Day 4,409—Berryman 50 (53 or 54?) Part 5—

 

Start time: 6:00 a.m.

Weather: 60s to Mid 70s, Max wind 8.5 mi/h, Some Rain, Humidity 81%

This is such a uniquely challenging race that I always remember it being easier than it is. When I was talking with some other runners about it, one of them mentioned they were training for the elevation, which I guess is over 5,000 feet, but to me, that doesn’t seem that bad, since my last two 100s had roughly 14,000 to 18,000 feet in elevation. Yet, of course, I was feeling like I had underestimated the run when I was climbing those hills. Yet, the hills are mostly rolling, and the longer ones don’t have steep inclines, so compared to other races, it isn’t that bad, but compared to something flatter, it must seem intense. The other thing that makes this race uniquely challenging is the rocks, roots, and consistently hard soil. There are a handful of sections that have some leaves and pine needles to make it softer, but in general, the ground is tough.

        I fell under five times and had no major falls, but I cannot seem to make it through a loop of this race without falling on my face. There are just so many rocks and roots! As soon as I feel like I am getting in a good groove, I faceplant. I got a bunch of compliments on my bike gloves during this race. I think at least 4 different people told me that they were going to buy some bike gloves for the same reason. It is not even my idea, which I always tell everyone when they say something about it. It just makes sense to me, like wearing a helmet, except even more so, because going into this race, there was a 100 percent chance I was going to fall.

Camping

I am so glad I did this, so I could test my gear and see what I liked. The good news was that the table I bought was amazing, and I was able to make dinner with my skillet, but there was no water, so I couldn’t do dishes. It would have been smarter to bring a full jug of water just in case. It took me about an hour in total to complete the setup. I met a nice guy named Tim when I got there, who offered to help me set up my tent. The tent doesn’t take any time, but just moving all my stuff back and forth from my car, and once again, I brought way too much stuff. I barely ate any of the food I brought! I did eat it on the car rides back and forth, but I didn't touch a good 75 percent of it. Which is okay, hopefully I won’t just eat it all and can use some of it for the Mohican. It did rain Friday night, so I wasn’t able to eat under the stars as I planned, but it was relaxing to sit in my tent and listen to the rain. Camping was great! The only thing I didn’t like that I bought was this fan/light. The light was dim, and I barely noticed the fan. I might just throw it away. Having separate ones might be the best way to go, but is it better than nothing? I remember being annoyed because I had to turn on another light, and I had my other fan, which I used most of the time. I should consider buying another fan for the Florida one.

Little Oddities

        Last year, when I did this, I finished almost exactly at 53 miles, so I was expecting something similar this time, but I guess my watch was a little off, and I finished the first loop at over 26.6. I knew a little would be added when I was walking around Berryman after the first loop, so finishing at 53.56 isn’t that big of a surprise, but being over a half mile off from last year with the same watch seems significant to me. There was a woman at the end who told me it was 54 miles, and I told her this was my 5th time doing the race, and it had never been 54. Later, I wondered why it bothered me so much that she said that. Everyone’s watch can be different, so I am sure her watch just had a different distance, and who cares? I think I said something like that to her at the end. She was crewing for her friend, whom I had run with for probably close to 20 miles. She and this guy named David were the ones I talked with the most. I thought I might talk to the guy I met the night before camping, but. I didn’t see him again after the race started. David was a nice guy who was encouraging a much younger guy who was 18. David was planning to attempt 5 ultras next year, including the Mohican 100. A lot of people I talked to got dehydrated and were dealing with nausea. David and Heather both were struggling when I was running with them. I don’t know if I could have gone that much faster. I could have gone faster when I was running with them, but not by much. 

        The first loop was hot and humid, so humid that it made it easy not to keep track of your hydration as well as you should. I was on the edge of getting dehydrated, but I was managing. I had some high-electrolyte drinks that morning and the night before. I hit every aid station, filling up and finishing my drinks before the next one. The last aid station until the finish was funny because the guy there didn’t fill up my bottles to the top! He left about ¼ of the bottle empty. I immediately went back to fill it up, and then he offered to fill up my other bottle with Gatorade, but I was like, “No, I will do it,” but he insisted, so I let him, and he once again didn’t fill it up all the way. When I went to finish filling up my flask, he accused me of being dramatic.

        I said, “I have had heatstroke enough times to learn my lesson.” I was trying not to be mean, but the idea of someone skimping on hydration during an ultra race with all this humidity seemed insane to me! He was an older gentleman just helping out. The first loop I finished in over five hours, which I knew was slower than I have typically done it, but I didn’t stay that long at the Berryman campground. I changed shirts, but nothing else, and drank my high-electrolyte stuff and headed back out. I had avoided putting on my headphones, but I decided to listen to music during the second loop. As soon as I put them on, I ran into David again, and then Heather came up behind him and asked him, “Is it okay if I run behind you?”

        He, of course, said yes, but it seemed like such an odd thing to say to someone during a race. I asked her, “What if he had said no?”

        But it was a great distraction to talk with them both and try to encourage them as much as I could. I know I was starting to annoy them when I told them I loved the hills that they were trying to commiserate over, but I was just trying to show them how focusing on the right things during struggles is always an option. Of course, there are plenty of things that are bad you can focus on, but you can also focus on the good things that are happening.

        Heather asked if I could give her an example, and I talked about how if a thought comes into my head, “I can’t do this!”

        I don’t fight the thought, but I redirect my focus. I might respond, “Well, I am still moving right now. I can keep moving forward, so why don’t I wait and see what happens?”

         Once I redirect my thoughts to each step, I try to get lost in picking the right foot placement. There are so many rocks and roots! There is so much to pay attention to. We lost David after the first 10 miles, and then I thought I lost both of them, and I could have sworn I heard Heather call me a psychopath, which bothered me more than it probably should have, but I get why she is so defensive. In moments like this, when people are struggling, when I am struggling, I become relentlessly positive, and it must come off jarring to people who have the opposite reaction to difficult situations, but I find that the struggle forces me to stay present, and being present like that is so liberating. Most of the time, ideas of the past and the future influence how I feel about the present, but when I can stay in the present, that burden is gone, and that is freeing.

        Heather caught up to me, and to my surprise, she wanted to keep talking to me and found she had stopped fighting my positive spin on things. Her friend ran with her for the last 10 miles, but I saw them again a couple more times, and she finished about 10 minutes behind me. She was struggling for the entire last loop. Her hydration was off, and it was her first time doing this, but she figured it out. David came in not that long afterward. He was also feeling sick. Part of me was critical of myself for not running faster, but I find it funny that in the past two times I have run this race, I have spent part of the race running with someone who was struggling. Last year with Travis and the year before that with Joel, and it is a fun way to do this race. I could learn from talking with both of them. David told me about a place where you can go see wild horses. Heather told me about a medical procedure I had never heard of. David also told me a little bit about bird languages, which makes me want to research the topic, and he had some good camping advice. He was so skeptical of my blowup tent, but when he saw it at the end, he was so impressed. I wonder why people are so skeptical of blow-up tents. I am so glad I bought exactly the kind of camping gear I prefer, because it makes camping so much easier! I love being outside, and I am so glad I have been able to camp the past couple of years. 

I don’t know if I will do this race next year. I will have to look at my race calendar, but every year I enjoy it and get to know at least one person.