very heart breaking. It also however brought a bit of mystery and danger to the scene.
They have started logging the area to clean it up and help with regrowth
Without all the trees to provide shade, this was a very exposed section of trail and the temps were rising.
Nowhere to go but down!
The terrain was also very difficult to run on. Tiny seas of pinecones were everywhere causing you to slip. Rocks, branches and debris were everywhere. I slowed more than a few times to try and prevent myself from tumbling down the trail.
When we made it to the bottom, we were greeted by shade and the brand newly rebuilt Swinging Bridge!
So pretty!
Last year the fire had destroyed half of the bridge making it impossible to pass.
The Swinging Bridge in May 2014
A bunch of trail volunteers and angels did an amazing job rebuilding the bridge.
Beautiful construction
We decided to spend some time here and refuel a bit so I took quite a few photos.
levitra from india http://www.icks.org/html/04_publication.php?cate=FALL%2FWINTER+2015 It is effective to erect the penis if taken with prescription. How the sexual problems affect men?- Mostly men look for herbal remedies to cure male sexual disorders when they are facing this kind of situation then they don’t feel like getting close to the female partner for anything and starts pfizer viagra online staying away from his partner and the relationship. So, try to online viagra prescription avoid the health crisis mentioned above to cure ED in men fast. If it is just rain, then it is a very old and fairly common thing. pop over here generic levitra
They had a rope tied across the river in the above photo and we had to cross by wading through. It was pretty awesome.
Still the same rules though – Some how 5 runners = 3 horses? #coremathMe on the bridge
But today, we were able to use the bridge and after some fueling decided it was time to start the dreaded climb up Devils’ Thumb.
This is where the trail continues up on the other side
As were making our way across the bridge, Pigeon told me I should take a photo of the waterfall. I never even realized there was a waterfall here before. I pulled out my camera and took a photo of it and I have to say, it was one of my favorites from the day.
So GREEN!
The climb back up Devil’s Thumb consists of 36 switchbacks. THIRTY-SIX!!!???? It isn’t easy and it can be quite demeaning.
As I was climbing my right knee and lower back decided to say hello and by hello I mean “what the hell are you doing?!” I tried not to focus on it. One foot in front of the other. Climb.
Pigeon as always, was pretty silent on this climb. I tend to go in spurts of chatting and then conserving energy.
I don’t know exactly how long it took, but we finally reached the top. Normally we stop at the top but Pigeon locked her sights on those earlier runners who were running back towards the pump and started running. Okay, I guess we’re running. 🙂
We passed the runners again as they stopped at the water pump. As it turns out, they had a friend meet them with a truck full of aid-station fuel. They offered us coke and brownies and a ton of other things, but we passed and continued on.
As we were running we heard the sounds of dirt bikes and sure enough, just like the last time, two guys riding dirt bikes on the same trail we were running, passed us. Luckily we had more room this time to jump to the side.
I was internally dreading the next section. The four/five mile descent down El Dorado Canyon. This section is steep and fairly runnable making it tough on a bum knee.
I settled in behind Pigeon and tried going easy. Watching my form. Watching my steps. It surprised me that my left knee, the knee giving me trouble at Salmon Falls was fine and instead my right knee was the one barking at me. It didn’t matter if I was running down or up, it hurt but it let me continue. It didn’t stop me, yet.
At some point during this decent, Pigeon had to peel off and make her own pit-stop. I decided to play it smart and walk ahead. Walk the downs. Not run.
Before I knew it, I was a the bottom of the canyon. It seemed to have flown by this time. Pigeon had caught up and we started our climb back up to Michigan Bluff. Normally we stop at the bottom and refuel but it was pretty crowded with some hikers so instead, we climbed.
Some how I think it is more than a two mile climb up because it is never ending.
A mini break to fuel
One foot in front of the other again. Climb. Repeat. At some point, I took the lead. I was focused. I could feel the finish, or a least I thought I could. Every time I thought we’d reached the top, I was mistaken.
Oh well, climb and climb again. At one point, decided to wait for Pigeon to catch up, just to check on her. I am kind of glad I did. She asked me where we were mileage wise which is always a red flag for her. She knows her distances pretty well. I asked her how she was doing and she told me her pack was empty. She had no water.
