Sunday, November 13, 2022

Going All In - Barrier Island Ultra 50k Race Report

 

“Adversity is our teacher.  When we view adversity as a guide towards greater inner growth, we will then learn to accept the wisdom our soul came into this life to learn.”  ~Barbara Rose

 

“Father Time catches up to us all.”  En route to my swim event several weeks ago, I stopped in for my annual hip check-up.  Every year it alternates between seeing either my surgeon or PA, this year it was my PA passing on those words of wisdom.  Both know that I run on my replacement, and in fact when I was shopping for surgeons back in 2015 for this surgery, my now surgeon told me the new joint would absolutely hold for running purposes, we just didn’t know what the life of the new hip would look like, there just wasn’t enough data out there to tell us such things.  Two years ago the left hip started going, labral tears and the like.  PRP injection helped to calm things down, and a couple of years later it’s still rocking and rolling.  But I also know I am on a clock, that my run days will one day be behind me.  But that day is not today.  And as I reflected on those words of wisdom from my PA, it has occurred to me (and intuitively always knew but drives the point home so much deeper post hip) that indeed, Father Time will catch up to us all, in all kinds of different arenas.  Bionic body parts seem like small potatoes in the grand scheme of things that Time will expose us to.  There’s a spectrum, and I imagine we all will find ourselves somewhere along that range throughout our lives.  Not just the havoc Time will have on our bodies, but all that we will experience will give us perspective and wisdom unlike anything we could have imagined when we look back at our younger selves over the decades.  Personally, I have always tried to glean all of the lessons that I could from my athletic endeavors, from my coaching and teaching experiences, from all that Life threw at me.  The past decade taught me so much, and then some more.  The insight I gained into myself, the wisdom I gained about the importance of story, let’s just say God gave me a new set of eyes.  Time is very much a commodity that we do not have enough of, so what we do with the time that we do have matters.  Go all in.  On yourself, in your endeavors, your relationships.  Don’t go halfsies.  Halfway is bullshit.  When you go after a goal, pursue a passion, search for your tribe – don’t put yourself in a box, don’t be less intense, less passionate, less, less, less.  Be more.  More of it all.  Go ALL in.

 

Most struggle with the going all in, so many activities, so much to get done, so little time.  It’s also hard to go all in for ourselves when we feel like others may not be in our corner, whether it’s colleagues, friends, family – maybe we sometimes hesitate because we are placating others without even realizing it – doing what they want to do, chasing their dreams, but at the expense of our own.  So I think going all in means going all in on all of these things, not necessarily just in chasing a goal, but going all in on ourselves, of being of who we are.  To not to put ourselves in a box for others, to not stifle that energy, intensity, authenticity.  We are always gleaning lessons from our experiences, we should never hesitate to go all in to learn as much as we can.  That goal/endeavor/dream means so much more because of the whole process of what you put in.  And that process is often HARD, and it is tempting to sometimes go halfsies along the way, but don’t do it.  The hard is what makes it great, anything worth anything in life is hard.  Marriage is hard, parenting is hard, coaching and teaching (professions I’ve been in for decades now) are hard.  And people don’t like to talk about the hard, what it means to go all in, we protect ourselves.  But to acknowledge the hard, and go all in – that is so fulfilling, life changing.  Pursuing those goals/dreams that are close to your heart, and knowing what your non-negotiables are.  Family time is my number one so everything works around that.  I make no apologies.  That means I am picky with my race schedule, I do what works best for me and my crew.  But I still put those goals out there and chase them with everything I got.  I have always LOVED the process of chasing goals, of putting in the work.  I could not be happier with my fall block of training – getting ready for the three day swimfest, coupled with getting ready for the 50k, with munchkin’s gymnastics comp meets in there, school kiddos’ cross country meet schedule in there, and all the busyness that comes with the school fall schedule.  I always perform at my best when I have so many things happening at one time, and this fall was no exception.  As I chased down my goals in my 50k last weekend, I was the most proud of that, of the whole process in its entirety that went into preparing for this beast.  That’s what I celebrated out there last Saturday, giving it all I had during the process so that I could just relish the experience on race day.

 

