I have had about 33 hours to think about how I was going to write this post. I’m still not sure how it will turn out, but I’ve decided to just let it rip and see where it goes. That way, I think I’ll truly know how I felt about the experience. We’ll start out with this: Running the Mckenzie River 50K Trail Run was the single most difficult physical endeavor I have ever experienced. By the end of it, I wasn’t a happy boy. Ok , I wasn’t a happy boy for the last 8 miles of it. The last 8 miles totally sucked and seemed interminable to me.

During the race I: fell once, twisted my left ankle three times, got stung by yellow jackets at least 5 times (I’m still finding welts), got really sick to my stomach, and honestly questioned my sanity and the sanity of anyone who thinks it’s a good idea to run something called an “ultramarathon.” As if a marathon isn’t hard enough, let’s make it “ultra!” Yeah, that’s a great idea. And this was an “easy” ultra.

But that’s the bad stuff, and now that it’s out of the way. Here’s the good stuff:

• I only fell once.
• I didn’t twist my ankle four times.
• I didn’t have about 15 yellow jackets swarming around my ass like the runner in front of me.
• I didn’t actually puke.
• I realized that I am still sane.
• I ran 31 miles over some really difficult (to me) terrain in 5 hours and 49 minutes.

The Run Down

As usual, I woke up too early for the race, taped my nipples and applied my body glide. After a quick breakfast, we were off to the starting area. After a few starting line chats with some of Pam’s ultrarunning friends, I headed off to find a bathroom then found my place at the back of the pack. The race started at 7:30 with an, “OK, get out of here” from the race director and we were off. As you can see by the picture, I was really happy and excited to get moving.

My publicly stated goals for the day were just to finish and have a good time. Originally, I had planned on early starting the race. Some ultramarathons have this option so that slower runners finish the race at a reasonable time. Anyone expected to take longer than 6 hours to cover the 50K was advised to early start. In the end, I was pretty sure that I could beat that time. In fact, I was pretty sure that I could beat 5:30. Obviously, that wasn’t the case on this day.

Thinking back, I’ve divided the race into three chunks: The first 7 miles, the middle 16 miles, and the last 8 miles. The first two sections (aside from the fall, the ankle twists, and the bee stings) were great, but that last section really beat me up and took a toll on my psyche.

The Beginning

Pam had warned me not to go out to fast. So when I found myself towards the back of a long line of runners moving very slowly up the single-track trail at the beginning of the race I thought that she would be proud of me—there was no chance of going out too fast. This was really the only part of the course where my pace was slow enough and my head was clear enough to allow me to appreciate the beauty of the trail that I was running on. The picture above doesn’t do it justice, but neither would my words.

The Middle

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Around mile 7, the trail opened up a bit and I was able to run my own race. I knew that if I wanted to break 5:30 that I would really have to hustle to make up the time. But with 24 miles left to go, it was way to early to start working hard. So I resigned myself to finishing somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 and just let the terrain guide my pace until at least the half way point.

I picked up the pace a bit in some spots between miles 8 and 23. But in other spots, my inexperience on rocky, hilly, and uneven terrain really hampered my abilities to run faster and sapped my energy levels way more than I expected.

At the beginning of this second section, I really felt awesome. I felt like I was running well, like there was no one hindering my pace any longer, and like I was going to be making up a lot of the time that I missed on the first section. But I still forced myself to take it easy. In fact I only managed to run 1 mile under a ten minute pace during this section. It seemed that even when I wanted to go fast, I couldn’t. Again, I resigned myself to finish somewhere between 5:30 and 6:00 and was totally fine with that.

Then somewhere around mile 15, the event happened. I was running second in a group of four people when I felt the first sting on the back of my right calf. Then, very quickly I felt several others on both of my calfs and both of my arms. By the time I had the wherewithall to figure out was happening, all four of us KNEW what was happening. I looked at the lady in front of me, and she literally had about 15 yellow jackets swarming around her crotch. I quickly yelled, “GO, GO, GO, GO!” and boy did she. Later, we all stopped to check each other out (she had a very nice crotch) and decided everyone was fine. I don’t think I’ve written about it here, but I absolutely hate bees. To me, a bee is anything yellow and black that stings or bites. When I was a child, I had a very traumatic experience with some nasty hornets that chased me out of a canyon and into a total strangers house. To this day, I’m a pansy about them. The bees during the race did not help my psyche at all, but I quickly moved on. In fact, I’m pretty sure that this was the fastest I had moved all day!

The VERY Long End

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According to Pam, who was awesome crew by the way, when I hit the mile 23 checkpoint, I was starting to look tired but my spirits were still pretty high. Actually, I was very tired by this point and trying to put on a good show for her. When I came in to the aid station, I was already running into the aforementioned stomach troubles. I had pretty much stopped drinking, and I didn’t want to eat anything else. I managed to gag down some coke, and a few salty nibbles. Pam gave me a kiss and told me she’d see me at the finish.

There was a little over 3 miles to the next (and last) aid station and they seemed to take forever. By the time I reached it at mile 28, I was pretty down in the dumps. My stomach was still acting up, I wasn’t eating anything, and I was drinking very little. My energy was totally sapped. This was the easiest terrain on the course and I was barely managing 12 minute miles by this point. I was tired!

When I pulled in to the aid station, I managed to consume another cup of soda, a salt tablet, and a little tiny hunk of Pay Day canby bar. I was looking pretty haggard I’m sure, but I could smell the finish line and just wanted to get done so I took off for the last 3.8 miles.

They were pretty uneventful and slow of course. But I got them finished. When I pulled off the trail with 3/4 of a mile to go I was ecstatic…until I saw that the last section was uphill. My mind and body were totally spent. Big thanks goes out the guy who planned that last 3/4 of a mile. It was a real treat! More big thanks goes out to Pam for not taking the picture of me hunched over, almost crying, almost puking, for the next ten minutes. It would have made a better ending picture, but she was very compassionate.

Final Thoughts

I already said this, but I’m going to say it again: Running the Mckenzie River 50K Trail Run was the single most difficult physical endeavor I have ever experienced. But, it WAS the longest distance I’ve ever run, over the hardest terrain I’ve ever run on and it was the longest amount of time I’ve ever spent on my feet with no break.

When I finished, I was in such a bad mental state that I allowed myself to only remember the negative aspects of the race. For a while, I was actually disappointed about how the day turned out. I could only think about not breaking 5:30 even though my main goal was just to finish. I was angry (and surprised) that it took me 2 hours and 3 minutes longer to run just 5 miles further than it took me to run my marathon in May. I was upset that my average pace was over 11 minutes per mile.

But then last night, as I was laying in bed, all those negative thoughts went away and I was able to think fondly on the day.

• I RAN 31 MILES!
• I can fall…and get back up!
• Wasp stings don’t hurt nearly as bad as I remember.
• The ultrarunning community is amazingly supportive and welcoming to everyone, even the most novice of runners.
• And I’m in the club now. I’m an ultrarunner too!
• I have moxy, gumption, whatever you want to call it. I am gritty and determined when I want to be. I can do anything I want to do as long as I set my mind to it. I learned that I can push through pain and come out on the other side.

Everyone faces challenges. Some of us want to lose weight, get in better shape, and look better in our “skinny” jeans. Some of us want to climb mountains or run crazy distances. And still some of us want to be able to tie our shoes without help. Whatever your challenge is, if you persevere, I’m confident that you can beat it. Don’t give up. Ever.