are you experienced?

Training for Badwater 2012 is going O.K. I'm not injured. I'm not sick of running. But, I'm just not running the amount of mileage I would like to be. Every time I make BIG plans, something, like life, gets in the way. I'm not complaining, I am glad I have a life, a daughter, a job. I just wish I could be independently wealthy and that all of my wonderful friends were too so I could run more and they could help me out with Elena...you know, it takes a village! Anyway...

I opted to run the Pigtail's Challenge 1/2 (that is 100 miles) on Memorial Day weekend as my final big run for Badwater. The problem was I didn't know how to approach it. My options were to run it easy and put in designated walking breaks (to practice walking for Badwater) or to just run it and go by feel. I really couldn't make up my mind and just decided what to do once I got running.

Ultimately, it turned into a run. I wasn't running hard, I walked when I needed. I visited with people (runners and regular citizens). I met a really neat horse (oh, his owner was nice too). I wrote songs (Sorry, Allen) and sang them. I gagged on a cracker and almost choked to death! You know, fun ultra stuff!

The course consisted of a 6 miles worth of out and back, followed by 10 loops of 9.4 miles each. There was the main aid station at each loop end and another basic aid station about 1/2 way around. The course was mostly a gravel surface, nice to run on really, with a few rollers, but nothing too extreme. For the really awesome people, totally runnable. For the rest of us, the hills were good enough to walk without guilt! And we did! The loops were run washing machine style (reversing direction each time) so you really got to see everyone who was out there, including the people who were already many many miles into their 150 and 200 mile adventures. Amazing.

The problem was I was feeling TOO good. How can that be a problem? Well, the sun was out, the run was going great and so I ran and ran. Oh, and ran. This was supposed to be a training run. And then I realized (thank you loops!) that I was running as 1st woman and wouldn't that be cool to win and get a free pair of shoes!? But I'm not racing. I'm training. This run needed to be easy so I could recover quickly and get back out there training for Badwater. It's all about Badwater.

So while I didn't really TRY to win (I walked with a lot of different people and got to visit with them) it did feel neat to be running in first and to be feeling sooo good!  And watching other people's races and runs unfold was inspiring. I sort of new who was running their first hundred, who was going for the 150 and the 200 and it made me feel like an ultra-running virgin seeing and being a part of their experiences.

I had no crew or pacer for this run and the volunteers were super awesome helping to take care of me. I had a plan that was pretty straightforward and I can be (can be, not that I am) pretty low maintenance so I wasn't too worried about not having the personal support. I would come in, put Perpetum in my bottle, a volunteer would squeeze a gel in it, and voila! Good to go! But then, just as I get done writing, singing and sharing my blues song about not having a pacer or crew (and about some things Allen was doing...), Kris Ryding, a super awesome friend, runner and TEAM HIGH VOLTAGE crew member, shows up! Surprise! She ran two loops with me, sometime in the late afternoon, and then got some gear from the car for me before she left. It was such a gift to have her there!

A big purpose of this run was to again test some nutritional strategies for Badwater. I learned at Arrowhead that I need more sugar than Perpetum so tried adding a gel to a 1 hour bottle of it at the Pac Rim 24 hour race and found it worked well. I wanted to try this again at the Pigtail's Challenge 1/2. So, my plan was to leave the main aid station with the elixir mix as a one hour bottle, finish it by the other aid station, get some water there and some snacks, finish the loop, re-fill with elixir and eat some solid food, repeat.

Do you see anything wrong with this plan? There is something, really really not right. I'll wait while you try and figure it out...

Think you got it?

I had no plan for any real calories (aka ENERGY) for the 2nd 1/2 of each loop! The problem with that is when I make a plan, I'm pretty good at following it! On one loop I was feeling a bit poopy so I had a gu but otherwise I took in NO calories for the 2nd 1/2 of each loop. Can you say "rooky mistake"? Actually, I think a rooky would be too smart to do something like this.

Amazingly, I ran pretty consistent loops until loop 9. That is when it all caught up to me. Unfortunately, Jess Mullen decided to run a loop with me for that loop. It turned into a death march (I'm still sorry, Jess). The loop started great (talking about Badwater, how we got into running ultras and ultimately caught the Badwater bug) and I really enjoyed the running and visiting. But sometime after the aid station I became nauseous, dizzy and icky. Jess tried to make me eat (she knew right away what my problem was) but I wasn't super cooperative. Finally, realizing she was so RIGHT and I had made a huge mistake, I agreed to eat IF I could lay down. On the trail. With my feet up on that post. Oh yeah. But I did get 100 calories in!

Then, shortly into the final loop (after spending some time eating at the aid station), the 2nd place woman passed me looking very very strong. I already knew I wasn't going to race. This wasn't about racing, it was about training (and I had decided that earlier in the day; my one compromise for not doing any walking training).  But I also wasn't going to let her just pass me that easily! Nope, I had enough juice in me to keep running up the hills (which felt really good) and pass her back. And that is how it went for awhile. But then, the drama never ends! I was too cheap to change the batteries in my head lamp before the start (they seemed good...) and my lamp started flickering! So I had to turn it off to save juice where I knew the trail was pretty smooth. I hoped Kimberly wasn't thinking I was trying to hide from her!

I reached the aid station (sans light), had some gel (trying to make Jess proud!) and got some batteries from a volunteer. Kimberly went right through and I stayed and visited a bit with Kristen (who ran a great first 100 miler, even if she didn't look too spunky at this point in the night~nobody did) so that Kimberly and her pacer would be out of sight and out of mind.

They were and I did a lot of walking at that point. My energy was a bit low (although I was guing!) from my previous mistake so I just enjoyed the night.

And for the first time ever in a 100 I beat the sun to the finish line! I ran it in 22:10, a new PR and 2nd place woman! And I learned. I learned that sometimes I have stupid plans, always I have great friends, and ultra runners are the kind of people I like to be around.

SPLITS: Somewhere I wrote them down and now can't find them but they were pretty consistent in just over 2 hours for each loop. Except loop 9 was around 3.5 hours and loop 10 was around closer to 2.5 hours. So now, I want to try for a 20 hour 100 miler! My 100k time was just over 12 hours which is pretty good for me.

RECOVERY: My recovery from this was different from any other I have experienced. I ended up with some pretty bad chest pain for about 4 days. It hurt to breathe, to lay on my side, etc. Also, my heart would race, thump and about fall out of the bottom of chest. My massage therapist suggested that my cortisol levels were high b/c of A) all the running and B) the lack of calories (and she supports my running as she used to run ultras). She suggested I needed more protein and fat so to try whey protein supplement. I did and it worked! Well, that and time. But the need for additional protein after a big effort like this makes sense, and I don't think I typically get much protein.

So after that I decided NOT to enter any more races before Badwater. You pin a number on me and while I may not be a top contender, I get racing in my mind and I run harder than I do just training. Big Surprise there, eh?

I spent two weeks recovering (the first week not running, just healing) and the second week I slowly got back into it (I did do hill repeats). This weekend I'm running big, on my own, mostly on roads. Next week will be the final BIG week for me and I will probably have to get most of my mid week runs done on the treadmill. No biggie, I'll just watch T.V.!

Then to taper, which I don't really know how to do so maybe I better research that? Hmmm, and make a plan!