This is a constant joke between us. Pigeon has run out of water quite a few times on some of our runs and since I am a camel and always have more than enough, I usually give her mine. I had my whole 10 ounce bottle completely untouched so I poured it into her pack. We laughed and continued on. I knew that near the top of this climb, the sun would be out and we would be totally exposed which is not a good thing when it was a warm as it was outside. Water was a necessity on this climb.
I just powered on. Despite the pain searing through my knee at times, I felt okay. I felt that I was able to climb. A few times I even ran a bit to break it up and release the pressure in my low back. I had juice in the tank so to speak, which helped me fling those monkeys off my back about AR50.
It was on this climb back out that I thought again about that book. I had some how distanced myself from Pigeon and was just climbing and thinking – one foot in front of the other. If I could climb and handle this day and these canyons, why couldn’t I handle AR50 in two weeks? I have the strength. The race may not turn out what I had originally hoped when I initially signed up, but I know I can do it. The monkeys were being thrown. I was hiking and tossing those monkeys off my back and bringing myself back to a place of positive thinking. A place I have been missing lately.
Such beauty!
When I reached the top I felt whole again. I felt like my old self. Sure my knee was screaming at me but I felt like my inner-self had been reset.
Waiting for Pigeon to crest that hot hot trail
When Pigeon arrived, we made our way back to the car and tried our best to remove all the poison oak that may or may not have been all over our legs. It was pretty nasty out there.
Overall, we had run 19.5 miles or so with 7,583 feet of elevation. That’s a lot. Our first canyon run of the season was behind us. This isn’t an easy run at all but it definitely is one of my favorites.
When I arrived home I got word that Vans had a daddy day like no other!
HOME-DEPOT!
The girls’ faces look exactly like mine when I have to go to Home Depot with Vans. 🙂
Overall, it was a great day. We had spent more than 6 hours on the trail. That’s a long time but it was the time I needed to get my confidence back.
Now I taper. Now I work on the aches and pains. Foam rolling. Eating well and hopefully trying to get better sleep. AR50 will be what it will be but I know a lot of what makes a race a great race, is where your head is on race day. For me, I am going to ride this positive train for the next two weeks.
Well the day finally came. I have been talking about running the Salmon Falls 50k over these last few blog posts and yesterday was the day.
I will warn you now, this post may be a bit long and I have TONS of photos but none of which were taken from me during the race. All of them are compliments of Vans and his awesomeness as being the best race husband and dad ever. This post is for him because without him yesterday, I may not have smiled half as much as I did. I needed him yesterday and he was there 110%.
You know how when you hear a lot of hype about something and you inadvertently build high expectations about it? That’s how my training has been. I felt ready. I felt trained. Yet come race day, not everything happened the way I had envisioned it. Isn’t that always the way?
For the first time, in a very long time, I had a great night of sleep. Squeaker didn’t wake me up throughout the night as she had these last few weeks. I went to bed at a decent time and I woke up a half hour before my alarm was set to go off. I was excited.
The weather was unpredictable. The entire week the forecasters had said it was going to rain on race day. It rained the night before which meant the trails were going to be muddy but it also didn’t rain for very long … so there was hope that things would be semi dry for race day. The temps were colder than they have been but I decided to go with what I have been wearing for almost all of my runs these last few months. My “uniform” so to speak.
Pigeon was set to arrive at my house where Stonegate would pick us up and take us to the race start. Stonegate is running Way Too Cool next weekend and we were lucky to have her chauffeur services to the start. Tri-Girl also met at my house as she had decided to sign up for the race.
The race is a point to point starting at Magnolia Ranch. There were strict parking or rather NO parking rules. Stonegate got us there in plenty of time. We were able to enter the main parking lot and hop out of the car to register with Coach Nikon, the Race Director. It is always great seeing his smiling sarcastic face first thing in the morning before a race. His races are always a class act and well put together. He has probably the best volunteers around too and you can’t have a good race without great volunteers.
