And, like that, poof, we are in the United States. I am very good at sleeping on planes, in cars (and have a husband who allows me to do this) so it really does feel like "poof" to me.
I have been fighting this trip tooth and nail because I am so behind on my PhD work, but I made a promise to SR we would do this and what am I if I can not keep promises? And when I take a step back and look at the big picture, there perhaps is nothing more important than solidarity of the family.
Back to the town I grew up in. In the early 80's it really was all farm lands and prairies. These days, prairie reserves like Nashota Park are among the few remaining holy places for the soul, and the rest is highways, Applebee Country and urban sprawl.
I could have spent all day running with SR here. But as a mom, those days of "all day doing what you want" are so preciously few if they even ever really do exist. Nothing to do but soak up the moments. And perhaps teach your kids to love what you love :o).
6:30 AM Nashota Park, WI
Yesterday morning, back in Denmark, there was a problem with the delivery of some Salomon things I had hoped to use at Superior Sawtooth 50 miler next Saturday. No big deal, right? Well, Kim S. from Salomon thought this was a big deal, so he drove from the Salomon headquarters out to SR's parents' house to deliver my things personally, plus included a bunch of extra goodies.
I don't like bragging. I don't like materialism. Rather, I admire people who respect and are grateful for what they have. The Salomon vest I just received is going to change the way I run ultras. I am so happy that someone out there had that "aha" moment and realized it would be more comfortable to carry liquid on the chest rather than the back. It absolutely is. 500 mL of fluid on each side in soft bottles that don't slosh and you don't even notice they are there. Plus lots of options for carrying food and necessities on the side and the back. A vest like this does not happen by accident.
I have considered carrying more than this 1 L of fluid for the Crosby-Manitou 9.4 mile wildly technical section at Superior. Anyone who has run this before have thoughts on that?
This is the view from the pier at my parents' house. After our run, I swam North Lake Minor (2.5km) while SR, my dad and the boys were out boating. I don't know, I wonder if I'll ever become a fan of swimming over lots of large fish that look hungry for toes. This deep lake (25 meters) makes for good fishing and troves of seaweed that like to envelop unsuspecting swimmers.
North Lake, WI, 8:00 AM
Saying good-bye to Næstved and Denmark is always hard, always makes me cry, even if it is just for a month.
Næstved Harbor, 17:00
Christian (left) with other blondies.
The wonderful ophthalmology nurses who have helped so much with my PhD.
Storstrømsbro to Vordingborg
The couple of weeks before I left were so busy with work and, you know, baking cakes with Christian.
But I need to thank Kim from Salomon, Søren from Næstved Rygcenter for seriously fixing my right hip with a combination of chiropractic and active release therapy, Lone for her massage therapy and my coach Ole for daring to make fun of how I run 800 meters and continually helping me learn to run correctly.
There is always so much more to say, but why not just leave it at this for now?
Running Songs of the Day:
Pass This On by The Knife
And an old favorite "Hjem til Aarhus" by På Slaget 12
Pia Joan Sørensen and Maibritt Skovgaard at Winforce 100km 2013. Photo by Martin Paldan
This weekend was the inaugural Winforce 100km trail race. The face of ultra running in Denmark is changing, with now two popular ultra trail races: Salomon Hammer Trail 100 mile, 50 mile and 50k and Winforce 100km.
As the leaders went out on their 4th and final 25 k loop, the crowd (including myself as race physician) was wondering, hoping (even though we love Per Egon) that Maibritt would win. Indeed it was close and Maibritt in her first trail 100k was only around 20 minutes behind Per Egon Rasmussen, taking second place overall!! (seriously, it was awesome to witness) And the talk began--- are women just made to run ultras? Granted there were only two women (pictured above) among the 38 starters. So one could say, only the super tough chickas were racing (it should be noted that Pia Joan Sørensen dropped with plantar fasciitis at 50k and we can only speculate over the possibility of her winning outright).
Then we got home and at a family party, the subject was broached again--- "but women ARE just better at ultras". Being the anal statistician that I can be, I looked into it. And the percent difference between men and women (mostly by world records) is as follows (bear in mind, I did these calculations in my head not wanting to use a huge amount of time, so yeah, if I am 0.1 or 0.2% off I apologize--- I'm busy).
