Day 4,108—Baby Raccoons at the GYBK—

 

I at least got a 50K in, but last night was not my night, but I had a lot of fun. It was great talking to people I've met in past races and just checking in to see how everyone is doing. It is also nice to meet new people. This is a race, yet at this point, it feels like a social event that happens over 6 hours. I was really happy to see Travis get 3rd and have a great time. We started running together when I was thinking I should be able to run at least 36, but I don’t know exactly when I felt like I had been pushing it too much. I stopped long enough to use the bathroom and sit for a minute.

         I did have a long day yesterday. I took my school counseling exam early in the morning, and I didn’t get a lot of sleep on Friday night. So Saturday, I had so much anxiety over passing this test, not that it should have been stressful, but I just didn’t want to have to take it again and basically find out that I wasted my time and money. I know it wouldn’t have been a waste, but still, I was ready to finish.

         I don’t think it was a hard test, comparatively, but I spent the whole two hours answering the questions and didn’t know how I did when I hit submit to have my scores reported. When it showed me what I got, I didn’t know what it meant, so I looked up the qualifying score I needed on my phone in the parking lot as I walked to my car. Thankfully, I passed! Not too close to the qualifying score cut off; however, at the same time, I immediately started wondering why I hadn’t done better. I was relieved and exhausted. I wanted to go home and go to sleep, but my kids were at the Magic House, so I went there after not too long and ate at Mod Pizza. Maybe the Mod Pizza wasn’t the ideal meal before this. I didn’t eat a lot else, and the only thing I ate during the race was some pickles.

         I cannot blame the weather or the bugs. They were still factors, but I remember it being worse in past years. Normally, the difference is that I start a lot faster. This one I started roughly at the pace I wanted to stay at, but that ended up being too much.

         I had my hydration stuff pre-mixed in my cooler, but I think I might have overdone it on the hydration stuff and needed to drink more regular water, or maybe I was just out of practice? I haven’t done a long day like this since the Huron 100, so this was such a needed long run, and I was proud of myself for taking it easy and not pushing myself to the point of being sick. With about two hours left, I was feeling amazing, and I started listening to music and put on my vest. I randomly got a rash or a bug bite on my back that was annoying me. My shorts were practically falling off, so I tied them tighter, but that didn’t feel good. I had a lot of good conversations. I talked to Travis at first, and then Eric said, Hi. I saw Chris, whom I talked to on Strava the other day. Jake and Phil were there. Phil was running the aid station, and Jake ran a lap with me.

I saw a ton of raccoons! I wasn’t keeping track, but there were at least eight different raccoons, and a few of them were tiny, so I was calling them babies. I wasn’t carrying my phone for most of the race, so I didn’t get a lot of pictures, but I got my phone out long enough to take two pictures. One of a raccoon and one of all the runners with their headlamps on near the end.

I also saw a possum just strolling through the path near the end, and one snake curled up right next to the trail. I still thought there was a chance that I might get 34 miles in, but with fewer than 10 minutes left, I stopped to use the bathroom and lost 3-4 minutes. Yet, I still pushed myself to do one short loop after that with less than 3 minutes to go, and I finished it right at 12 hours.

Not my strongest performance, but I am happy with what I was able to do. It was a long day. I didn’t realize how much taking the test in the morning would wipe me out. If anything, I thought it might make me feel a little stir-crazy and give me more energy after having to sit in a room for two hours. Possibly if I hadn’t gotten my score yet, I would have been more anxious and had more of a desire to do more, but I don’t know. It was a nice night, and I did over 50k. I benefited more from seeing familiar faces and talking to people compared to running. It is a perk of the short loop format. You get so many more opportunities to talk to people and do some loops together. It is a five-star experience. I recommend this timed race and the Minnie HaHA to local runners of all different types of experience. I also would put the Howard Aslinger in that group. There is something charming about the timed races.