After signing in, Pigeon and I hopped back into Stongate’s car while Tri-Girl decided to get into the mile long porta-potty line. This gave us a good reason to sit in the lot waiting for her. The park rangers were there and we were watching. Unfortunately, the line was not moving super fast and so Stonegate had to move the car to across the street. Long story short, we kept missing Tri-Girl as she was trying to get back to the car. Poor Stonegate probably drove back and forth about a million and two times trying to find her, drop us off and then drop her off. :)Â We saw so many awesome trail friends at the start. This race was full of smiling friendly faces. It was so nice to say hi, get hugs and catch up with everyone.
I was starting to get excited and a bit nervous. At some point during all of this pre-race waiting, I heard something that unfortunately I let get into my head. This person didn’t mean any harm or ill will at all. My head just operates in a certain way and my brain reacted (or maybe over-reacted?) and went into over drive. This would haunt me for most of the race and cause me to battle internally over and over with myself. I was trying to will myself out of the negative mental spiral I was putting myself into but combined with all the other little things that didn’t go as planned, it made for a long and interesting experience out there.
Finally, Coach Nikon had us gather at the start. I loved the low-keyness to the race. He gave us a pre-race briefing and pep talk in Coach Nikon fashion. He said, “We used over 9 rolls of tape to mark this course in addition to trail chalk. If you get lost, I want to know how you did it.” 🙂
He counted down and we were off. I would venture to guess there was close to 180 people in the race. While not large, it still made for an interesting start jockeying for position on the very wide trail. There were some puddles and mud and then all of a sudden, we were at our first shin high stream crossing. We were not even at one mile yet! That’s how you start a race!
It starts with a pretty good up hill climb with some switch backs along the way. Â Pigeon, Tri-Girl and I were close together. We saw some friends along the way like Miss P and we all sort of ran together trying to get out of the congestion a bit. For some reason, the congestion was bugging me. I like to have space and there was none at this point. I was also starting to feel my stomach sloshing around a bit. Uh-oh. That is not what I wanted right off the bat.
I climbed, ran and hiked hard. There were some good down sections too. Tri-Girl took off. Pigeon and I tried to conserve our legs and our energy knowing what was to come. This is where my brain started taking over again. I could not shake my thoughts so I ran, harder. Pigeon told me not to go chasing some girl down the hill. She knew I was itching to just open it up but it was too soon.
The trails are gorgeous through these sections. I truly wished I had my camera. At some point, we caught up to and passed Tri-Girl. Running the downs and trying to hike the ups. As Pigeon and I were running there was this guy next to us who started talking about “the hill.” He was worried, “It is the biggest hill in the race. You have to walk it. It is huge.” This got Pigeon in a bit of worrisome state as she had not been on these trails prior to the race. She’s only run a certain section of the course. She turns to me, “How big of a hill? Like a Diamond Peak hill?” I told her, no and that she’s already climbed it once before. He was talking about the hill that was at the first aid-station by Cronin Ranch. It was a hill but it was a long gradual hill and she has climbed far worse in her days. It was also at this point that I looked down at my garmin watch and realized it wasn’t working. At all. I had no time no mileage. Crap! I tend to use the time feature often when it comes to fueling. I had forgotten to power it down and then restart it before the race. Again, something I didn’t plan on happening.
However, I knew we were getting close to the aid-station (4.43 miles into the race). I turned to Pigeon and told her my tummy was not happy. She told me to sprint ahead and go use the bathroom that we remembered was at this particular aid-station. So I did. I sprinted like I was on fire. I ran so hard trying to get ahead and when I reached the aid-station and all the wonderful volunteers who were so ready to help me, I ran right past them. They looked confused but they must have figured out I was going to use the bathroom except the bathroom was SO FAR AWAY. I am not talking a couple of yards, I am talking VERY far away. I was sprinting my little heart out and then just started freaking out that it was too far. When I turned back to look at the aid-station, Pigeon was just getting there. Forget it. If I had continued on, I would have been so far behind. Instead, I turned around. I convinced myself that I would just make it to the next aid-station.