Percent difference between male and female world record finish times by distance
(female time-male time)/average of the two
100 mile 17.7% (taken from 2013 Western States as I couldn't find the female WR)
24 hour 20.0%
100 k:5.0%
50 k 29.5%
42.2 k9.3%
21.1k11.6%
1000m11.7%
5000m11.9%
1000m12.8%
400m 9.7%
200m10.6%
Interesting, isn't it? It actually appears that men are better and better the longer the race is. Of course, if we look at the AVERAGE man vs. the average woman, the numbers might change, but I am not sure. I kept feeling as I was doing the calculations that there is a gravitation towards that 11% difference and maybe as more ultras are run and more women run them, the 11% will also become the rule of ultra distances.
SR also raced and his very humorous, humble report is here. This photo shows one of the many tough aspects of the course. It was after 50k here and he was reportedly feeling great. Photo by Martin Paldan.
Unfortunately, SR dropped out after 75km with severe nausea. Of note, nausea is the top listed reason for dropping out of ultras, I learned during my stint at Western States. How to prevent it is a hotly researched topic; one study at Javelina has pointed to the importance of a lower carbohydrate diet while racing. The study might be too biased to trust, though. Pam Smith raced Western States with Zofran in case she developed nausea but didn't. SR is asking me to write prescriptions for Zofran and have them along in my doctor bag. I have mixed feelings about this since it might simply cover up the symptoms of hyponatremia and put runners' lives a risk.
My thoughts about getting SR to finish involve simply going slower. He ran through 75km well under 8 hours on a very hard course, which was a relative PR for him at this distance-- and then he was supposed to run 25k more... Running ultras is really about finding that perfect balance between speed and endurance (and believing it is of utmost importance that you finish (yes, it is crazy, but we don't allow ourselves to think this while we are out there, right?). Usually women lack speed and men lack endurance, in my experience (Piccola Pine Cone and Chris Scotch notable exceptions), and if you want to improve, you need to train at what you lack. I have started coaching two women and speed work, fun speed work, is the first thing we are focusing on.
And what about my right hip/new bone?
Pacing SR the first 25 k at Winforce 100k. I had always wanted to try racing with my hair down :0). We had fun.
I went to our tri-club friend, Søren, who is an osteopath (the equivalent honestly does not exist in the US) and he did a very good job of convincing me that the problem was not the knot turned to bone in my calf, but my right hip. Basically the acetabulum in my right hip is inflamed and the ligaments around my hip very loose. When he heard I practiced yoga, he was very clear to state it was making my hip worse. Turns out I am hypermobile (OK I knew that and it is one of the reasons I love yoga, because I am naturally "good" at it) and I have loosed my right hip to such an extent that my hip strength can't hold the dang hip in place while I run and this causes pain and inflammation.
So I have a hip strengthening exercise to do for the next week and then he says he will loosen up the L3-L4 region of my left back and I should be on track again. If not, ultrasound-guided steroid injection into the acetabular space is what he recommends.
Last night, Andreas and I held a Salomon trail running workshop for employees of Novo Nordisk. It was seriously a ton of fun watching people hop over roots and rocks and struggle up hills to greet fabulous views. Ha. Dream job. And they loved the Salomon shoes. Ok- they seriously DO make you feel more secure on technical trails. Photo Nynne Friling
Since I don't have a song of the day, I will offer my "word" of the day, which is "rigamarole". I found myself writing it to a friend today and had to stop up and think--- is this a word I made up? Anyone else use it? If yes, where are your from?
A little less than a year ago, I noticed a huge knot in my right calf. It hurt really badly, as did my right hip. I wasn't sure how the two things were related. Right hip pain, right calf knot. I was even less sure how I got it, but if you asked smart people, they would probably say it was from running. Like- duh, I know I didn't get it from sitting on the couch, but what was I doing wrong while running?
The answer eludes me.
What I do know is the knot, after many vigorous rounds of massage, bled, calcified and turned into a bone the size of a chick pea. Now I have an intergastrocnemial bone. It doesn't hurt, it's just there, always making my calf muscle a little shorter than it should be. I went to get a massage yesterday and my therapist told me I should get an x-ray "just in case". Luckily, I know enough about cancer to know that it doesn't start out as a huge knot and dwindle into a hard chick pea. SR, the cancer doctor, agreed. But still, I had to ask Olga, the physician AND massage therapist. Nope. Not cancer.
