Going into Vernal Equinox 48 Hour this year, I had my mind set on running 150+ miles. Last year I ran 130 miles in dry but cold conditions. Since then I have trained both harder and smarter. I spent the majority of my training runs running through rain, snow and freezing temperatures early in the morning. All to strengthen my mind in preparation for this race. I knew that I had done what it would take to reach my goal.
Leading up to race day, I saw that there was going to be some rain so I prepared by buying 2 heavy duty rain coats and packing about 10 pairs of socks just in case. I have always loved running in the rain so I was excited for the possibility, which is ironic now looking back!
Race Day- Friday Morning 7am
When we got to the race, it was already raining steadily. We started off at an easy pace and I found another runner to talk to for the first few loops. Even right at the beginning of the race, the course was already covered in water and mud! Dave and the girls headed back to the hotel soon after my first loop. I settled into a steady pace and focused on being present and not thinking about the two days ahead of me. The rain stopped briefly and we just kept moving forward. This went on for most of the morning. It would downpour for a while and then the rain would slow down. Throughout the morning, I chatted with other runners, spent some loops on my own, and focused on getting in enough food. My hamstrings were a little sore on and off from running through the mud. But within the first 15 miles, they seemed to loosen up and adapt to the conditions.
I got through 32 miles and finally decided to give myself a reward for hitting the 50k milestone (thanks to a friend who gave me this tip!). I pulled out my headphones and turned some music on which was a nice distraction. But after each lap, the course became more and more muddy. I worked on keeping a steady intake of food and tried to manage any issues as they came up. I wanted to to push through and ignore potential foot and chafing issues. But Dave kept reminding me that I this was a 2 day race, and I couldn’t just ignore some of these issues like I usually do in a hundred.
Mile 46- Race delay #1
As I was out on my mile 46 lap, and I heard an announcement being made. The rain started coming down even harder and I could hear the thunder rolling in. My instinct was to start pushing harder to get through the loop. I saw the runner in front of me turn around to head back as the sky started to light up. I turned around with him and headed back to my horse stall to wait.
The race directors, Nettie and Jennifer, told us that they would be pausing the race until the storm passed. As I waited, I worried about what the trail would now look like after more water was dumped on it. I knew that this was precious time and I shouldn’t waste it. So I refilled my water bottles, had a snack and tried to clean my feet and let them dry out while I had the time. I was also starting to worry about some potentially race ending chafing issues that had started to get worse from all of the water so I did my best to deal with that as well.
I sat down for 5 minutes to rest and before I knew it, everyone was heading back to the starting line to go out again. It was still raining but the storm had passed us for now. Back out on the trail, the mud had gotten much worse! There was water everywhere and the one downhill on the course was a mud slide. I did my best to grab onto trees for support at the top of this hill and then sort of slid down the rest of the way. Throughout the next few laps, I kept thinking about the possibility of another storm coming in during the night so I really tried to push myself hard through the water and mud. I knew that I would probably feel this in my legs on Saturday though.
Mile 50
Around 8:30pm, I hit 50 miles. It was around this time, that I mentioned to Dave that I was having some pain in my shins. It wasn’t anything that I couldn’t run through, but it was pretty constant. Our original plan was to get in 50 miles under 12 hours, but with even the delay and all of the mud, I still wasn’t far off of the plan. I took a short break to eat some mac and cheese for dinner. I changed into my clothes for the night, we changed my socks, cleaned and re-lubed my feet. Then I switched to a hydration vest and stocked up on snacks. The idea was that I would go straight through all night with as few stops as possible.
My family left for the night since the girls were exhausted and starting to complain. I was excited to see what the night held for me. I managed to keep my mind in a good place, put my head down and just kept relentlessly moving forward. After each loop, I would grab what I needed and then immediately head back out. Before I knew it I was hitting 60 miles and heading back in from another loop. The wind had really started to pick up and as I crossed the start/finish line, a volunteer let me know that everyone was being pulled off of the course because there was a severe storm headed our way.