We lucked out with a small cool front that morning, and it stayed overcast most of the run for me, weather in the 60s and much less humid than it had been.  Even by Sunday the humidity was back, and my hubs joked if I would have rather had the humidity or the big winds that we ended up having and I did not hesitate to say the big winds, hahaha!  The 50k was 2 loops of 15.5 miles, 4 times through 7.75 miles with aid stations at the start/finish, and the 1.5 mile mark, and the 6.65 mile mark.  It would have been nice to have had one in between the 1.5 and 6.65 mile mark, that stretch got kind of lonely, but it is what it is.  I had my hydration pack with me with pretty much everything that I needed, I wasn’t planning on stopping much at the aid stations if I could help it.  Actually my pack was fairly heavy to start, 2 L of water in the pack, a couple of 16 oz bottles, tons of gels and skratch chews, I was all set!  The first 7.75 was fairly uneventful, we started at 7 am so it was still a little dark out, but got light quickly.  We had a small tailwind to start which would become stronger throughout that first stretch, it wouldn’t take it long to pick up.  There would be a small craft advisory due to the wind, it blew constantly at about 20 knots, gusts of up to 25 knots, it was pretty gnarly on those return trips with the headwind.  My goal was about 6 hours, I was hoping to get under 6, but realistically looking at 6 as the mark to shoot for.  I was trying to stay as relaxed as I could on that first 15.5 miles like I had discussed with my coach, but that 2nd segment of 7.75 miles into the headwind made it a bit harder to stay relaxed.  I pushed a bit to hold my pace, and even with the extra push my pace slowed.  At about 13 miles I had to stop quickly and pull the aquaphor out of my bag to apply it on my lower back where the hydration pack was chafing me.  It burned really bad early on, I knew it was going to get worse throughout the day.  I had applied aquaphor everywhere before the race but forgot about that spot. No good.  After applying I jumped right back onto the pace, and soon was at the turnaround point, just one more 15.5 mile loop to go!  I stopped quickly at the aid station there to refill my bottle with electrolytes (I had gone through both bottles of electrolytes on the first loop).  I got going again slowly, and tried my best to get back on pace.  At the 1.5 mile aid station I stopped again quickly to put more aquaphor on and put one of my empty bottles in the pack.  The next 5 miles dragged on a bit, I was doing a great job of continuous running, and that was another big goal, to be able to run the entire thing with limited walking.  I did do a 50k in 2018 in Bastrop, but much more walking/hiking happened at that one, and I wanted to see what it would be like to run as much of the 50k as possible.  I finally made it to the 6.65 mile aid station, and I spent a moment there collecting myself, refueling my bottle with electrolytes.  Finally made the trek to the 7.75 mi turnaround point, there was a bit of brief walking on this short stretch, but overall I kept it to a slow shuffle jog.  When I turned around and the wind pummeled me is when things slowed down the most.  Super slow shuffle jog/quick walk breaks back to the aid station at 6.65 mi, where I spent the most time at it for the last time, topping off my electrolytes, and getting a coke.  I drank about half of the coke, then I was ready to get to the final stretch.  Those couple miles after the aid station were the toughest, I could see I was not going to make my goal of 6 hours, and I was not going to make my goal of setting a marathon PR in my 50k.  Yes, a bit ambitious to set that one during a 50k that is entirely on sand, but I thought it was possible, and it really was until about mile 23.  My PR is 4:37 from the Austin Marathon back in 2004, and the fact that I was knocking on the door of that for most of this race gave me so much joy.  I cried at mile 25, when I get overwhelmed with emotion it’s what I do, and those tears were for the disappointment of not reaching that goal, but also for the excitement of being so close, and the realization that I would shatter my previous 50k PR if I kept moving forward.  Euphoric is the best word to describe that moment.  I called my crew and at mile 27 I gave up my hydration pack to the fam, I needed the last 4 miles to be pack free.  I took my electrolyte bottle and my phone and that was it.  For those last 4 miles I ran 3-4 minutes solid and alternated it with a 30 second easy walk.  Forward momentum was the name of the game.  At the 1.5 mi aid station I quickly stopped to put water in my bottle (I had run out of my electrolyte fluid just then), and pushed on to the finish.  As I got closer to the finish, I saw all of these kites, and inflatable crabs, and I mistook them for finish line hoopla so I got super stoked, then was so bummed to see it was not actually the finish line! Noooooo!  My finish run quickly deflated to a walk.  Then I caught sight of the actual finish line and started back up again.  My quads were on fire, but kept pushing all the way to that finish chute!  I almost tripped and rolled an ankle right before finishing but luckily caught myself, lol!  I was so elated as I crossed that finish line, quickly greeted by my cheer crew!  What a day!!!!!!

Previous 50k – 9:28, New PR – 6:31:21!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I could not be more proud of “going all in” on all of the things this fall.  So grateful to Coach Hillary for getting me ready to race both the swim stage race and this 50k race amidst my crazy fall schedule!  The experience at my 50k race was made even more fulfilling by the entire process that went into preparing for it.  I LOVED that crazy process this fall so much!!!!  I put in more mileage than I had in years, and come race day shattered my old PR, and even came close to breaking an old marathon PR!  So, never hesitate to go all in, to chase those goals/dreams that bring you the most joy, to soak up the entire process of pursuing those endeavors that mean the most to you.  You won’t get this day/month/year back.  Father Time really will catch up to us all.  Show up and “go all in” in all arenas in your life.  It will be hard, but it will be worth it – just go for it.  I thought this season was over for me after the 50k, but I’m not quite done yet.  Got the marathon PR on my radar and I’m all in.  Houston marathon here I come.  Let’s goooooooooooooo!!!!











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