I worked at registration that morning, checking runners in. Working with me was a volunteer, Jayne. Jayne's weekend plans had fallen through, so she had called Planet Adventure to ask if she could volunteer. She was planning to do the 10 miler, but had it in the back of her mind that she'd really like to try for 30. She's only been running a couple of years, and her longest run to date was a half-marathon. She had already done a triathlon as well. I encouraged her to go ahead and try. If she hated it after two laps and wanted to quit, she could collect the 10-mile medal and still would have extended her maximum distance. If she felt good she could continue and more than double her longest effort. What could it hurt?
There were about 40 of us signed up for the 30, and we all gathered at the start line. The trail was single-track, so there was an initial slowdown as everyone entered the woods on the narrow trail. Jayne and I ended up bringing up the rear. I was taking my time, as usual, and Jayne asked me what my pace would be. Hmmm I really hadn't thought much about it, I just wanted to finish with minimum suckage. Finish in seven hours? Sound good? Eight if the hills are really bad and I'm suffering? That worked for her, too, so we decided to stick together. I told her first thing was to walk up the hills and save the legs. She was content to let me pace her, and I was content to do so.
The second 10 miles were harder, and we were both very happy we only had one more loop, but both agreed it wasn't sucking. We got tired, both had some niggling aches and pains, but nothing that was seriously detracting from enjoying the view. The course was very hilly, with lots of smaller switchbacks. The downs were often just a little too steep for us lesser-experienced trail runners to easily trot down, and we both had to apply the brakes fairly often. The "straightaways" were not very long, not very straight, and not very level, but were a good chance to do an easy jog. We never went too fast to talk, and enjoyed admiring the faster runners that passed us on a regular basis. It didn't start to rain until we were at mile 15, and it was a nice steady cooling rain that didn't produce immediate mud-pits, so we were content.
We weren't quite as chipper as we crossed the finish line for the second time, but both were still smiling and feeling pretty good. We took another ten minutes to grab some chocolate milk, fig newtons, whatever; Jayne changed shoes again and I changed socks. We compared our time to the first loop, and we were pretty much on target, even if we included the ten minutes or so break-time. Great! Off we went for loop #3.
The last 10 miles were difficult. We were both finally feeling really tired, both of us had tender toes (hers more so than mine as she stubbed them a few times on tree roots), both were getting hungry enough to want a burger, and both were exceedingly glad this was the last pass of the trail. The rain quit at mile 25. We stopped to high-five at the 26-mile point, figuring that was close enough to marathon distance to celebrate her first marathon, then got slogging along again...which is what we were doing by this point, slogging. However, we both agreed that it still wasn't a full-on suck just yet.
As usual, I had forgotten the Garmin, and she deliberately hadn't worn hers, but she had a phone with the time on it. We both felt like we were holding our pace pretty well; she checked the time, and if we pushed a bit, we could come in just under seven hours. However, we would have to do the last three miles in a little over 30 minutes. I really didn't think I had it in me, but the bug was planted. I know Jayne was thinking the same thing. Neither of us said anything, but I started pushing harder, taking shorter walk breaks, trudging up more inclines, and farther up them, before taking a walk break. Jayne stayed right on my heels.
We made it a little past mile 28 before I finally said, "OK, this sucks now!" Jayne agreed. We were both hurting. Our knees, ankles, hip extensors, feet, and toes were very unhappy and screaming at us to stop. But neither of us dared suggest looking at the time or slowing down. We both took a deep breath and kept moving.
Finally, 6 hours 58 minutes and 43 seconds after starting, we crossed the finish line together. Jayne won her age group on her first ultra and collected her award. We were both very happy to be done, and thrilled not to be doing the 50-miler. Those people are CRAZY!
1st loop: 2:15
2nd loop: 2:19 (includes break time)
3rd loop: 2:24:42 (includes break time)