Mile 60- Race Delay #2
I was convinced that the storm would pass quickly so I just sat alone in my horse stall and waited for about 30 minutes. Finally, one of the race directors said that there was a tornado warning and if we started to hear sirens then we should come inside and we would all hunker down near the bathrooms. I realized that I needed to use this time to air out my feet. I cleaned myself up, ate some oatmeal, put on 2 jackets and covered myself in a blanket to try to stay warm. The wind was howling and the lightning became more frequent. I was worried but there wasn’t much I could do about it so I attempted to sleep. I never did fall asleep though. Around 3am, they told us that we would get started again at 3:30am and there would be a brand new course because of flooding and trees down on the trail. I think we were all relieved. No one wanted to get back out on the old course after that storm!
At 3:30, about 15-20 runners gathered together to see the new course (a few people had dropped out and the others were sleeping longer). We walked along behind Nettie on the Kabota and she zig zagged back and forth through the horse stalls and then across the parking lot where we entered part of the old course through the grass and zig zagged through the horse pastures. There was some mud, but nothing compared to what we had already endured.
I was a little stiff and sore as we started moving and I began to notice the pain in my shins again. It got worse every time that we went through the muddy area. I kept plugging along, lap after lap trying to make up the time we had lost during the storm. The 24, 12 and 8 hour runners arrived between 7-8am and started their races so suddenly there were a ton of people on the course. The muddy areas quickly became completely destroyed.
Mile 80
My parents arrived in the morning right around the time that I hit 80 miles. They set up their chairs in front of my stall and cheered me on each time I passed which gave me a boost of energy. It was about this time though, that my legs began to feel completely trashed from trudging through the mud the day before. There was just no energy in them. The pain in my shins would come and go. It would feel sharp for a while and then it would die down to a dull ache. When it was bad though, it made me feel sick to my stomach. On top of feeling nauseous from the pain, I also started to feel very agitated from the music I was listening to. I became very aware of the 5 pounds of mud that I was carrying around on my shoes. The weather started to warm up throughout the morning and it felt strange to be running in good weather. I felt too warm and then too cold. Every loop I was stopping to either shed a layer or add a layer. I just couldn’t seem to get into a good rhythm. I’m pretty sure that this had a lot to do with the exhaustion that was starting to feel all consuming.
Mile 90
Dave and the girls arrived around 10am which again put a smile on my face. I continued to shuffle around the course, stop for a minute to grab food and then continue on. At some point though, I came through the start/finish and I could feel tears in my eyes. I had no idea why I was crying. All I knew was that I was completely exhausted, in a lot of pain and I still had at least 20 more hours of running. The winds were really picking up, my hat kept blowing off of my head and I could’t stop crying. I knew this was something that I had to work through on my own. I finally just got annoyed with the exhaustion and the emotions and started running through the pain as hard as I could. By the time I made it back around to my family 2 miles later, I was happy again! These long races can be a roller coaster of highs and lows and you have to be willing to work through it to find the other side. If you get caught up in it and start to believe the lies that your mind is feeding you, your race is most likely over.
Mile 100
One of the high points throughout the race was that the 48 hour runners developed a camaraderie that you can only get through shared experience. We were out there together enduring the rain, storms and wind all day on Friday. As we passed each other on different sections of the course on Saturday, we cheered each other on and commiserated over how wrecked our legs felt on day two. This was honestly one of my favorite outcomes of the entire race.
I hit 100 miles around 12:30 pm. Instead of stopping to celebrate, my Dad found me and pushed me to go out for another loop. We walked the the next 2 loops together which helped to keep me focused. Once at 104 miles, I stopped in the stall again, ate some more mac and cheese for lunch, had a quick shoe change, closed my eyes for 5 minutes in my chair. Then Dave kicked me out of the stall again and back out onto the course. I knew that at this point, I was first place female and third overall. But I also knew that there were others that may be closing in on me. I tried to count my steps to move faster. 1,2,3,4….all the way up to 100 steps of shuffling. Then 100 steps of hiking. I counted my steps for hours and hours during this race!
Mile 110- 1st Scheduled Nap
Eventually, it was 7pm and time for my scheduled 1 hour nap. Santina had arrived to crew and pace me. She helped me get my muddy shoes off and cleaned up my feet so they could air out again. Dave arrived as well with a hamburger from Wendy’s for my dinner. They helped me get into my sleeping bag and let me know they would be back before 8pm to help me get going again. I struggled to fall asleep and got only about 40 minutes. My legs kept twitching from the pain and waking me up.
