Another year goes by and another race is completed.  Not all years are the same though.  Sometimes you are in better shape and sometimes the weather is very cold.  Both were the case with this year’s JFK 50 Miler.  My coach recommended that I skip this race due to lack of training, but I really didn’t care.  I am tired of missing races because of lack of training of injury.  I figured with enough will power I’d be able to get through it.

Besides my lack of training, the first sign that this year would be different was the weather.  We ran into several snow showers on the way out to the race and the temperatures were in the low 20’s.  I had no idea what I would wear for the race.  Being outside for 10 plus hours in 19 degree temps is a long time.  I had various layers, but I didn’t know what combination to wear.  I finally settled for wearing shorts, tights and 4 layers on top, complete with 3 pairs of gloves and a hat.  The clothes worked out for the most part and I only had to take off one layer due to getting too hot.  My only mistake was not packing my mittens.  That would have been the best.

The race starts off for 15.5 miles on the Appalachian Trail.  It’s over 3.5 hours of climbs and descents over very rocky terrain.  You can’t spend any time looking at the scenery because all of your concentration is focused on looking at the ground below you.  It really seemed like every rock wanted to reach up and grab your shoe to trip you up.  I fell once on the trail, but came out unscathed; I only lightly banged my knee.  While on the trail I was surprised to hear my cell phone ring.  It was my wife calling to find out where my son’s soccer game was.  I don’t know why she called me and not the coach.  In a way I was perhaps lucky for the call.  I felt like I was going a bit too hard on the trail and since I had to slow down to answer the phone, it reminded me that I should be not be so aggressive this early in the race.

When I got off the AT, my legs were feeling tired, but that was nothing new.  I felt that was the last time I did the JFK 50 and went on to have a great race after the AT.  The AT really hits all of the muscles in your legs, but is nothing like the C&O Canal Path that you run on after you get off the trail.  At the end of the AT and before the C&O, there is a major aid station.  I was so looking forward to getting a PB&J, but unfortunately they ran out.  I was so disappointed as I was really hungry and wanted something solid to eat.  Instead I ate a couple of Hammer Gels.

The C&O portion of the race consist of 26 miles of flat, dirt packed ground that is along a canal that used to have barges pulled by horse power.  It is very flat and can be very fast and could be very monotonous.  I enjoy the tow path though and think it is the easiest section of the course.  There are plenty of aid stations which are separated by only 2.4 – 4 miles.  Mentally, you always know you could just make it to the next aid station.  The only real problem I had during this portion was keeping my hands warm.  They were especially cold every time I took my gloves off at aid stations or had to fuss with something in my pack or my phone.  I received 3 phone calls while I was running.  I should have left the phone at home, especially when I saw one of the calls was from my boss at work.  I answered that call thinking that something was wrong in the office, only to find out it was my boss telling me that she was laid off.  Another call was from my wife, who called to ask for the location of my son’s soccer game.  I really should have turned the damn thing off.

I did very little walking during the race.  I was afraid that if I start walking that I wouldn’t start running again.  Also, when I slowed to a walk I would begin to get cold.  I didn’t want to get hypothermic as that is a sure way to get taken out of a race.  And lastly we had a 12 hour time limit and I didn’t want to be pulled off the course because I didn’t make a cutoff point.

During the race, I was mentally ok and felt it manageable as long as the times it was taking me to reach the next aid station was predictable.   If I thought that the next aid station would take me 48 minutes to reach and I met or beat that time then I knew I would be ok.  However, if I started to slow down without realizing it and it was taking me much longer than I thought it would I knew that I was going to be in trouble.  It didn’t matter how slow I went as long as I could predict a time and see that prediction come true when I reach the next aid station.  Fortunately, I was correct or better than my predictions so I had some measure of comfort throughout the later portions of the race.

When I got off the C&O Canal path, and onto the last 8 miles of asphalt roads, I noticed a scraping sound coming from the bottom of my sneaker like I had something stuck to it.  It turns out that I wore my sneakers down so bad during the race during the first 42 miles that the sole started to peel away from the heel.  I was able to scrape it off though and the sound went away.

By the time I got to the 6 miles remaining mark, it really started to get dark.  There were no lights on the road and I ran in total darkness for the last several miles.  Only the occasional passing car would light up the road.  I started to hope that I didn’t run into any potholes.  I made it though without incident and crossed the finish line in 10:44:26 which equates to a 12:51 pace.  I was almost an hour slower than the last time I did it, but I had a lot more training then.  I was extremely pleased and happy to have crossed the finish line.

The race ends at a high school and my friends that I did the race with were already inside waiting for me.  My friend Larry helped me sit down and get up a couple of times as I got something to eat and went to retrieve my bags.  We traded war stories with people we knew and just met and just relaxed for a while.  Afterwards, when everyone showered and gathered their belongings, we said goodbye to the other runners we knew and made our way back to our hotel.  We stopped to buy chocolate syrup (chocolate milk is a great recovery drink) and some roasted chickens.   At the hotel we had a bunch of beer which we began to drink and ripped into the chickens.  We were still hungry after that so we ordered out for anchovy, mushroom and black olive pizza and a couple of dozen chicken wings.  We ate, drank and talked the night away and eventually went to sleep sometime after midnight.

Pictures to come…