When I finally reached the aid-station Pigeon was talking to the volunteers. Pigeon said, “that’s Trailmomma!” A lovely woman smiled at me and said, “Hi Trailmomma! This is Dizzy!” pointing to another runner. I have to apologize to these two, I was so confused. I thought at first, she was telling me that this guy was dizzy. However, she was trying to tell me that both of them read my blog and follow me and that his name is listed as Dizzy in my followers list! Dizzy I am SO sorry! I must have looked totally confused. So I want to give a shout out to Dizzy and that super wonderful volunteer whose name I did not catch who follow me! Thank you SO much for being out there yesterday and thank you for following all my crazy running stories! 🙂
Next it was time to climb Pedro Hill, the big hill that other runner was worried about. I just put my head down and climbed. I’ve been working on my climbing over the last few months and it has been paying off. I finally feel strong when I climb (most of the time).
Battling the demons in my head and the alien in my stomach, I just climbed and climbed. We finally reached the top with its amazing views and started running the nice long down stretch. What goes up, must come down.
The next aid-station was at mile 7 (Norton Ravine) but there was no bathroom. The next aid-station after that where there WAS a bathroom was at Skunk Hollow but that was 5.8 miles and a lot of rolling hills away.
This is where my brain took over. There are some pretty good climbs and some technical sections during these 5.8 miles. I was not in the mood for chit chat. I pulled ahead of Pigeon and just hiked the up hills hard or even ran some of them. I ran the downs pretty hard too. It was almost as if I was trying to kill the negative thoughts through my head. My  tummy felt better when I was running compared to when I had to stop and hike. I just motored.
For a while, Pigeon was not behind me. I couldn’t even see her. My legs felt good and strong which bothered me because I felt I could have run even better if I wasn’t dealing with that alien in my tummy. At one point you get to a switch back area and I could see Pigeon. I looked down at her and she looked up at me and I mouthed the word, “bathroom” and she goes, “is that’s whats going on?” 🙂 That made me laugh. Pigeon and I know each other well out on the trail. She is training for a 100 mile race in July. Yesterday was a training run for her, not a race. She needed to get the miles in AND be able to run today on tired legs. For me, she knew I was excited about this race. Us separating in races doesn’t happen often but it goes without saying that both of us supports the other one no matter what. If one of us is running strong, the other lets it go and supports her 100%.
So I was gone. I wanted to get to Skunk Hollow (mile 12.8) and I wanted to get there fast. I blew down the Red Dragon faster than I ever have in a training run. Some guy got frustrated with me being behind him and stopped to let me pass. I apologized for being on his tail. 🙂
I could hear the aid-station ahead of me. I could hear the cheers. I also knew there were real bathrooms there! But first, I had the first of many surprises out on the trail!
My girls!
Vans surprised me by having the girls on the trail! They were a sight for sore eyes for sure!
I have to stop for hugs!Hug for the Squeaker!
Vans asked me where Pigeon was and I told him that she was behind me somewhere and that I had to use the bathroom fast. I left them on the trail and headed to the aid-station. I went straight to the bathroom and when I came out I saw Missouri and JCM there with smiles and a sign.
I saw Tri-Girl leave the aid-station and make her way up the hill. I saw quite a few friends here too and stopped to chat. They all asked me where Pigeon was. Finally Pigeon came in and made a bee-line to the bathrooms as well.
I see Pigeon coming in but apparently I needed more hugs.
I stayed at this aid-station talking to Vans and the girls and few other friends for quite a bit. Pigeon had to say hi to Missouri and JCM and fuel as well.
My girls!
We were told it was raining at the finish and that the storm was moving our way. It was getting colder and darker for sure and the rain was spitting at a us a little bit, but not too bad. Pigeon and I left the aid-station together. She told me that I had killed that first section and I told her I was fueled by the demon in my head and the alien in my stomach. While I felt better, my tummy was definitely not having a good day and continued to be a worry for me the rest of the race.