So what to do with my new bone? It may be the sole cause of my right hip pain and my inability to run on pavement since October. What I understand about massage is that, once you develop a bone, you really can't massage it out. Makes sense; you can't massage away your femur either. Then I read about shock-wave therapy. I found two studies saying it was effective for myositis ossificans (yes, that's the fancy name), but when you read the fine print, they never actually got rid of the bone, just the pain. The thing is, I have no pain there, just pain as a result of the stupid os (French for bone; of course they just pronounce that "o")-- in other places. For example, I have now developed a "sympathy knot" on the other side of the gastroc at the same height, which does hurt. Rats.
Any suggestions?
I have a feeling this bone may be with me until I am 93.
Tao Porchon-Lynch, age 93. Photo by Robert Shurman.
or 94
Tao Porchon-Lynch, 94.
She is a yoga instructor and ballroom dancer who has beaten the scourge of old age: stiffness (don't get it!) Photo by Robert Shurman
Races:
This weekend is the Winforce 100k. I will be race physician and SR will be running. I predict a showdown among the men between SR and Per Egon Rasmussen. I think Pia Joan Sørensen will win the women's race, but Maibritt Skovgaard has a shot. It is supposed to rain all day. Should be interesting.
On Sunday is Salomon Trail Tour's Rebild 28k in northern Jutland. I had planned on going, but have now arranged a little Salomon outing closer to home with Dorte Dahl. If I lived closer, I'd definitely love to run in Rold Skov.
September 7th brings the much-anticipated Superior Sawtooth 50 Miler and I am now crossing my fingers SR will run it with me.
September 29th is the UROC 100k in Vail. Someone has to come in last, right? Well, if it's me, then I've gotten to spend the most time enjoying the mountains.
October 19th Wild Duluth. Not sure what distance...
In hindsight, this new bone has really been good for me. I've rid my calendar of road races! Steve Q, if you want me to help you run the whole Superior Hiking Trail, I guess it had better be in October...???
Music Recs
There is not a small chance that I am Nik and Jay's biggest American fan (they're Danish). And now, for the first time, they have written a song in English. They are quasi rappers, so this was not an easy task as you will gather from the lyrics; as one radio host said "out of their comfort zone". The first time he says "blue" it sounds like he says the Danish "blå" oops. Anyway, the video is hilarious and it is good they wrote out the lyrics.. you'll see what I mean. The music is, as always, top notch.
I received these pictures from Mette today and felt like an idiot for being disappointed in once again not running a 10k PR (constant headwind on a point-to-point course; my excuse). Sometimes I love photographic proof of what we all really get out of running. .
Old lady goes to ground.
Note Mette's resemblance to Emelie Forsberg
Emelie Forsberg in the Dolomites.
I have never beaten Mette and I have no clue what type of Herculean effort it would take on my part to achieve this, but I doubt Hercules himself could do it. I DO love the fight, though. I love how perfectly she runs and running behind her, dreaming that I will, at some point, run just like her. And the very fact that I believe this and keep trying means that I continue to run 10ks exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds slower than her. If I gave up, I probably wouldn't even be that much slower, but who doesn't love believing?
And then there was Thea. Last weekend, we ran a 5k together (the second weekend in a ro). I am 34, she is 17. Note the math. I have at this point been physically forced to sit down on the couch (by my husband) and watch womens' 5000 meter races at least 10 times. Probably 20. I know that if the goal is to win (and not PR), you don't start out fast, you start out smart. It was probably the hottest day of the year here. Already 85 degrees F an hour before the race. Thea ran the entire race about 20 meters behind me. I knew her plan was to speed up at the end, but what she didn't know, was I started out slowly so I could also speed up. And also I knew sprinting against a 17 year old wasn't going to be easy.
Thea has the right attitude about running, but I wonder how much time she loses by running with her phone. Photo: Jan K Madsen
Sprint to the finish- owww. Photo Jan K Madsen
. It was close. My time: 19:44, granted on dirt and in the heat, but only 2 seconds faster than my 3rd 5k in 2008! But I eaked out a 3 second win.
