20 weeks till the Traveller

I'm still overweight.

I still shy away from putting myself out there.

I need accountability.

Its time to do something about all of the above.

Let Your Little Light Shine

Yesterday at the Women Run Arkansas graduation 5K in Conway I had the opportunity to visit with one of my running heroes.  She has set some big hairy audacious goals for her running career over the next few years!  She publishes a "dear diary" about her goals, challenges, journey on the way to this goal.
It was heartbreaking to hear of the people who do not support her.  Those trolls who have something negative to say because she posts this in "public" on Facebook.  Some of these poop throwers are those who before this time could be called friends.
She gets so much assurance that her posts empower and inspire other women to make big hairy audacious goals and work to achieve them that for now she will keep sharing.  I certainly always hope she does.  Nay sayers do not have a vote!  They can go bury their head back in their negativity.

After the 5K and the goodbyes to Women Run Arkansas Clinic for one more year I headed back out to the Ouachita National Forest for the second of a double-long run for the weekend.
I chose to run from Electronic Tower to Rocky Gap and back.  Running a bit past Rocky Gap made it a total of 10 miles.
The Ouachita National Forest is one of the best sites to find quartz for the recreational rock hounder.  This changed the enjoyment level on those long runs because of the chance of finding a true lovely gem.
While working on my hiking skills I saw a huge flash of light as the sun reflected off what had to be a large quartz.  When this happens I stop, back up to where I first noticed the reflection and then keep it in sight till making my way to the source of the reflection.   This particular time, after finding the source, it was amazing to see how small this gem really was.  Wow did it sure light up the trail, and its so small!
Of course, being out on the trail puts the mind in high gear. I started thinking about that wee little fleck of quartz just absolutely blinding me with its sparkle!  It was just out there being itself, doing what it was created to do, and yet it is brilliant.

I thought of this woman, superhero, fabulous goal setter, runner chick and wow.  You know, she is doing what she was created to do.  She is being out there, being vulnerable, sharing her goals and her journey.  In doing so she is lighting the way to inspire others.
I hope I can remember this little lesson to use it to work on always being myself, but being my best self.  I will add hope that I can not hide my light but always put it out there while working to be my very best self.

Last Night Women Run Arkansas - Searcy

Women Run Arkansas is a beginnings running clinic throughout the state of Arkansas.

We are blessed to have a Searcy AR location.
Malinda Byerly is the warrior woman who made this happen this year with Stephanie Brown as her brave sidekick.  
Angelique Jackson and I joined in to round out the team.
We started the 10 week free women's clinic Feb 28th.  
The amount of women who were interested this year was a bit heart warming, overwhelming and very exciting, over 200.  With the support of Unity Health it was a spectacular season!  

Yesterday, May 7, 2016 the ladies participated in a "graduation" 5K in Conway.  

What a group to show up, be present and represent their spring of hard work and Searcy WRA clinic.  It was special to share the finish line with first time 5Kers.  They can do it.  I'm sure they went home with a stronger sense of strength.  They can do.  They can stick with something, feel a sense of accomplishment and just get it done.
Was their sacrifice, of course.  Was there pain, yes, tears, maybe.  Anything we do to impress ourselves has hard in the mix.  It has to be.  Easy things do not push us, do not leave us feeling please with our efforts, with that woman looking back at us in the bathroom mirror.
I'm sure this wee little clinic helps improve women's lives by truly empowering them through strengthening them.  They become better wives, mothers, neighbors, employees.  They become better regardless of whether they are married or single, middle-aged or teenager.  Doing hard things help us develop character and by design make us stronger.

Congratulations on a race well run from February 28th till yesterday!

Now come run with us!

Ouachita Trail 50K

Ouachita Trial 50K

Photo credit - Sandy Ahne

What happens when you don't work hard enough over the winter and spring to run 50 miles?  You don't run 50 miles.  That is what happens.  After Arkansas Traveller 100 last fall I wanted to run the 50 miler instead of 50 K.  Well, I said I wanted it, obviously I didn't, otherwise I would have put in the effort 5, 4 and 3 months earlier.  Fear is what kept it from happening.  It takes so much energy to be that focused.  Going back into that zone to get ready for the 50 miler was just more than I was willing to do at that time.  All is good, its a learning, growing process.

