Ultrapalooza 2023

It’s the morning after, a time of silence and wondering. I made it to the start of the race and I had a great race. In some ways, it is a miracle that this happened. I so often fail at running races that when I succeed, I so appreciate it. I suppose this feeling of awe and wonder and accomplishment is why I keep coming back.

My journey started months ago, like November of 2022. I signed up for a 50-mile race. I signed up for the Ultrapalooza so early because the entrance fees go up dramatically over time. I then proceeded to train and stew. I was stewing about how much training needed to be done, and would I be able to make myself finish the race. I have so often not finished races if I happened by my car with 40 miles and sore feet.

The training went pretty well up until July 29, now 8 months after signing up for 50 miles. On July 29, I was at a race in Oklahoma. I ran pretty well for a couple of hours, then it got hot and I ended up stopping with about 20 miles because I was feeling heat-related illness. I had purposefully signed up for the Oklahoma race as a training situation for the 50-mile race. After Oklahoma, I realized that I had no interest anymore in training for or attempting a 50-mile race. It just seemed outside my mental wheelhouse, beyond my mental capacity and the idea was stressing me out. So, I switched my Ultrapalooza from 50 miles to 50k. I immediately felt the stress fall from my mind. I can do 50k (31 miles).

Then came a 50k race in the middle of August. I failed to start that race. I didn’t feel like putting out the energy. Coming home from that race, I somehow managed to hurt my right heel. The heel was painful, especially since I had just started a new job where I was on my feet every shift. But I did manage to rehabilitate the heel, get in a couple of 20 mile training runs and feel good about the upcoming 50k at Ultrapalooza.

Then, ten days before the Ultrapalooza, I began the weather watch. The weather looked like strong thunderstorms most of the day, and warm temperatures. Well, since it takes me 7.5 hours to complete 50k, I wasn’t sure how I would survive the thunderstorms all day. So I switched myself to the half marathon, 13.1 miles. Again I felt relief. I can survive almost any weather for 2.5 hours, the amount of time it takes me to do a half marathon.

I rested up for a couple of days before the race. I watched my caffeine so that I could sleep well. And… miracles began. When my alarm went off on race day, I actually did get out of bed. I had a safe and t-storm free drive to the race. I got a great parking spot. I picked up my bib and soon found myself at the start of a race. I nearly cried as we listened to the National Anthem. Yes! I made it to the start line of a race.

The race went fantastic, an experience of being in the zone. For the first 3 miles, I followed along behind 2 girls who were running 11-minute miles. Then, they stopped so I passed them. My speed immediately zoomed up to 10-minute miles. The course was a straight rails-to-trails path, mostly tree-lined. It was cloudy with thunder rumbles but no rain. I was breathing hard, just above the talk threshold. I was watching my feet but there was nothing to trip over. I focused on running and that’s it.

And so, pretty soon, I had one mile to go. I checked my Garmin and saw that if I kept up the speed, I could beat 2:13 for my time. I was pumped to focus and not start lagging. I got into the finish to about 50 people ringing cowbells. I didn’t even raise my hands or worry about photographers. I was focused on beating my time. I didn’t stop until after my Garmin had recorded the 13.1 miles. By the time I stopped, the race director had come over to congratulate me. We both watched the little celebration that my Garmin produced because I had run a personal best. We chatted about Courtney Dauwalter and Sally McCrae, we being ultrarunning fan girls. The race director had me get my picture taken with the PR sign:

I felt so pumped that I ran so fast. I was so amazed that I had no pains. I got to sweat, run, and be in the zone. And I guess that’s why I keep going to races. You just never know when you are going to pull one off and get to feel awesome.

What is better? To run really fast, pushing your limits, or to run really long pushing your limits? The past two half marathons I’ve done, I’ve felt really pumped over fast times. The past two long races I’ve done, I’ve felt pain and even if I finished to race, I wasn’t pumped.