The Pace of Futility

I was looking for a spring 50K to lead up to Sulphur 50 mile, and none of the local races sounded appealing. I saw that coach Heather had signed up for Palmer's Pond, I commented on her FB post, she said I should come, and the RD also commented, saying there were only 2 spots left. Couldn't beat the price (FREE!) so I signed up too.

Heather said she'd drive to the race. Since she is so much faster than me, I was concerned about her having to wait ages for me, but she said she didn't mind.

The course directions in the pre-race email was super confusing, but made a lot more sense in person. There were 2 "5ish" mile loops in a figure 8 formation that we'd run 3 times, once in each direction, and the final loop was runner's choice, with the start/finish/AS at the centre junction. We were warned that the course was muddy. Shrug. It's early spring, it would be stranger to have no mud.

You want mud? YOU GOT MUD!!!!

The vast majority of the loop was deep mud and water and the small parts I considered runnable were somewhat rooty, although the course was NOT technical by any means. 

Magical pine forest, in the morning fog.

The first loop, although muddy, was actually the easiest, but I didn't realize this until having done both loops in both directions. We were told that during the second loop we'd pass through a section marked Trail Closed, but that we had permission to pass through the land, just follow the round yellow markers.

"Just follow the yellow markers", he said.

 The closed section started out on marshy grass which was sort of nice, because at least it wasn't mud, but then there was no trail. And where there is no trail, THERE ARE BRAMBLES.

It would be generous to say that I was running 10% of the time, but most other people weren't doing much better. Everyone I saw, with the exception of the leaders (including Heather) was walking.

I saw Heather for the final time when she was on her 5th loop (I was on my 3rd). The cutoff was 10 hours to start the 5th loop, which I could easily achieve, but would mean that Heather would be waiting several hours for me. I could not do that to her. I was so totally over the mud slogging and I did ask if she would consider pacing me for the 5th loop, she thought about it for about 2 seconds and said "I don't think so." Surprisingly, my pace, although ridiculously slow was fairly even and above what I consider my ultimate pace of futility, the 25K in 6 hours in Nova Scotia.

It is tradition to yank on the PP's.

I still got in 35.9K, the longest run of 2019 so far, both by distance and time on feet. I could not bring myself to get an even 36K. Still on track for Sulphur 50 mile though!