As said in the Styx & Stones race report, a badly paced foot, slip and hard fall left my foot sprained, not ankle, foot!  Its still tender and running still has to be very carefully done.

Normally if its raining the race is detoured around Pinnacle Mountain.  The forecast said that no rain Saturday morning, but the morning brought drizzle and then rain.  The course was already marked so we carefully made our way over Pinnacle Mountain.  I made it up the mountain okay.  It was the normal whole body workout it always is.  We go up the east side, very rugged.  On coming down the west side a misplaced foot brought instant pain.  The first thought that hit my brain was that I was going to have to drop at the aid station.  Deciding to wait till arriving at that aid station was a good decision as it kind of shook off.

Photo credit - Ronnie Daniel

Before coming to the mountain my pace was at 15 minute miles.  My whole overall pace was slowed down to 20 minute miles after getting up and over the mountain.  That kind of makes the first cut off for the 50 miler impossible, as I knew it would.

Most of the outbound journey was made with Wes Leach.  It was the first time we have had a chance to visit, it was great!  One of the great pleasures of trail running is being able to share the trails with amazing people!

Wesley Leach - photo credit Sandy Ahne

Running with Wes was a very good move.  He is steady, steady up hill and steady down hill.  This helped me because normally I use up way too much energy being unsteady, blasting down hills and huffing up hills.  I had energy for the last half of the race because of Wes's steady pace!  Thank you!

Much energy was spent studying foot placement.  One more wrong slip and it would be over for my left foot.  Its exhausting focusing that much during a race.  One does what they must to finish the race.

Eddy Light, my training partner, tells me, reminds me often that I in fact can not talk for 31 miles.  I joked with him that I could.  He saw what happened when I tried during the Sylamore Trail 50K.  He now reminds me to stop talking so much!  So I followed his warning.  I did talk with Wes, but really kept it to a minimum for me.  It sure helped.

After the turn around, I decided to try to go faster on the downhills.  So with a good bye and a good wish to Wes for a happy race I sped up just a bit.  Very careful foot placement was still in order and was attained.  Much prayer was going on for steady feet.  Oh man it felt good to run downhill, even carefully!  Spread your wings and fly!

About half way back I started thinking that maybe, just maybe a PR was within reach.  It required some of the hardest work on the trail ever, every step every breath was worth it.

A Ouachita Trail 50K PR was earned!  by 24 minutes. Also a trail 50K PR was earned by 3 minutes!  Yes that was worth the work.

What went right-
Most things!  That doesn't happen too often

What would I change-
I would do the work in January, Feb, March to be able to run the 50 miles.
I would be more disciplined in eating so I wouldn't be packing around that extra weight.

What did I learn-
Reminded of really, you can only get back from the trail what you put into it.  Nothing more.  To get the rewards the hard hard work must be done.
I need a new hydration pack.  This one has chafed and ate my back for the last time.  No amount of fiddling with straps will fix this.

Gear-
Hoka One One Mafata Trail Shoes
Dry Max Team RWB socks - still have to figure out the blister thing
Gregory hydration pack - great pack, doesn't fit me right
Victorias Secret Lightweight Sports Bra - mild chafing


Final thoughts-
I have to do the training.  That aside, everything achieved in ultra running is achieved with a little help (or a lot) from my friends!  For this I'm grateful.

Me - Eddy Light

Me - Chrissy Ferguson 

Looking Forward by Looking Back

The Next 50 Years

Today I'm 50 years old, 50..... years... 5.... decades.... 1/2...... century....

There are many ways this could be handled.  Hiding under the covers or counting wrinkles, aches, pains and gray hairs isn't going to be any of them.  Life is too grand, too expanding, too important to focus on all that stuff.  The next ___________ (between now and dead) are going to be great!

Why you say?  how do I know this?  How can it be?

