Rocky 50 Miler

 

I think it was about a month before this race, I had come to Huntsville to pace a friend in the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler (which I had DNF’ed years earlier….my first ever DNF). As I was running with him, he mentioned that his friend was going to be doing this 50 miler later and that started me thinking. So….a few days later I also entered this race.

I got to the race start and found parking (one has to pay to park – but you can pay in advance on-line which is what I did). I found parking and checked into my race.

All runners lined up for the start. It was dark so, of course, I had a flashlight. I often run with a headlamp but decided to just use the flashlight here – and that worked (it got light enough in the first loop that I didn’t need the flashlight anymore). I had a light day-hike backpack on (I had worn it in Leadville, Mont Blanc, and a few other races – a nice REI one).

The course is loops and almost all trails. The trails have many roots in them so footing can be challenging. Plus, it had been raining before the race – so there were puddles and mud. But, still it was a nice trail – sometimes with “bridges” which were flat stretches of wooden planks.

I felt pretty good early on and was keeping a nice pace. But near the end of my second loop I actually considered dropping at the 50km point. However, as I came into the start/finish area I saw the runner that I had paced earlier. We chatted for two minutes and I looked at the time and decided that absolute worst case, I could walk my final loop and still finish. So I continued. I kept looking for our mutual friend who had registered for this first and (unknown to her at that time) got me into this race. But I never saw her.

I was able to strike up some conversations with other runners. Going through some aid stations (some had vegetarian food which, for me, was very important and helpful) there was often some music being played which helped.

Into my last loop, I was starting to get a bit cold. It was also getting dark so I had my flashlight out again. But even with the light – I went down three times due to roots. Luckily the ground where I landed was soft enough each time I bounced back up.

Finally, in the distance as I was crossing a levee I could see where the finish line was. I kept going and soon rounded the final corner and crossed the finish line. Wow! 50 miles down and a nice medal. I was pleased.