SR also won, in a super close race, in 17:18. He has always been a good tactical runner.
SR knows exactly how to position himself before his sprint to the finish. Torben in front is apparently a 2:35 marathoner.
So we move, improve, lose or gain millimeters, seconds in these short races. Perhaps the only way for me to really improve would be to get pregnant again. I have thought a lot about why it is pregnant women runners improve so much post-partum and I think it may have something to do with the high level of estrogen during pregnancy. Since estrogen is the female equivalent of testosterone, it only stands to reason estrogen would create stronger muscles (heck, it also helps to ensure a baby grows strong). Has anyone else run across this theory?
Or, maybe improving involves throwing yourself into entirely new experiences. Something I know I could improve at by working at it is technical trail running. SR, Andreas Carlsen (of the documentary Ultra fame) and I went to Kullaberg Sweden for a day trip last week. I love how over the course of one day you can let go of a lot of the fear of going downhill on steep slippery rocks. I wish I could run in Kullaberg every day with these two.
A mini Team Salomon outing
It is awesome to have a skill to focus on--- running on technical trails--- that also can take you places. You escape the feeling of being fated to run one particular time and you just run.
Went out for a 2k trail run with the boys Who knows how much starting them early will decide their future talent and running "fate", or if they'll even care about running at all. At least we had fun.
I gotta thank Tony Krupicka for this one. I love it:
If there is something that will almost instantaneously make you a better runner, it is directing or volunteering at a race. There is such an enormous amount of work and care that goes into races- I will say trail races especially- that you, whether you know it or not, will forever stop taking the privilege of racing for granted. And actually probably enjoy it even more.
Anders, the son of a Bahamian (from the Bahamas??) woman I work out with and ex pro American football player, had this awesome think-outside-of-the-box idea, when he asked me to help him start a midnight trail race in Næstved. Anders is the type of guy everyone is friends with, so I had no doubt it would work out.
There is SR in the back middle row in his Afton shirt. Picture by Anders Risager.
So these are some pretty tough cookies to show up at midnight when storms were predicted in record heat and they knew Anders and I had designed a very techinical forest route. In particular, I warned SR about Christian (front row in white) being someone he would have to work to hold on to. Christian just took 6th at the 10 Peaks 73 km race in the UK. I was thrilled when SR returned this morning at 4 am or so to tell me he had run the whole race with Christian and they had a smashing go of it and both finished in 3:36 to win jointly; Christian officially 1 second before, so now I owe him a prize...
After my 5k race yesterday (see below), I set off to set up the course markings and then took them all down today with the help of the boys and the baby jogger. It only took 3 ½ hours :0).
Anything that gets the boys excited about running is worth the time and effort.
I had to take this shot of Mattias to remind him he started in 0mm drop shoes with very poor traction profile- and slipped and fell in the mud on his first trail run.
Wild raspberries lined the trails in the woods today and apparently all over Sjælland, I've heard from friends. Yum! I always wanted to be the kind of mom who gathered berries with her young.
... or gathered ice cream. Turned out they liked the idea of it better than the taste. Back to the raspberries after a hard day's work
I feel I have inculcated the sense in at least Christian that these races don't happen -poof- out of thin air.
--------------
Yesterday morning, like every Saturday morning, was the free Park Run 5k in Fælledparken. Here is the start. I love this picture because it captures the fact that I biked 15km to the start and was drenched in sweat AND hadn't washed my hair for 9 days. Waw! AND, more importantly, there is Jesper. He is one of those guys who is just cool. He is so modest and soft spoken, yet travels all over the world to take on courses like HURT and will be going to UTMB this year. Anyway, I had this crazy idea I could keep up with him- despite him runnig an 18:10 5k 4 weeks ago.
Oh yeah- and here is the Team Salomon outfit. I lost the 4lbs I had gained in California, so I allowed myself to wear it in public. Photo Jan K. Madsen
I started out in the middle of the pack. Look- you can't even see me! But you can probably see Thea to the left... Photo:Jan K. Madsen
I was able to hold on to Jesper for about 300 meters and then he took off with 4 other men. Photo: Jan K Madsen
Shortly therafter one of the men fell back and I passed him. This is a new thing for me- passing people in 5ks. The heat and humidity were WICKED, so I knew if I started too fast I would fizzle.