Pigeon and I crossed the Salmon Falls bridge over to Sweetwater and back onto the trail. I entered the trail first and again some how pulled ahead. The next aid-station was 4.1 miles away. The trails of Sweetwater are well, pretty darn sweet. VERY runnable with a lot of rolling hills. I just was cruising again. On auto pilot basically, feeling strong and full of emotion. I came up behind a guy wearing a yellow racing jersey. I was so far in my head at this point that I pulled one of the biggest rookie moves ever when it comes to trail running. I followed the jersey instead of the ribbons. What happens when you do that? You go off course. Yup, I got lost. I was zoning and running hard and followed this guy and had a guy behind me follow me. When I heard the road I knew we had made a mistake. Both of the guys were in doubt and swore up and down that there were no ribbons. A hiker told us that yes we did miss a turn and we had to run back. The guys were in doubt. I was angry and told them, yes we missed a turn and just bolted ahead of them running my heart out to find the course again. I was probably a good 10 minutes ahead of Pigeon and when I finally found the course and saw the stream I was supposed to cross earlier (and about 100 ribbons mind you) I called out to her. She turned and looked so perplexed. “What are you doing behind me?”
The moment I realized I had made a wrong turn and basically ran a mile or so out of my way, I deflated. Every ounce of energy that I had, just let out like one big giant sigh. I was done. I was tired of fighting the demon in my head which was not allowing me to enjoy my day. I was tired of my stomach not settling itself no matter what I tried. Now I had to come to terms with the fact that I had run off course and added a mile to my day. Mentally I was done. I let Pigeon get in front and I just followed her legs up the trail. I was tired. I was beat. This was not the day I wanted and truly, I had no one to blame but myself 100%.
Pigeon carried me for a bit. I just needed to check out. We laughed about the fact that I got lost after Coach Nikon’s pre-race speech and I laughed that there really were about 100 ribbons indicating the turn that I had somehow missed. I couldn’t dwell on stuff. I had to let go. I was finally starting to let go of that demon, that pressure that I had put on myself from the start.
The next aid was at mile 16.9, more than halfway through the race. We saw Captain Kirk and Wonder Woman at this aid-station. Always great to see their smiling faces. Captain Kirk laughed that I had gotten lost. He knew the guy who had led me astray. 🙂
After the aid-station, the next one would be 6.9 miles away. The largest stretch between aid-stations of the race. Finally feeling like I had freed myself a bit from the pressure I had put myself under and from trying to control the things I could not control, I let go and tried to enjoy what was left of my race.
I spy …
Little did I know, that Vans would be my superhero. He knows these trails very well from mountain biking and he knew just where to go to find me.
I was running behind Pigeon when I heard her yell, “Hey!” I looked up and saw two smiling faces that just melted my heart and gave me a boost.
More trail hugs!
My girls were having quite the adventure on the trails all day and were always happy to come give me a hug when they saw me.
Pigeon even said they were giving her a boost too. Post race, I heard from quite a few runners that my two smiling angels actually gave a lot of runners a boost. I love my trail cheerleaders!
Vans was awesome as well. I told him I was not feeling 100% but that I was doing okay. I told him it wasn’t the day I had planned but it was still a great day.
Time to take off again.
One thing to note, besides being beautiful single track trails they were also poison oak infested trails! It was everywhere. I used to not be able to pick out poison oak, but these leaves were SO red that it was impossible not to see it.
Pigeon and I continued on. We’d play leap frog with a couple of runners. I was still feeling deflated and content to take up the caboose. My left knee was starting to bug me. We still had a long way to go too.
At one point as I was running behind Pigeon I saw some movement on the trail in front of her. TURKEYS! Three of them to be precise. Pigeon started running, clapping and yelling “gobble gobble gobble” and she scared those turkeys right off the trail for me. Thank goodness I wasn’t in the lead at this point as I might have completely freaked out. Thanks Pigeon!!
Exploring the trails
The male reproductive organs do not affected the way female reproductive organs are affected by external changes. davidfraymusic.com viagra price canada Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can also be performed to detect sildenafil online no prescription virus specific antibodies and antigens. It is packed with sildenafil citrate, pill viagra for sale davidfraymusic.com which is a PDE-5 (Phosphodiesterase sort 5) inhibitor. Some men may already be taking medicines that interact with cialis pills online http://davidfraymusic.com/2019/03/ It is extremely important for you to know that this medicine may interact with other medicines.
I was trying to fuel the best I could despite the alien in my tummy starting to wake up again. It was always there but it was starting to get antsy again and I was trying to ignore it.
Trail running littles!
For fuel I had brought a ton of options with me. I had two baggies with salted potatoes. I had my favorite Picky Bars broken in to pieces. I had salted plantain chips and I had ProBar Bolts just in case. I also had (somewhere in my pack) chocolate covered espresso beans which I never even touched.
