I had a very strong training block leading up to the race. No major injuries or illness except for my glute, which continues be relatively under control as it bothers me only at night. I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes in March, which led to me overhauling my eating habits and consulting a registered dietitian to help me figure out race fueling.
The first 2 loops were fantastic, I ran them faster than the relay in 2022. The first loop was dry and the second was only light drizzle. I decided to stop dreading the parts of the loop that I hated and instead focus on the parts that I did like that were coming up.
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| happy, dry, and clean |
I ran most of loop 2 with Lorraine, which made time go by very quickly.
The dietitian had suggested that I eat 60g of carbs per hour, but I stupidly didn't carry food with me on loop 2, only eating small handfuls of food from the aid station, and I was thinking of baaaaaaacon and feeling pretty hungry during the last hour of that loop.
Loop 3 was run with Delano. I was scarfing down Portuguese egg tarts like there was no tomorrow, but I think I had already dug myself into a bit of a hole nutritionally. It was still raining and there were large puddles on the trail, so I did not think it was worth it to change my socks. They were still comfortable, just wet.
G Donald, as always, was the worst part of the course, in terms of both mud and general difficulty. It was starting to draw comparisons to the absolute mud hellhole of 2019. I was wearing toe condoms on my big toes only, having mainly blistered there previously. A sock and shirt change at the end of loop 3 was a big mental boost. Thanks to Liz for changing my socks, refiling my bladder, and grabbing my poles!
The weather finally started to clear up by loop 4, it was a beautiful golden hour.
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| 📷 Agnes |
But I was having trouble mentally running even the downhills, and I was starting to feel hot spots on the smaller toes. I made the right decision to start out with the Xodus Ultra shoes, which had bigger lugs and more cushion than the UVPros. I thought the narrower toe box was possibly the cause of the blisters, so after loop 4, I went for the shoe change. There were some really nasty blisters on my middle and 4th toes. Eileen gingerly cleaned them with an alcohol wipe while I screamed bloody murder.
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| foot first aid 📷 Eileen |
My dreams of a giant PB slipped away during the very slow fourth loop and slow turnaround. There were times when I wanted to quit after 50 miles, but the thought of finishing, when so many had dropped that day kept me going.
Into the dark night with Josh for the final loop. I was several hours slower than expected, but kept plodding onward. I'll be honest, at this point I was 100% sure I was DFL and was looking forward to winning the Red Lantern. We met Wenna on the final lollipop and in my delirium, offered to pole fight her for last place, which she refused. Amazingly, neither of us were actually DFL!
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| 📷Josh |
As the sun rose over the horizon, I made my way up Martin Road for the last time. I find it amusing how I'm magically able to run again once I make the turn into the parking lot.
Unlike after my previous Sulphur 100K finish in 2017, when I promptly swore I'd never do this again and took a year to get over, I gotta do this again and then some in two short months at Tally 24 hour.
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