Run Like a Turkey 50K

Yep, that's right - a 50K.  I had made the suggestion that we sign up for this race.  It is the first ultramarathon for Toledo, and it's just right down the road from our house.  Granted it was only 3 weeks after the Columbus marathon, but I figured we would be all healed up by the time it arrived.  I was mostly correct - except both Alan and I had done very little running since Columbus to avoid injury and to heal up a little more.  I am still having a pain in my glute and he is battling plantar fasciitis.  

Which brings us to the day.. the BIG day... the 50K.  The thought of running 31 miles would have been unheard of for me a few years ago, or maybe even last year, but I was feeling adventurous this year and wanted to end the running season on a high note.   

Our race was limited to only 62 people.  Here are the lucky few at the start of the race.  As you can see, the weather was ideal - 48 degrees at the start.  We set our watches for a pace of 10:30, which would get is in around 5 1/2 hours.  Sounded very do-able.

 Here we are leading the pack!  haha, ok, here we are, but certainly not in the front of any large number of people.  I seemed to be the 10:30 pace group for quite a while, but eventually we thinned out to the point that we could not see any runner in front of us, or even behind us.

 Most of the course looked like this - just a few flags pointing out the correct course, but most of it covered completely in leaves.  Although it made it quite serene, it also made it impossible for you to take your eyes off the ground for any amount of time for fear of running into something like a tree root.

 Speaking of tree roots, both Alan and I took 3 falls each, which ended up being total face plants due to those hidden dangers.  The second fall made me start crying - not so much because it hurt, but because I was so darn frustrated and tired.  Not good since that was only around mile 12.  I had those three falls between the miles of 8 and 13 miles.
Here is one of the aid stations.  Those were really nicely stocked - with oranges, water, gatorade, GU gels, and most importantly, clean Porta-potties!!  Trail running was quite different from road races because people actually stopped at the aid stations and hung around for a few minutes without worries.

Here are some shots of Alan and I going into the half way loop of the trail.  We finished half (15 1/2 miles) in 2:44.  Not too shabby!

I think it was a bit after the half way mark when things started going downhill.  My glute started feeling like it was on fire.  Ouch!  Some walking was needed.  After many more miles, the ache in my glute was actually starting to go numb, and my knees started causing a lot of pain.  Lots more walking was needed.  I even started walking downhill backwards to avoid pain in my knees.

Here is a shot of the trail.  Less leaves, but more ruts in the ground. 

Cool looking wasteland portion of the race course. 

 After 3 1/2 hours it was obvious we were not going to hit that 5:30 finish time.  In fact, the 6 hour finish time slipped away too!  Oh well, we were doing the best we could do (actually Alan could have been running faster, but I was giving it my best!).
FINALLY, we approached the finish line.  Didn't seem like that was ever going to happen!  Our finish time was 6:25.  We weren't the first ones in, but we certainly weren't the last ones either.

This is a funny turkey sign they had at the finish line.  Outside of a chipmunk, butterfly, and bug in my eye, we didn't see any wildlife!  Well, really there could have been dancing elephants in the woods, but I didn't dare stop staring at the ground for fear of falling again!!

We got these cool finisher medals.  The yellow arrow looks just like the trail markers. 

The winners of the race got these shiny platters.  It was nice because even though we were so far behind the winners (3:45), there were still people hanging out at the end, cooking burgers and chatting.  We made some new friends, enjoying some beers and scarfed down some delicious cookies.

Ahhhh, a cold celebratory beer!  So happy to be done. And still able to walk!  :)  So glad Alan was there with me for this race.  Without him I probably would have called it quits at the 20 mile aid station!!