Ribbon stealers?
These next few miles were rollers again and Pigeon was pushing the pace a bit. I didn’t mind. It felt good to mentally check out and let someone else dictate what I had to do. Again, I heard her yell “Hey there!”
My people!
More hugs, hellos and another boost of energy for my heart and brain. These smiling faces brought so much happiness to me it made me realize that I needed to let go of what I had battled so much on the first half the race.
Bye Bye Mommy!
I knew that Pigeon and I were approaching Spanish House which is a section that I have run many times. I wasn’t quite sure where the next aid-station was, and without my garmin I had no idea where we were mileage wise.
Future trail runner?
I was starting to feel the burn though. The eagerness to be done. To be at the finish line and not out on the trails. I don’t have that feeling often, but I had it a few times during this last stretch.
Finally we were approaching Fitch Ct. aid-station (mile 24). I heard “Hey Pam!!!” and I looked up and saw Seth from The Ranch Athletics waiting for me with a smile and a hug. Another stellar aid-station. I saw Patrick who I used to workout with all the time. Everyone was eager to help me and asked me what I needed. I admit, I was some what out of it here though. I was trying to ascertain what I wanted to do. Up until this point, I had not touched one item at any aid-station. I ate what I brought with me. Here, I looked at the table. I was done with my food. Then, I saw them. Off on the corner of the table, in a bowl were PayDay bars. PayDay bars is what I used to fuel during my first ever 50 miler. I am not a candy bar person but there is something about those PayDay bars that just spoke to me and so I grabbed a couple.
Pigeon and I left eating and hiking at the same time. There was not a lot of space at that aid-station and it seemed a lot of runners had stopped there. Feeling a bit claustrophobic, I told Pigeon I needed to move. She was fine with that.
I turned to her and said, “So we only have one more aid-station to go right?” And she said, “No we have two more.” My head said no way. I told her I wasn’t too sure about that but she was adamant that we had two more aid-stations. Hmmm, okay.
My left knee was screaming at me so somewhere in here I took two advil. It seems I end up having to do this more and more near the end of races to ward off the knee pain from getting worse. Except this time, it made my left knee pain completely disappear but caused some screaming intense pain in my right knee and lower back. I guess for 24 miles I had been compensating for my left knee which only aggravated my right? Who knows, but it was a slow pain that just kept getting worse and worse as the miles wore on.
Finally, we approached the marina and Browns Ravine. I knew that there had to be an aid-station here. Some how, I had a spark of energy and was ahead of Pigeon again only I didn’t realize it. As I entered the aid-station, I heard “Good job runner!” Runner? Singular? It made me turn around to see where the heck Pigeon was. I really thought she was right behind me.
I arrived at the aid-station and Annabella was there with a HUGE smile on her face! I asked her, “Is this the last aid-station?” She said, “Yup! Only 3.47 to the finish and you are done!” WHAT??!! Seriously!?
At this point, Pigeon came running in and was grabbing some coke and some pretzels. I said, “Hey this is it!” and she goes, “Yeah only 3.47 to the next aid-station,” and I said, “NO! 3.47 to the FINISH!” Again, she didn’t believe me, it took the volunteers AND the fact that there was a sign taped to the table that said, “3.47 to FINISH” for her to finally get it. Boy, did we laugh about that one. Pigeon laughed hard and apologized profusely. It was funny.
We were now on the section that is basically the start of the American River 50 Mile race. This section I know like the back of my hand but funny enough, I have never ever been on this section with tired legs. This is only a few miles from my house so when I run it, I haven’t run far. Running on this section with 28 miles already on your legs makes it feel like a completely different trail. Tiny little rollers that I normally run up seemed like mountains to me. Yet we knew the finish was near. We could smell it.
Finally we could see the levee that we’d have to run over and we could HEAR the finish line. We could hear Coach Nikon’s voice over the loud speaker. We were almost there.
As we were coming down off the trail and onto the levee, Pigeon yells from behind me, “Is that TiggerT?” And sure enough, sitting perched on the levee like a shining light was TiggerT! What a sight for sore eyes. She smiled and congratulated us. Pigeon and I guilted her into walking the mile to the finish to come hang out with us. 🙂
Hanging out at the finish line waiting….