Photo: Jan K Madsen
What I didn't know is that Thea was right behind me. She is either 16 or 17 and I have been following her for months now because it seems every Park Run she runs, she takes 20 second off of her time and last time won in 19:44, so I knew she could give me trouble as this is a dirt path and slower than asphalt.
Anyway, I was not able to keep the even pace I had hoped for. I wanted a 19:30, but got a 19:39. That is according to when I crossed the start line. The official time was 19:41. As I collapsed next to Jesper, who had run in 18:45, I was shocked to see Thea tumbling across the finish line right behind me in 19:46. I can only assume my outfit intimidated her :0). Honestly, I look forward to my next battle with Thea and she was very kind and gracious at the fininsh. What fun...
Good to laugh a jolly old belly laugh, isn't it? Or snicker like friend over left shoulder.
Just for the sake of completion, I need to mention I did a training Olympic Distance tri last weekend - the Storebælt Tri- which also was free- and I got a "Tri PR" in all disciplines. Swim: 30:15, bike 1:21 (despite a major wrong turn) and run 43:09 on gravel roads. I was thrilled as it was also blazing hot that day (and I was the only woman!) and speaking of blazing- I was burned by the famous jelly fish here - the fireman (brændman) during the swim. It actually didn't hurt too bad. I am now done with triathlons until I buy a real tri bike- the disadvantage of my bike is too overwhelming for it to be fun.
Running song of the day-
Can I just get this off of my chest? I can't stand Robbie Williams!
Had you missed the old Sea Legs? The one who obsessed about her weight and was 100% convinced that the thinner she was, the faster she would be - at any distance - up to that critical point where bones started to thin and weight loss mania set in?
During my travels to California and Wales, I took sort of a new approach to life and eating: a "who cares, I will just eat more chocolate" approach. Plus I thought being well-fed would probably only help me in Wales. And then there was my favorite excuse: Renée Zellweger gained (a lot of) weight for Bridget Jone's Diary and then lost it again, just like that. So it can't be that hard to lose weight, right?!
Famous last words.
This week has been one long attack of hypoglycemia and what do I have to show for it? One pound lost.
But maybe, I should look at my athletic performance before I subject my family to 3 more weeks of Mom-on-edge. (insert bright light bulb and dinging sound)
Yesterday's intervals were 6 x 200 (following 50 min pulse class, 30 minutes strength training + jump rope, and 8km running working on technique) with 2 min breaks
All 36-38 seconds.
Today's 5 x 1000 (in warm temps) was avg. 3.49
Both of these are, if not the fastest, the second fastest, I have ever run. (I think I need to consult old blog posts)
Isn't it counterintuitive with a 4 lb weight gain + ultra marathon 11 days ago?
What was not surprising at all, is my swim 50 meter times went from 1:00 a couple months ago to 53 seconds today. A litte fat is a least good for swimming. But I knew that all along, though it was never incentive enough for me to gain.
Anyway, here I am.
And I have had a fantastic week (yes, despite the hunger) with the boys while SR and Natti have been in the Austrian Alps.
Christian and I started a new habit of running home 2km through the woods from daycare. He's so proud of it and is starting to value his running shoes.
And Annette Fredskov finished her project of running 366 official marathons in 365 days I and was there with the boys to join in the party. Can you seriously imagine doing this (never skipping a marathon despite feeling like crap, having two kids (she really does))? She is one strong woman. You would certainly not know she has MS. Coincidence or not, she didn't have one single attack the entire year.
Annette Fredskov Jensen finishing 84.4 km to finish 366 marathons in 365 days. Congrats, to a kind, inspirational and always-positive woman and friend. Photo by: Christian Høeg
Here was her interview on CNN today (did anyone catch this?):
Isn't the Danish accent charming? And I TOLD you all she was wonderful!
I will close with saying that I have promised myself I will not show any pictures of myself in our new Team Salomon uniform until I have lost all 4 pounds. Hmmm. This is better incentive for me than a wedding dress. But then I ask myself - is my goal to be fast or look good in white polka dots? Hmm, that is a tough one. The answer is- whatever makes me happy, because that is of course what makes us succeed in life.
