When I bent down to pull my socks off after being on my feet for 34 miles, I assumed hamburger would be dropping from the toe holes. They weren’t as bad as they felt. Everything had gone great for the race, hydration, I didn’t get sick, metabolically felt solid, knees and hips were mobile for 6000 feet of climbing and descending, everything except my toes.
I found out, probably at mile 25, that my shoes were too small. They were either too small for the distance, or too small for the amount of descent, or too narrow for when the swelling got real, or a little bit of all of those. My H1s served me well on all of my training, including several 20+ long runs, but on race day they were the only problem. To be clear, my decision to only go up a half size and not a whole size was the problem, I still love those shoes, they are stable, fast, and all things people love about them. I just made a decision based on what I know from marathon training. This was not that.
Goners
The Fahnestock 50k was a very hard first Ultra. The cognitive load of staring at rocks hoping not to roll my ankle, crossing streams, calculating salt intake while swatting mosquitos was heavy lifting, but as a newbie, I felt like I did well. The main thing was that I ran my race, which is to say slow and steady. I was the only one that started the race walking. I did have a midnight-of-the-soul from about mile 28-30, but this was expected so not that hard to deal with. I even passed a guy during the last mile.
Photo by Kris Lowe
Variables and Vectors (Notes From the Race)
I woke up at 12:30am and couldn’t go back to sleep. So that sucked.
Heart rate was off the charts, didn’t know why. I felt fine though. Probably lack of sleep and excitement…AND HILLS! My training was 95% MAF so this was a surprise, but I probably did ok because of the training.
Mosquitos were unreal. Had to remember to reapply bug spray at aid stations. I forgot twice.
Hydration timing was tight. I ran out of liquid twice but was fine.
I had to learn collapsible poles in a day. So glad I brought them. I almost didn’t for the weight.
I probably could have eaten more but was careful.
Lots of trail reroutes. I only missed one turn, but only for a second.
Water / creek crossings. I went slow and carefully.
Mud. No avoiding it, but I tried.
I did a shot of Fireball at Mile 21 Aid Station, what a party they were having. SO FUN!
Drinking coke was never the plan. It was amazing!
Cold start, do I wear a jacket? (I didn’t)
I carried too much food. Pack could have been lighter.
One of the aid stations ran out of skratch (salty hydration drink) I had to do a lot of salt calculation on the fly.
Shoes too small.
Trying to remember when the big climbs were going to be. There was a hard one from mile 22-25. Just all uphill.
Frogs were everywhere. Plopping in the puddles.
Kiddie Pool Ice Bath and A Genesee