Finally, I called Dave and told him that I needed to get moving. He helped me to once again re-lube my feet and get on my shoes and socks. In doing so though, I noticed that I had a large lump on the front of my lower shin that was extremely painful to the touch. It was so painful that I really didn’t know how I would get another loop done. Luckily, my friend Holly stopped in to say hi and I told her what was going on. I don’t like to take medication even when I’m not running and have never taken any during a race. But she gave me two ALEVE and a B12 and told me that I would feel like magic in about 30 minutes. They helped me up and I limped through the 2 mile loop, waiting for it to kick in. Eventually my legs loosened up, but the pain mostly remained. Dave only had time for two loops before he had to take the girls back to the hotel for the night, but it was comforting to have him with me during probably the hardest loop of the entire race.
Mile 114
Santina was up next for pacing. Throughout the day, there had been high winds which started to dry out the mud, but only enough to make it sticky instead of slippery. Which meant it was now shoe sucking mud! Santina and I figured out that if we hugged the fence with one arm and used a trekking pole to stay upright, we could maneuver through the mud without getting stuck. There was one loop though when I stopped for a few seconds to rest. When I started to move again, my shoe was stuck! I panicked because my shins were really hurting. I knew that I would have to use those muscles to lift my foot out. Santina talked me through it and I was able to dig my foot out with my poles. Crisis averted!
Mile 118
We covered at least 2-3 loops at a decent pace when Kristen showed up to pace around 11:30 pm. The three of us took off together for the next few hours. They made me laugh, told stories and made sure that I was eating enough. There were still moments when I had to grit my teeth through the pain and exhaustion but having them there helped me take my mind off it and enjoy the moment. Around 2:30am, Santina left for the night and my Dad joined in. He pushed the pace as we went out loop after loop with a stop to the bathroom in between every lap. My stomach was finally starting the digest the day’s food and it got pretty uncomfortable for a while. Around 6am, Kristen left to go home and my Mom joined in to pace me.
Those last few hours felt like time was standing still. It felt like I would be out here running forever, that there was no ending to the excruciating pain. I don’t have much of a recollection of what we talked about out there because my thoughts were consumed with moving forward through the discomfort. I had to keep reminding myself that in just a few short hours, I would be clean, warm and relaxing on my couch at home and this would all be a distant memory. Time is relative. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a 5k or 140 miles. There is an ending. And when you look back at it, you want to be proud what what you put out there. So I just kept slowly moving forward.
140 Miles
The 24 hour runners finished their race at 7am but we still had an extra 2 hours due to the delays from Friday night. A day ago, I had been excited for the extra time to be added on. But in this moment, I just wanted to be done.
The last two loops of the race, the end finally felt near. We cheered on the other runners that we saw on the course. I picked up the pace as much as I could knowing that it would be over soon. I tried to soak it all in as I walked towards the finish line with my family watching. At the end of the race, I ended up 1st woman and 2nd place overall finishing with a PR of 140 miles.
Post Race
Over the last several years, I have convinced myself that I thrive in the worst of conditions. It paid off during this race. I may not be the fastest out there, but I know that I am willing to endure when it gets really hard. The worse the weather and the trail became, the more determined I was to push harder. I was able to focus solely on the task in front of me. I never even considered the damage that I could be doing to my body because for me it was more than just a race. It was a chance to break myself down and become stronger version of myself in the process of enduring pain, exhaustion and suffering.
Going into the race, I was aiming for 150+ miles. In perfect conditions, I know could have achieved that. But life is never perfect and we must keep adapting to the difficult circumstances that life throws at us in order to keep moving forward. What I found within myself after 140 miles of wind, lightning, mud and rain was the strength and determination to keep going. What I I gained was even more confidence and curiosity in what I am still capable of. My next big goal is “No Business 100”, a 100 mile loop through the hills of Tennessee. After that…I have my eye on running the Across the Years Multi-day race in Arizona to run more loops and to again see just how far I can go.