Must pee pee with Narnia Pizzazz (AKA Nueces 50 miler race report)

Wow, I know this race report will be very long considering it’s my last for running.  So don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Race day morning was a lot calmer than Bandera considering I actually showed up to the race 45 minutes early instead of 30 minutes late.  And, since I had to travel far for the race to a town that has literally nothing, I had to actually plan ahead.  I had a bag for what I would wear to start the race, one for each loop during and one for after.   Thanks to Laura Eukert for her help on this!

Starting the race, it was going to be freezing!  So, gloves, ear warmers, running capris under skirt (I know I looked like dork but I didn’t care!), arm warmers with short sleeve shirt, jacket, gaitors, headlamp (thanks to Laura again) and of course shoes and socks.  One really cool thing was Sonia Burdett (a local trail runner) found me on the list of entrants and we connected to ride together.  She really helped me with how to dress on race day as well as where to set up camp race day morning!

My during bag had anything and everything you could ever want (thanks to Laura yet again for sharing her trail running bag!)  Stuff you would never think you’d need in a million years, but you NEVER know what might happen.  And it was polka dots!  How can you miss that?!

The coolest thing about the race by far was we started in the DARK.  It was dark for the first hour and I had a BLAST running in the dark!  Definitely doing that again.  The race was 3 loops and each loop we ran through a pavilion where my stuff was.  Starting the race, it was switchback, switchback, switchback, switchback all going up!  So, lots of walking to start but it was good for warming up slowly.  Plus some people apparently weren’t as excited as I was about running in the dark. 🙂  After a while, I finally got behind a group of people going a good pace and we ran together for quite a distance.  But, then they ALL stopped at the rest stop.  I looked at them like they were crazy for stopping so soon, since I bring all of my nutrition with me, and kept going.  However, all of the trail running I’ve done to this point, I pretty much find someone going a good pace and just stick it out with them!  So, we become great friends (and talk about things you should never talk to a stranger about) by the end like Jon and Chris at Bandera and Michelle at Cross Timbers.  It wasn’t looking so promising this time though.  I did meet Leslie from Houston and we chatted a bit.  And then, John from Houston.  He and I saw each other a few times on first and second loops but it was nothing like the other 2 races.

Towards to end of the first loop, I starting thinking about all the things I needed to do at the pavilion when I got there.  However, I COULD not for the life of me keep recalling all of those things.  So, I made up a mnemonic device!  Except it was kind of goofy.  “Can’t sing squat.  Never coulda, woulda bonked.”  Don’t ask.  But I chanted that for at least 4 miles so I could remember!  C=clothes (take all the warm stuff off!), S=sunglasses, S=sunscreen, N=nutrition, C=chapstick, W=water in pack, B=bathroom.  Hehe!  It worked!

On the second loop, my legs started to ache a bit by 11:00 am.  I figured, well, I’ve been out here on these crazy hills, so it was bound to happen.  I remember at Bandera, the guys I met talked me into taking (gotta blame it on someone else 🙂 ) Tylenol and they explained why ultra runners take that over anything else.  So, I started trying to figure out when I should take that.  But, then I forgot I was thinking about it.  :/  It was also the second loop that random songs started popping into my head.  And DON’T ASK ME WHY but at one point, I have to admit I started singing the “skinamarinky dinky dink skinamarinky doo” song.  Haha!  I don’t even know where that song came from!   You would have thought that was the point my mind was going, but it never did.  I’m just weird like that.  At one point I was telling myself to “slow my roll.”  Out loud, yes…because I pretty much ran the last 2 loops alone only passing a bunch of people.  I’m pretty sure that saying was from the 80’s or maybe early 90’s!  And of course, by the end of the 2^nd loop, I had to come up with yet another mnemonic device so I didn’t forget anything at the pavilion.

Now, keep in mind when I started the race, I HAD NO idea I would finish that early.  I was thinking I would have to get the head lamp and gloves back out because it would be dark by the time I finished.  However, after coming up on the 2^nd lap at 12:30 pm, I was thinking, “I BETTER not be out here past sunset!”  So, the second one was “Must pee pee with Narnia pizazz.”  Lol!  I can’t even believe I’m telling people this!  M=music (ipod), Pee=bathroom, P=poptart, W=water in pack, N=nutrition, and P=picture (I wanted someone to take my pic with the new gang sign I came up with for loop 3 and ~33 miles. 🙂 )  Again, I remembered them all but FORGOT the Tylenol!  When I crossed the mat coming in after loop 2 I realized loop 1 and 2 were only 1:00 different in time.  I was floored that I had done that!

By loop 3, I was sick of the BAHs!  Ask any trail runner if you don’t know what that stands for.  I may have just made that up, but some of you will get it.  I caught up with this girl on loop 3 and stayed with her for a while actually.  I never talked to her because she seemed so serious!  I did tell her at the first rest stop on loop 3 that she was a beast on the up hill.  I haven’t mentioned nutrition yet, but it was at the mile 40 rest stop I finally took the Tylenol and started drinking flat coke.  I was still in great spirits chatting it up with the volunteers and by the way, taking pictures the WHOLE race (which are on Facebook if you want to see.)

I guess it’s because I don’t take medicine ever but there was something about that Tylenol that made everything go away and I just ran.  I did have to keep telling myself, “pick up your feet and breathe.”  SO MANY people were bleeding from falling it was terrible!  At the 2^nd aid station on loop 3, I passed serious girl and never saw her again.  But you know at this point I was looking back!  It was also this point, I realized I was going to break 10 hours.  So, nothing was going to stop me now.  I ran the entire race (only walking up hill which in normal in trail running.)  In the last 4 miles a girl passed me!  And, one guy!  That was it for the entire race and it was at the very end!  Boooo!  And, I’m pretty sure if I didn’t take all those pictures that wouldn’t have happened!   So, I crossed the finish line at 9:42:32 with all my wits about me.

Now, let’s talk about nutrition for a second.  First, I practiced every single weekend what I was going to do on race day, which included gel at the top of the hour and some clif bar at the bottom of the hour.  Water every 15 minutes (Most of you don’t know this, but I don’t sweat, so I would never recommend that spaced out for this heat).  Then, at the end I would start with the chips and coke.  It started warming up with very little wind at the e­­­nd of loop one and I made the decision to bump my water intake to every 10 minutes.  However, my stomach got sloshy when I started doing that.  So, I went back to every 15 minutes until it got a little warmer.  Again, this is something I’ve practiced and I know works for me.  Since I cut back to every 15 minutes, I still felt thirsty, but I knew if I drank every time I was thirsty, my stomach wouldn’t empty because of too much fluid.  So instead I swished water in my mouth every time I felt thirsty and spit it out.  And instead of drinking it, I poured it on me to cool me off.  I stuck with the plan.  So, with the exception of maybe over drinking once (which lasted about 30 minutes), my nutrition was spot on and I didn’t have any doubts that it would be.

What a great experience I had!  Winning 10^th overall helped a little. 🙂  I certainly could not have had such a wonderful season without Gary’s coaching, Terry’s massages and Dr. Brian’s ART.  And having a super sweet, extremely understanding boyfriend certainly didn’t hurt either!