Until this past weekend, I
had not had the experience of running on a team. .And as soon as we had
established a US team for Wales, Michele
Yates made it clear "we are going for the gold". This mentality was
foreign to me. The idea that my performance would affect my team mates in a
negative or positive way was something I’d sort of left back in high school
with the basketball team.
As we arrived one by one to the 2 star Ambassador Hotel on LlandudnoBay, Wales, we got to know each other
and, over 2-3 days, formed a team. Everyone had different backgrounds, sponsors,
personal goals, opinions of salt tabs and the USATF. But it was incredible how
much we had in common. OK, not incredible. We are all pretty serious about this
fringe sport of trail ultra running. Honestly, we had no trouble connecting.
Example: I think there were
only 2 people out of the 10 on our team who didn't have a food allergy. a few with
gluten, a few with lactose, and then there was the butter allergy. It seemed we had
all brought enough food to make it through the entire trip in case the hotel
didn't serve what we were used to having before races. The hotel
restaurant wait staff was probably overwhelmed by us, but they acted like the absurdity made it
fun for them.
Michele Yates was my
roommate. When I walked into the room, it appeared she had food in separate
baggies for every hour of every day on the trip. I like to think of myself as
"suffering" from OCD, but when I met my teammates, I simply felt
right at home. The moment she saw I had brought a little fan for white noise,
we were best friends.
You met the team in the
previous post.
But being part of a team is
more like this:
David Riddle acted like he accidentally made this face.
I don't know if Ben explicitly gave
me permission to post this photo, but this was right after he said "I
always fold my race number. No one ever cares." 5 seconds later the guy
in green and white shirt said he was the head official for the race and he
cared. Good times. That’s my bottle of Chocovine.
Some incredible
British osteopaths and physical therapists taught us what type of treatment we
should be demanding for our types of injuries and also did for us what they
could. These are guys who specialize in competitve athletics. How refreshing.
How informative. I spent hours there learning from them as they worked on
different runners. As did Michele and Jason. Before the race, I got an
incredible massage with a “butter knife” as they called in on my left calf for
my left achilles. Then they put kinesio tape on it. I didn’t notice my achilles
the whole race!
The bus ride to race start
was early for European standards: 7AM! (for 9 am start)
But there was giddiness
anyway. David has a knack for making funny faces in pictures. No effort
involved. Time and again on this trip, I felt like I was back in high school.
Arrive at the start tent.
Commence team Gliding.
I had never used Body
Glide. It is like thick, smooth, glidy Vaseline in the form of a deodorant bar.
It worked. Not one blister and that is unheard of for me!! It also could have been my Salomon Sense Ultra Shoes (awesome).
Just before the start, a
nice Canadian snapped this picture of Michele and me. We were honestly two peas
in a pod the whole trip and remained that way in the race – more on that in a
sec.
An unexpected and meaningful moment came as we proceeded to the race start and for some reason I was allowed to hold the flag.
It reminded me of Delacroix's La liberté guidant le peuple...
the main differences between the two pictures being that we weren't in the middle of the French Revolution and I had managed to keep my shirt on.
The start was
nerve-wracking because there weren’t as many starters as there usually are in
ultras --- and they were all fast. Never mind this, I started with the front
women.
The course was a 1 km start,+ (15km loop x 5) +
1km finish in Gwydyr Forest. The first 9km were uphill.
Seriously uphill. There would actually be a combined 9,000 feet of elevation
change. By they time we were at the top,
I was approaching the aid station as the lead woman (France's Nathalie Mauclair) was leaving and I wasn’t
too far behind Michele who was in 4th. SR told me I was in 9th
for the women at this point. You could
ask “what were you thinking SLG?”, but I actually thought I was closer to the middle of women than I was. I was going with the “this feels good” approach, but that didn’t last
long. OK, the downhill went fine, but even there I was starting to get passed
and my team mate Amy Rusiecki was one of the first to pass me. She was commenting on
the view, happy, ladeeda and I was like ready to puke, feeling as though I had
just finished a 10k race and should go home.