The levee we had to run was probably the longest mile of my life. You could see the finish. You could see runners before you finishing but yet the distance on the levee didn’t seem to change. No matter how many steps we took, it didn’t seem to get any closer!
Just waiting ….
Finally, I was off the levee. We had to climb a couple of rollers but I saw that finish line. I saw my girls waiting and all of a sudden I was over come with joy, exhaustion and a desire to just get it done. Pigeon wasn’t far behind me.
I started to run harder. Pigeon and I have a history of sprint finishes at all of our races that we finish together. It is all in good fun. I was slightly concerned my girls were going to jump out onto the trail and run with me, which is fine (sometimes) but I really just wanted to run and be done.
Coach Nikon was on the microphone. I could hear him laughing and announcing that I was coming in and that my running partner wasn’t too far behind me. Would there be a race to the finish?
I knew Pigeon was behind me but I also knew I had a few steps ahead of her. Still, I wasn’t sure if she’d try and pull a sneak attack on me.
One of my favorite race pics!
I crossed the first mat not realizing there was a second mat that I had to cross. Coach Nikon started yelling something and I had a feeling that Pigeon was trying to catch up and pass. 🙂
I finished one full second ahead of her. She was trying to pull a finish shoot sneak attack but when you have Coach Nikon calling the play by play over the loud speaker, that’s a little hard to do. 🙂
We did it! We were done!! What a long day full of so many lessons for me. I was happy to be done and happy to have so many awesome faces at the finish.
Coach Nikon telling us about the day from his end.Me very animatedly telling Coach Nikon how I got lost and how it totally was my fault.Post race chat with Tri-Girl and Pigeon
The minute I finished my lower back pretty much seized up. Whatever had been going on with it held off until I had crossed the finish line (thankfully).
Now that we were done, it was time to try and remove the poison oak that was covering our bodies, change and relax.
TiggerT came after all and enjoyed in some awesome post race views and laughsMy monkeys just climbed trees and had a blast playing around
So many good things happened during this race too. The volunteers were spectacular. The course was amazing. It is such a runnable course that it is deceiving because you spend very little time hiking the way you would do if you were running in Auburn. Here, you can run so you find yourself running a lot more miles than you hike which in the end, really adds a lot to your tired legs.
Missouri made an awesome sign for Pigeon and I. She had it at Skunk Hollow but we didn’t get a photo of it until after the race.
Vans was the best. His support and efforts to get himself and the girls all over the course was truly the lift I needed to get out of my head and back into the fact that I run to have fun. I run to enjoy the day, the trails and my friends. Thank you Vans for being the best trail husband ever. I love you.
Pigeon was pillar of support out there. She constantly was telling me how strong I looked and how smart I was running despite the fact that I didn’t feel smart or strong some of the time. She ran a great race herself. She executed it exactly the way I think she wanted. She ran steady the whole time. She struggled I think with the fact that her legs ran more miles than she is really used to running (compared to hiking massive climbs in Auburn and Tahoe) but she handled it well and had juice in the tank when she needed it. Her spirits were up too. If she had down moments, I hardly knew about them (unless she had them when I was off having my crazy moments ahead haha).
Many thanks to all my awesome trail friends and to Missouri, TiggerT and Coach Nikon. It was a great inaugural race and I know that many other runners were super happy with the course, the race and the volunteers. Like I said, Coach Nikon’s events are well organized and always a blast.
We did it Pigeon!
Now I rest. I plan to take a couple of days to figure out what is going with my back. I am not sore other than the low back pain today. I feel well. My quads are not sore, my legs feel like they could go for a run but my back is stiff and tight. I plan to take a couple of days off maybe to rest and stretch. Next weekend is the Way Too Cool 50k race and I plan to be out there supporting Stonegate through her first 50k finish.
And of course, in typical Trailmomma fashion, I have other things up my sleeve so stay tuned for more. Oh and if you made it through this entire blog post, you need a medal! Wow, talk about a long winded report! 🙂 I also have not proof read this (duh, it’s way too long haha) so please excuse the typos .. eventually I will fix them.
