mother road 100

I did not know what to expect out of myself with this race. I had a number of things that were not in my favor. I gained a ton of weight in the last year, especially in the last 6 weeks sitting at my sister's house eating whatever food was around. I have a tendency to gain weight easily (aka eat like crazy) when I stop paying close attention. I also have developed this knee pain- probably IT band issue since Superior. I had a few OK 6 mile runs with a self subscribed knee band so my hopes were that it would hold me together. On my last run last week I ran without the band because I couldn't find it and the knee pain was bad after a few miles. I was also not feeling like myself since my sister died.
But I paid for the race so I was going to do it.
I had not made travel plans up until two weeks before the race. My sister in law -Nancy wanted to go down with me, I didn't think that would work out very well, I did not need to worry about her during the race, but finally agreed when she said my brother Pat would come too.
We left Thursday at 9PM, they had a very comforatable bed made up in the back of their mini van which worked out very nice for me. Pat who works nights anyways drove all night, I took over in the morning after geeting some sleep that evening.
There were 6 of us there from MN runing the race. Daryl Saari, Allan Holtz, Bonnie Riley, Donnie Clark and Frank Bartocci from Rochester who I didn't know. We all got our picture taken before the race, If I knew how to post a picture I would add it here, but I don't!! Maybe someone can tell me how some day or I can find some instructions. Lynn Saari was also there being her cheerful and positive self even though Daryl was so much faster that I was I did not see much of her.
I had made a decison to use Hammer nutrition this race and maybe only a very little real food. I needed to try something different, From what I read I think I tended to over eat and drink during a race -so this way I was able to sort of pre-plan my hourly calorie and liquid intake. I got in one long run (25 miles) using it and it had seemed to go well.
It was nice to have a "crew" since this race had I think only 3 drop bag posibilities and had several ten plus mile legs in the race.
I felt very good at marathon distance-5:15, Funny it was close to my Grandma's time but I felt way better.
Backtracking a little, my goal was 28 hours, My 50 mile goal was 12 hours.
I made it to the 50 mile at I think 10:46, It was dark already and I changed into all dry clothes and shoes and was out of there by 11;00.
I felt so good at 50 miles, I was saving my ipod for the 50 mile point since I had forgotten my charger and I foolishly used part of it up the day before. Nobody was around at all so I was able to sing along to my favorite songs as loud as I wanted.
Car traffic was an issue on ocassion, There were a legs nearer the bigger towns where you had to see if the on-comming traffice moved over- If they didn't move enough over I would hop off the road onto the side of the road into the sort of weedy/grassy section. There was little shoulders. We had about a 1/2 mile section where we were actually on interstae 40. It was maybe midnight to 1AM and the big trucks speed by honking their horn and making a hugh cold wind -I am sure quite upset with me being on the freeway, I was so happy when that part was over. The race was forced to go that way because of a bridge that was down.
Somewhere between 50 and 65 miles I past up Allan Holtz, he was the only person I had seen for miles, he was very surprised I think to see me, he would be the only runner that I would see for the rest of the race, except for those sitting at the mile 72 aid station. We ended up passing each other up a few times with him beating me out in the end.
The race has this one section that was five miles on a dirt road, it was just after the 72 mile aid station, crew vehicles were not allowed. It was very scarey, there were a couple of houses close to the road, and I kept thinking maybe this is where the Oklahoma texas chain saw masacure family lives!!! I walked most of way conserving my energy in case I needed it to try and run faster than something else at some point. Most was not near any houses at all and there were alot of strange sounds, the race director who ran said he had heard cyotes out there. yikes!!!
The hardest part of the race for me was just before dawn, it got so much more colder and I got so tired, I didn't know what to do since I had just taken no-doz. My crew went to the aid station and brought me back some hot chocolate and cup of noodles and I ate while walking, this was the first food thing I had from the aid stations. They both did wonders in reviving me and at about the same time, it started to get light!!! OH happy day!!! I was able to run again!!! I was not at all tired anymore. The last 6 miles got tough again, the bottom of my feet hurt, I coudn't run much at all. I should have took the time to change shoes again. I didn't think I would make it in under 25 hours but I ran hard the last 3 minutes to make it in 24 hours 59 minutes.
They had good food and beverage that the end- I had beers and omletes. We got a hotel room slept very soundly till 1 AM then got in the car for our 12 hour trip home- I was able to sleep most of the way back to MN.
My muscels are sore, but not as sore as I thought and I only have three good size blisters.
I can't wait to do another 100 miler!!!