Prairie Spirit 50 Miler... Part 2!

If you thought I was done talking about the 50 miler I did a few weeks ago, you would be WRONG! I’m fairly certain I will be talking and writing about it for the rest of my life. Perhaps I will from this point forward only refer to my life in terms of

BPS50= Before Prairie Sprit 50 Miler

and

APS50 =After Prairie Spirit 50 Miler

Now, if you haven’t read my initial race report, read it here

http://persistentrunner.blogspot.com/2014/04/prairie-spirit-50-miler.html

If you’ve ever read any of my blog, you know that this race was hard. I didn’t have a good running day and ran my longest race yet on a very mentally challenging course. I wanted to write that initial race report while the pain of that race was still real. I didn’t want to dress it up in uplifting messages and you can do it blah blah because I didn’t feel any of that. It was just hard and it was a long day and I am so grateful that I had my husband and friends there to help motivate me to get the thing done.

BUT!!!!!

Now that the pain has worn off a bit, there were some funny things that happened. Or maybe they just seemed funny because I was exhausted and easily entertained. Either way, I wanted to share those too. Because if you can’t find some amusing stuff in even the crappiest run, then why do you even bother? So here’s a few amusing tidbits:

-Before the race started, we saw not one but TWO people wearing CEP compression calf sleeves backwards! I’m going to assume that they had a reason for it…. But I kind of wanted to make a public service announcement. Do they do damage if they’re worn backwards? Probably not, because I think both of those people were faster than I was. Maybe if I turn mine around, I’ll be faster too? Hey, it’s worth a shot!

-As we were mindlessly babbling at the starting line I heard myself say, “I’m so glad we’re doing the 50 mile race instead of the 100”. This was so funny to me because I’ve said the same thing with different distances EVERY time I lined up for a half marathon and we were starting with the full marathon folks. It was like a slap in the face of how much my reality has changed in the six years since my first half marathon. My new reality seems to get more and more ridiculous as the years go by. It’s kind of amusing to watch.

-When we got close to the 25 mile mark, I began to think (and then couldn’t stop thinking) You know what’s great? 50ks. They’re amazing… more challenging than a marathon but not 50 miles long. Because I don’t know that anyone has noticed, but 50 miles is VERY LONG! I love me a good 50k. Like, I mean I LOVE 50ks. I love them. A LOT!

-We got excited when we saw some cows just off to our left. Cows! Alright! Then they started sauntering over in our direction and we thought wow, the cows are watching us, that’s awesome. Then they wouldn’t STOP watching us and it started to seem creepy and I think I even looked over my shoulder  as we passed them to find that those giant cows were still watching us. I don’t know why it seemed so creepy, but it did. Also amusing, I think that cow was walking faster than me….. dang it.

-Christy and I were walking together and I suddenly stopped. She went a few steps ahead and then turned around to see if I was ok. I caught back up with her in a minute or two and said, “whoa that was a close one. I really thought I was going to puke on that one”. To which she responded without hesitation, “oh, if you’re going to puke, I’m don’t want to see that. I’m not turning around to look at you anymore when you stop”.  Fair enough. I didn’t want to see her puke either.

-And finally, as the day wore on and Christy and I began talking more as the sun set, we both wondered about our initial choice of this specific race as our first 50. We had picked it because it was flat and has a VERY generous time cutoff. But, as our muscles cramped and spasmed with the unending flat trail, Christy asked me, “do you think it would have been better if there had been SOME hills?” I mumbled something, I don’t even know if I answered her. But not a mile later, we got our answer. We came to a road crossing where the gravel of the road was built up from the trail. Here’s an idea of what it looked like, with a stick figure for scale.

 

And here’s what it felt like, with a stick figure for scale:

We both laughed hysterically as we barely managed to get up and back down the ENORMOUS incline. Nope, I don’t think it would have been any better with hills.

There may have been other funny things that happened, but I can't seem to remember them. And even though it was a hard day, it was pretty amazing.

Did I mention how much I love 50ks?