Day 4,578—Today and the Rim to River 100 Part VI—

 

Start time: 9:48 a.m.

        It was so nice to sleep in, be rested, and not be that late. Daylight Saving Time might be one of my favorite holidays ever! It is always nice to have an extra hour in the Fall. I don’t know if the spring forward ever bothers me that much because it means that the days are going to start getting longer. I took a bath this morning before I went out like I did yesterday. I started running and wasn’t tired, but I didn’t feel like putting in a bunch of miles today. I motivated myself to do at least 90 minutes by breaking it up with shopping. I decided to buy some groceries so I could make something at home. I spent hours making that food, but now I don't remember eating it. It is possible it contributed to me being sick, which I didn’t see coming at all. 

I am so nervous about the election this week! What is going to happen?! And congrats on the NYC marathoners! I probably wouldn’t have known it was happening this weekend, but the NYT ran a long article about how the entry cost has gone up over the years. It explained that everyone must do a series of runs now to get in. I would be frustrated if I lived in NY and couldn’t even afford to run my own marathon! It might seem like a lot of money, but it's nothing compared to some of these large ultra races that cost thousands of dollars to enter. The UTMB has a similar model for people to compete in that race. You basically must pay for the opportunity to enter the lottery, which is what people were saying about the NYC marathon. I have never had a strong desire to run Boston, but I do think it would be fun to run the NYC marathon. I have never been there before, and I think it would be a great way to see the city. I guess I could still plan on running a marathon there someday! It is still cheaper than a lot of races! 

Rim to River 100 Part VI

        The next aid station would be Cunard at mile 80.5; officially, unofficially it would be 82.5. This aid station had the potato soup I had been looking forward to and my phone charger, so I could start listening to music again and taking pictures and videos. As I got closer to the finish line, I kept reminding myself that the elevation isn’t that bad at the end of the race. Only a handful of big hills remained, and I was feeling better and better about my chances of finishing under 24 hours. I was drinking Coke at every aid station, but I wasn’t that hungry anymore. When I made it to Cunard, I just grabbed a cup of the soup, which was good. There were also several other runners close to me, so I was motivated to try to pass someone ahead of me. I kept thinking that it was going to start getting cold like it had last night when I was camping, but I never went beyond wearing warm gloves. I never changed my shorts or socks throughout the race, but I did eventually change into a long-sleeved shirt at Cunard.

        I started out filling up my two water bottles in the front of my hydration vest, but that was it. The next aid station was only a little over 5 miles away, and then there would just be one left until the race was over! The goal was still to make it before sunrise, and during these final hours I was able to listen to music and talk to people. A younger guy was behind me for a while, and then he was gone. I am not sure if I finished ahead of him. I started talking to this other guy, thinking it was him, but it was a different guy named Dave who had made up time and was having a great push at the end. I spoke with him for a little bit; he was a nurse who prescribed mental health medication. I didn’t know that was even a job nurses could do, but that’s what I thought he told me. We ended up talking about medication for a while; I was curious about different types and how they work with young people. It seems like more and more kids are taking medication for anxiety.

        We were at the Erskine aid station before I knew it, and I thought it was cool that we got an extra aid station at the end of the race. On the way there, we went from Concho Rim to Thurmond and then Cunard, but on the way back we went from Cunard to Erskine to Concho Rim, so there weren’t as many long stretches between aid stations during the last 20 miles. I have very few memories of Erskine aid station. I remember Cunard and even Concho Rim, but Erskine is a blank, possibly because I didn’t spend much time there. I might have gotten some more water, but at this point I was so focused on the finish line and trying to stay ahead of the runners right behind me and catch as many runners as possible.

        My phone was charging, and my watch hadn’t blinked again since I changed the setting earlier. Only one aid station remained, and I couldn’t wait to make it to that last 7 miles! I was getting frustrated that I had to accept that I was most likely going to be 2 miles over! It might not seem like a lot of miles, but when you’re doing the math of how long you have to finish under a certain time, 2 miles late in the race is huge. When I made it to the Concho Rim aid station, my watch said mile 95, which seemed so close to the finish. I knew it would likely be more than that because we were going the same way we got here, so that meant I had 7 miles to go. I was about 22 hours into the race at this point, so I knew I should be fine making it that far in 2 hours, but at the same time it wouldn’t take a lot to throw my time off, and then I would have no time left to make it up, so I started going as fast as I could out of the Concho Rim aid station. At the start of the race, we went up this road I had driven down earlier, so I knew I would recognize it when we got there. It wasn’t that steep, but the downhill in the last mile would give me a clear indicator when I was close, and I was happy we were finishing like that. I passed 2 other runners during this stretch, and I think Dave might have caught up to me again. He was really moving, which just motivated me to keep it up. I didn’t walk at all during that 7-mile section. With how recovered I feel today, I wonder how much harder I could have pushed it, but I went as hard as possible during this part of the race. I just wanted to pass more runners, and I was running out of time!