I am the author of my story.  I will write it into being.

The last few years have been a time of intense pain, truth facing and healing.  The mental work that it took to put me in a place to push myself through 100 miles pushed me through some personal baggage that has been hanging around a decade or three too long.

At 42 years old, in March, a beginning running class at the health club forever changed my life.  At the time running one minute was out of the question.  By May I was challenged by those running coaches to train for a 1/2 marathon in November.  Travelling that far on foot was a dumb idea and I told them so.   A few weeks later after an eight mile training run with these ladies, a 1/2 marathon seemed possible.   1/2 November 2008, 25K Feb 2009, trail run June 2009, oh man I was hooked!

Now look I'm 50 years old.  I made the goal of running 100 miles by 50 years old.  I did it.

It has been a great blessing to be surrounded by people in their 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's running, doing, moving, being amazing.  With the freedom from baggage and with last summers mental work, with these grand examples in my life, its without fear to face the big 50 and what comes beyond.

Jesus Christ and my relationship with Him
Prayer
My husband and children
Team RWB
Endorphins
Trail running family
The dearest of friends
Meditation
Disciple of training for 100
University of Podcast

These are the tools used to make the next 20+ years simply amazing!

Styx N' Stones - Devil's Den State Park 30k - March 19, 2016

The trail feeds the soul.  When one feels fairly empty head to a rugged trail that will take everything out of you.  Devil's Den State Park trails will do that, while draining you of every ounce of energy you have left, it will refill your soul. 

I like to drive up the night before.  Getting up at 3AM doesn't make for a restful night.  Leaving home at 7ish made for a 10PM arrival.  Snuggling down in blankets in the car makes for a peaceful night.

It was COLD in the morning!  The bustle of getting ready to run made for warming up a bit.  Its always like a family reunion to be at a trail race and this was no exception.  Hugs, laughter and statement of cold break the silence as the park comes to life for the day.

At 8AM we are set loose.  There is no use starting out at a run, no use trying to get in front of anyone.  I just hung back and waited till we hit the trail.  I wanted to hike the hills as fast as possible.  It was working!  After a week of eating squeaky clean and getting back on my daily inhaler, cool weather and low humidity, moving was just amazingly fun!   For the first two hours I was running at just under a 17 minute mile pace.  On trails, for me, this is super amazing.  It felt great! fun! and wow!

At about 7-8ish miles I turned my foot on a rock and took a hard fall.  Sitting there for awhile then shaking it off I was able to get up and gingerly start moving.  It shook off and I was able to start running again.  As the miles went by my foot started hurting more, my pace started slowing down.  This is/was a total bummer!  Dang!  I did make the choice to continue on for the full 30K when arriving at the split off, 15K one way 30K the other.  

That may not have been the wisest choice ever made, but gratefully it didn't cause permanent damage.  I was able to finish in 4:54.12.  with an overall pace of 18:06
Hour 1 - pace 16:54
Hour 2 - pace 16:58
Hour 3- pace 18:28
Hour 4 - pace 19:42
Hour 5 - pace 19:01

Those times tell the story!
This trail is rugged, rugged, rugged!  and then rugged some more!  I LOVE IT!

Will I go back next year?  YES!

X-Rays show no breaks or sprains.  So 50% decrease in mileage, no speed work for a week, then slowly build mileage again.  I think this was my last long run before the Ouachita Trail 50 April 16, 2016.  Its time to really focus on strength/core training and be happy to run.

Thank you to the Den Herder Family for once again, pulling of a great part!

First 50K - White Rock Classic 50K - Chris Beason

Several months ago my friends, Julie and Becky, and I decided that on February 6, 2016, the 22^nd White Rock Classic would be our first 50K.  We were going to become ultra together. 

We started at 7:30a.m.  I had just recently ran the 25K at Bandera, Texas, in just under 5 hours so I planned on it taking me about 10 hours.  I knew there was no way I could keep up with their pace so I told them to go on ahead.   