On the seond loop, I still
felt OK but my legs just hurt and couldn’t help thinking of Amy Sproston’s
famous quote about having “quad death” at Western States last year. The only difference was I was generally having
leg death. At the very end of this loop, I tripped over a stone and flew like a
bat without wings and landed on my left knee so hard that I thought I had
broken my knee cap (it's not broken, but there is a nasty bruise there now). I stood up and a race supporter asked if I was OK and I
puked. The pain was too much. Rough start.
At this point, I ate my
salty cashews (ever worried about hyponatremia) and that helped, but I was still feeling mentally and physically
wiped and we weren’t even half way. I ascended again and made it through the
marathon in 4:02 or something like that, feeling this was too slow, but I was
already spent.
The 3rd, 4th
and 5th loops can all be grouped together in what could aptly be
called sufferfest, because I was suffering, but it was still a fest. I was
having fun. My stomach was terrible (when David Riddle lapped me he saw me
hiding in the bushes ---ooops!) and I was bleeding from every pointy part of my
body.
By the way, at the
beginning of loop 3, I passed Michele, who was limp-running with IT band problems. It looked very
painful. She said “I’m not dropping until Stefanie passes me.” I was hoping
for her that would be soon. (explanation - we needed 3 finishing women to score as a team, so both couldn't drop). I got to the third loop aid station and there was
Stefanie – dropped out with back problems, saying she wouldn’t have made it under the 10 hour
time limit.
Rough day for Team USA – except
Amy, who did awesome.
OK, so by the last loop, I
had fallen 5 or 6 times, lost my water bottle in a ravine, thrown up and had D more times than I can count, but was still smiling and I gathered a
lot of strength at the end, making it through the 5th and final loop
faster than the 4th. It was really entertaining to have supporters from so many countries lining the course, who we saw multiple times. That was the biggest charm of the repeated loops. Every time I saw the French group, I came up with the most complicated French sentance I could think of about what was going on and they would all cheer. Too much fun.
Slight backtrack:
Following loop 3, I was unsure if Team USA was still in it to score (we needed 3 finishers to place). It looked as if Michele would drop. I couldn't imagine her coming in under the cutoff in her state. But I could not slow down and let my team down if we were still in it.
And as it turned out, I had underestimated
Michele. Never underestimate Michele. She kept going, committed to our team,
not to herself- as she really was doing nothing but hurting herself by running
on that injured leg. And she finished in just under 9 hours, well within the cutoff. You must realize
she is this past year’s Bandera and Nueces winner, also going for the US record in the
trail 100 mile
this year at Rocky Raccoon. She performed far under her ability, further
injuring herself, just so our USA
team could score. You are certainly allowed your own opinion, but we as a team
had nothing but respect for this woman. What a morale booster. I would be on a
team with this woman anywhere, anytime.
My finish time was 8:28, 41st female, not the placement I dreamed of, yet, I had the best performance of my life
at this distance on a challenging course in the heat. I have no right to be
disappointed. I can only say that I started too fast and likely would have finished
with I faster time had I taken that first 16k more slowly, but this is why experience is so important in ultras.
The team - the USA ladies came in 10th. Doesn't sound great, but I am dang proud of this and we ladies owe it to Michele, who pulled off a superhuman feet, essentially "running" on one leg.
The men, they did awesome. As a team, the took 4th, narrowly losing out on the bronze to Germany. Of note, David Riddle took 7th overall and Ben Nephew had the fastest last 7k of anyone. I witnessed as he lapped me that he runs as fast as he talks.
I was enormously privileged
to be part of this team. If I had the opportunity to run this event again, I
would not miss it for the world. It ranks up there among the best experiences (certainly in running) of my life.
Dave James, Michel Yates and Amy Rusiecki leading out the team at the opening ceremonies.
Who knew that in Welsh that the USA is actually the UDA? And that Wales is not Wales or Whales, but Cymru (if you want to know how to say that, listen here.)
And Welsh music, you ask? Cerys Matthews, formerly of Catatonia, is my favorite Welsh singer. She has had a bunch of hits in Great Britain in English (including SR's favorite running song ever, Caught in the Middle). Here is a lesser-known traditional Welsh hymn.
