[Nick's Trail Adventures] First 50k

[Trailrunner]

Beep! Beep! Beep! Went my alarm clock at 4:30am, I hurried and shut it off and got out of my bed. I was very nervous that morning so I hurried and got dressed in my gear and headed down stairs to find my mom sitting at the counter. I had an insure shake and a bar and then I settled down to wait for my friend Meghan to arrive at our house. That moment came too soon, but I quickly got into the car and we headed out in the blizzard to pick our fellow friends who would be running it with us. Soon everyone was I the car and we were heading down the canyon to Antelope Island in Salt lake City, Utah. Going down the canyon was a nightmare because the weather was so bad, we could barely see so we had to go slower than we usually would. Once into Salt Lake it started to clear up little just enough for us to see a little better. The drive to the exit took forever but once there the drive was only 20 more minutes. Deciding that the lines for the port-a-potties at the race would be full of people we decided to stop by the local Smiths to have our last chance for comfort and warmth. At the gate house we took a left and picked up our bibs and were rewarded with an awesome Tech Tee, a snow scrapper, a flashing light, some candy, and of course our bibs! We headed through that gate house and began our journey across the remains of the once grand lake Bonneville. Along the road we saw a bunny and my favorite thing ever an Owl, this boosted my spirits and kept my mind of the race. Once at the start we sat in the car fussing with gear and making many trips to the freezing cold port-a-potty. Pretty soon it was 5 minutes from the start so we ran to the warming tent to hear the rules of the race. After being filled with knowledge about the race we lined up and waited for the race director to say start. The gun blasted and I said “Oh crap! What are we doing!” but it was too late to turn back so I pushed through that anxiety and started running. It was freezing cold as we started out and I was glad that I was bundled up in all my winter gear. Making our way up the first hill was difficult because I had not yet warmed up and to start on a hill was kinda tough but I pushed through it and made it to the top where I was greeted by some buffalo. Good thing I had my mom and Meghan to help me get through the first miles because already I was feeling discouraged about having to run 31miles. After some gear errors and some adjusting I set in at a pace and made it to the first aid station where I grabbed some cheezits and a few pretzels. But that stop was short lived because soon we were running again trying to run for aid station to aid station. The next aid station was 3 miles away and to get there you had to go down a long downhill followed by a short uphill were we saw a fox flying through the grass. Once topping the hill we saw that the next aid station was a just a little bit further. We greeted the people at aid station and grabbed some food and prepared for the next aid station at mile 15 or about another 7 or 8 miles. In my head I thought it would be a breeze to get there but boy was I wrong, the next few miles took us forever. It started out with a long uphill followed by a downhill which lead us onto a sandy/rocky beach, this was hard to run in but it was okay we had a great view of the lake. The sandy beach turned in a long uphill which took forever to get up, it seemed like it was close to a mile of uphill but it probably was only a half mile but it seemed forever to me. At the top of the hill my mom looked at her gps and it only said 10 miles and I said “What! Are you kidding me!” But she wasn’t so we trudged along until we saw the aid station and we were a bit confused, because it was supposed to be at 15 miles and our gps said different. So when we got to the aid station we asked what mile it was and we found out that it was actually 15miles and with that said I felt much better. I went into the tent and had a cup of broth/ramen/potato soap which really helped boost my spirits and give me some fuel too. The next miles took forever and I really started hurting and I started getting really discouraged. But with the encouragement of Meghan and my mom I made it to the bottom of the hill where I started walking for a bit. But that was short lived because it was time to run again and I had to make my way across a muddy field with tall grass on either side. I really started feeling the pain and it made it really hard to continue but I pushed onto the next checkpoint which was about 3miles away from the next aid station and after that they said it was about 4 after that. That didn’t seem right so I didn’t question it and began trudging along at my sow pace. The next 3 miles took forever and that’s when I really started feeling crappy, I was really sore at this point and was getting really tired, but I couldn’t stop so I continued on. But at the next aid station they said it wasn’t 4 miles but it was actually 7 more grueling miles. I will spare you the complaining I was doing the next 7 miles and skip to the part where I had 1 mile to go and I felt really good so I tried to power up the next hill and once at the top I got an awful feeling of nausea. But with some encouragement I waddled along until I saw the finish line, I felt so happy that I started sprinting an when I got there I was handed an mug and was congratulated by all my friends and my dad who drove all the way down from work to see me finish! I was overjoyed and I started to eat everything I could see, I began with a cup of broth and ramen, 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwich squares, a handful of chezits, a cup of sprite, 5 small powdered doughnuts and of course some hot cider in my mug! But I still felt really sick so I decided before anything happened that I would stop eating and head to the car.  After a celebratory picture we all headed home family all packed into the car with friend galore. With a 50k under my belt I feel asleep in the car and dreamed the race and all my friends and family and how thankful I was that they were all there! Thanks you so much mom and day for supporting my dream and thank you Gemma, Meghan, and Amy for encouraging me to run my heart out!  

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Posted By Trailrunner to Nick's Trail Adventures at 11/15/2011 08:11:00 PM