I was not going to start out fast.  I had to reserve as much energy as I could if I was going to make it to the halfway point.   For the majority of the run I was all alone with plenty of time to think.  There were lots of crazy thoughts going through my head.  My husband, Jeff had been to Team RWB trail camp and gave me some tips on things he learned about nutrition.  So I knew if my thinking got a little odd, it was nothing that eating a Cliff bar or popping a couple of salt tabs couldn’t fix. 

After about 5 miles, I told myself I was just going to enjoy the run, the beautiful scenery and go as far as I could.  However, if I managed to get to the halfway point, I was all in.  I trotted along averaging about 3.5 to 4 miles an hour until I got to around 11 miles or so.

Trail runners are some of the friendliest people you will ever meet.  Here I was, the only one with trekking poles, going along what probably seemed to them to be as slow as molasses, and they all shouted out encouragement as they passed.  One lady even told me I was the smartest person out there because I had trekking poles.  At that point I didn’t feel very smart, but another lady said, “Use those poles.  Dig in and go!  You can do this!”  Not one person had said, “What the heck were you thinking?  Go home!”  Even one of the guys that I’m sure was going to be one of the first to finish said, “Nice work.  You keep it up.  You got this!”

There was quite a lot of time for self-reflection and coming to terms with who I am.  I am a slow runner.  At one point I even thought about starting a support group for slow runners and could tell you at least 50 advantages a slow runner has over a fast runner.  I thought about all the people who will never try to run a marathon because they know they will never run one in less than 5 hours.  They will never experience the indescribable feeling you get knowing you just ran 26.2 miles.  I used to apologize for being slow.  Then I figured out there is no apology necessary.  It’s my race at my pace. 

It seemed like every curve at the top of a hill revealed yet another hill to go up.  Around 12 miles Jeff came on the walkie and said he was just leaving the aid station around mile 10.   I got to thinking if I kept up a decent pace it was possible we would meet at the top at the halfway point at the same time.  I knew if he passed me, I couldn’t ask him to wait for me, but there was a chance it would all work out.  From that point we kept in touch over the walkie and he finally caught up to me just as we reached the aid station at the halfway point.  We took a couple of pictures and then said goodbye as he flew down the hill, back the way we came.  Before he left he reminded me I had just four hours to finish.

When I got to 22.5 miles, my watch died.  I turned on Runkeeper and figured I had about 3 hours to go and 9 miles.  I was averaging about 3.5 miles an hour.  I kept trying to do the math in my head.  The last I heard from Jeff he said I had an hour and a half left.  At that point I figured I still had 7 miles, but I knew somehow I could outrun the course patrol to get that last 30 minutes if I needed to.   I knew I had to run a lot.  I started picking out a tree, a rock or a random pole as far ahead as I could see.   I told myself make it to that point, get a drink and re-evaluate.  At about what I thought was 7 miles left, I had lost radio contact with Jeff.  The last time I talked to him, I knew he had made the aid station, but he faded out and I didn’t know if he was trying to tell me the aid station would still be there or if they would be gone by the time I got to it.  I did hear him say you have an hour and a half left before they close the course.

I’ve learned a lot from Lisa Gunnoe about mental training.  As a matter of fact, if I would have had phone service, I would have called her so I could hear her tell me to suck it up.  No negative thinking on the trail.  I had this.  I was going to finish.   So all I could do was pretend that she and I had that conversation, because I knew exactly what she would say.  I dug my poles in the ground and started running.

I was on a downhill and in the distance I saw a guy sitting in a chair on the side of the road.  As he saw me approaching, he stood up and walked to the edge of the road.  I felt a lump start to form in my throat. It seemed like it took forever for me to get close enough to him to hear the words I knew he was going to say.  I forced myself to hold back the tears as I choked out the words, "Are you going to make me quit?"  His reply was, "do you want me too?"  What?  Did I hear him right?  I knew he had to wonder if he should let me make that call when I repeated myself the second time.  He told me I had about 2 or 3 miles.  I thought he meant 2 or 3 miles to the finish line.  I left thinking I don't know how that's possible, but if that's all there is left I can do this.  About 2 miles later I found the last aid station.

 

Kevin King was waiting at the aid station for me to arrive and give me a rundown of my options.  Option 1: Call it quits.  You ran a good race.  You made it 27 miles; Option 2:  You have about 4.8 miles left.  You can keep running and see how far you can get before I have to pick you up in about 30 minutes; and   Option 3:  Go rouge.  Finish this thing.   I heard the words, but I couldn’t believe they came out of my mouth, “I’m going rouge.”   Kevin poured me a cup full of Pedialyte (husband’s orders) and filled my bottle with orange juice.  I left with the instructions to run all the downhills, power walk the up hills and do not say anything to the ham radio operators up ahead about finishing.  Just tell them that he’ll be behind me to pick me up in a few.

Somehow I found the strength to run and power walk my way right past the ham radio operators.  I smiled at them and kept right on going without a word being said.  Then I heard the sound of gravel crunching under the slow moving tires of a truck.  The ham radio operators were now following me.  No big deal.  I’ve got my story straight.   I stopped and waited for them to pull up beside me.  “Do you have enough water? You doing okay?”  the one asked.  I told them I had plenty and asked if they had any idea how much further I had to go.   They said we were a little way away from Petey’s rock, so they figured I had about 2 and a half miles left.   They followed me along for a little while and before they went on ahead, the other radio operator said, “You finish this.”  The whole time they were following me I was rehearsing the line in my head “Kevin is coming to pick me up.  I’m just seeing how far I can get.”  Well, I guess I had rehearsed it too much because by the time Kevin pulled up, I believed it.    

I looked at the course ahead and saw it was yet another steep uphill and then looked at the empty seat in Kevin’s truck.  He told me he was pulling me off the course.   I was the worst runner gone rogue ever.  I crawled up in the truck relieved that I was forced to give up.  He tried to make me feel better by telling me I wasn’t a quitter because he was having to pull me off the course.  Little did he know I had been in the process of coming to terms with not finishing for several miles.  I had even thought of everything to console myself down to even the smallest details.  I wouldn’t be able to get a 50K sticker now, but I could get one that said >26.2.   I took a deep breath and settled in for the ride to the finish line.  I start preparing myself to tell everyone I was okay and it was okay that I didn’t finish.  There would always be next time, but of course I had already decided screw this I am never doing this again!

About half a mile down the road Kevin stopped the truck and looked at me.   He said, “You’ve got 2 options.”  What?  More options?!  He handed me his phone so I could read the text message he got from PoDog.  “She has a walkie.  Her husband is on the way with a flashlight.  Let her finish.”  I just looked at him in disbelief.  Seriously?  So of course I had to ask, “Can I get out here?” No.  He had to take me back to where he picked me up.  As we spun around and flew back to the place where he picked me up, he told me that I had what it took to finish.  He had come in dead last in many a race.  There is no shame in coming in last.  One thing I told myself over and over is I might not be fast, but I am a finisher.  Now was the time to prove it.   

So I sucked it up and got out of the truck and took off yet again.  There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to finish.  These people were going to make sure they pushed, pulled and prodded me over the finish line if they had to!  Fortunately, I had gotten a fifteenth wind and somehow found that grit inside me that everyone knew was there.   Jeff hollered at me on the walkie and said he was on his way.  A little way up I saw him in our car making the curve in front of me.   From there he started following behind me in the car.  I asked him how much further.  “Just a couple more miles,” he said “this is the last uphill climb.”  We rounded the bend at the top of the hill and there sat our friends whooping and hollering, “only 2.2 miles to go!”  Finally, I knew exactly how far I had to go. 

I kept running and Jeff jumped out of the car and had our friend, Becky, drive our car behind us so he could run with me.  Relief.  Not only was I going to make it, I was going to make it running.  I could not get off that mountain fast enough.  Jeff kept telling me to look for the orange finish line spray painted on the ground.  Once I rounded the last curve all I saw was Lisa standing there waiting so I ran straight into her arms and bawled my eyes out.  I did it.  I became ultra.