West Line Winder 50K (Race Recap)

Buena Vista, CO

Saturday, September 25 (our wedding anniversary!)

Ultra Marathon - #36 (?)

Weather - Chilly at the start, sunny and hot at the finish

I started getting ads in my Facebook for an inaugural 50K in Buena Vista. Normally, I don't get too excited about that distance, but this one caught my eye because the race was going to be on our one year wedding anniversary! Signed up on February 25, and figured it would be a beautiful fall race.

Race Day

Alarm went off at 4:15. I had barely slept, so I was NOT happy. I got all my stuff ready to go and we were ready to get out the door just after 5:15 am. I had heated up my breakfast, but wasn't feeling hungry, so I brought it with me to eat in the car on the hour and twenty minute drive. Unfortunately, the longer we drove, the sicker I felt. I normally have a stomach of steel, and for whatever reason, I felt awful. I barely got a few bites of food down before I started feeling very nauseous and my stomach felt very off. We stopped at the gas station just outside of town and got some gum and Tums, and I hoped I'd be able to get through the race. In addition to just feeling sick, there is no way that barely eating was going to help me out.

I had opted to take the early start and we arrived with just under a half hour to go. Picking up our packets was easy, and I briefly chatted with Michael, who was going to be volunteering. By the time I grabbed my pack and used the bathroom again, it was about time to start. I noted at the start line that only me and one other guy had poles. I felt more out of place than I even do at a 200 mile race.

We started right at 7, and we were going to have a nice, flat run through town to get to the trail system. I was surprised to see Victor and Laura in this wave - they are both so fast, there is no reason why they were there! They were gone and out of sight before we even hit a mile, even though they were running "super easy" for the day. Sigh.

I managed to make it to the trail before I started taking walk breaks. Before I knew it, I was where I usually am in race, the VERY BACK. 

I took my poles out of my pack right when we started climbing and tried to climb as best as I could. I've been doing so well in training that I really thought this would go better. The temperatures were nice and cool and the climbing wasn't even that outrageous, and yet I was still struggling to even maintain my pace and not get passed. Thankfully, the air was clear (it's been SO LONG since we had good air quality), and the views were amazing!

I was able to run a bit here and there, but I still was struggling to "keep up" with the back of the pack. Never ceases to amaze me how hard running always seems, and how I'm constantly fighting just to finish these events. There were sections where the trail was wide enough that I felt like I could have one earbud in, and for the first time in a LONG time in a trail race, I listened to music. I wasn't around anyone, and it helped my mood a bit. I was in and out of the first aid station pretty quickly, the biggest delay was putting on sunscreen since I had forgotten to put it on before I started.

I was wondering how long it would be before the 8:00 starters would catch me. I knew that Courtney Dauwalter was running, so I knew she would be the person who would pass me first. I was right! I *almost* made it to 9 miles before she blazed by me. She was very friendly and told me I was doing great. She's really an awesome person. (By the way, she was not out of breath at all and was moving extremely quickly, haha).

I was happy that the next section of climbing was really a long fire road. I hiked the entire thing, it was steep enough that I didn't feel like running. I really thought that Ben would catch up to me before the second aid station, but I got in and out without seeing him. By this point I was wondering why there hadn't been nearly as much climbing in the first 12 miles as the elevation profile showed. I got to the top of the hill out of the aid station and took of my pack so I could stash my poles. I was REALLY pleased to find the next few miles were on a dirt road and not technical at all. So I got lots of running done in this section.

I was with a group of a few other runners, and we headed off the road and back onto the single track.

There were a few areas where I was able to run and the couple that was in front of me stepped off the trail for a picture and I was able to pass them for good.

This section was actually fairly nice and I made up some time here. I was able to see the next aid station and headed in. I knew I really needed to eat something at this point since I had barely consumed any calories. My stomach still didn't feel great and NOTHING sounded good. I can't even remember what I grabbed, maybe some tater tots, but I did not stay long - I was still kind of confused about the cutoff times. I was also starting to wonder why Ben hadn't caught me yet. The next section was the longest stretch without aid at just over 7 miles. We actually had quite a bit of flat and not incredibly technical here, so I did a decent amount of running. It was getting really hot out and I was definitely ready to be done with this race.

I honestly don't remember much else about this section. It was hot and exposed. The aid station had moved about a tenth of a mile further because of a double booking with the race and a wedding party. I spent a couple minutes putting on sunscreen and grabbing a pierogi for the walk out of the aid station. I finally saw Ben coming in as I was leaving. I told him I was slowing down and that he would be able to catch up. There was a slight downhill after the aid station, so I ran that. Supposedly it was only 4 miles to the last "aid" which was water only. I figured Ben would catch me with in 10-15 minutes. Somehow, the miles ticked by, and he still hadn't shown up. The markings were a lot more sparse in this section and I pulled out my map a few times to make sure that we were on the right course. All of a sudden, I was going up following the markings and came across Ben and another gal. I don't know how we ended up at the same place coming from opposite directions. Another guy came from behind them and he insisted he knew which way to go (back the way I had just come). Thankfully, he was right, and we found some additional markings.

We expected to be coming up on the aid station soon, but we also hadn't seen the "one mile until aid" sign that had preceded every other aid station. Maybe there wouldn't be a sign for this one because it was an unmanned water drop only? Either way, by looking at the map, it sure seemed like we wouldn't be there at 4 miles like the course had suggested. Turns out I was right. By the time we finally got there, it was over 6 miles! Ben and I had both run out of water. There was still water in the jugs, but they had been baking in the sun all day and the water was NOT cool. 

From here, we weren't sure if we could trust that it was "just 3" miles to the finish. Initially, the course was actually going to be just short of a 50K, but at that rate, we should only have been about a mile from the finish, which we knew we weren't.

There was still some fairly technical trails in this section and we were both DONE, so there was not a lot of running here, although I tried to when I felt like I could.

Finally, we saw the bridge that we had crossed in the first mile.

There was a volunteer at the end of the bridge who informed us we were going the opposite direction from where we had been at the first mile. Yay! We stupidly thought that meant it would be less than a mile to the finish line. Unfortunately, it was actually longer this way. Finally, we saw Main Street. We could hear people cheering and we knew that we were almost there. We got passed by a woman on this stretch, but I didn't care. Finally, with just a few blocks to go, we decided to run it in. SO HAPPY TO BE DONE.

Somehow, I don't think I realized that there was a medal, and the volunteer had to chase us down to give it to us - along with our bottle of whiskey. 

We both took a much-needed seat under the canopy and Ben got us some otter pops and small cups of coke. Ben recognized a friend that he used to work with and we chatted a bit before getting a picture at the finish line.

Since I took the one hour early start, Ben finished an hour before me. I have to say, I'm pretty excited that it took him 27 miles to catch me during the race, and it was actually pleasant to hang out together for the last miles. My tracking info is below - I'm pretty proud of the fact that I never "lost" position on the course, I was steady and continued to "move up" past people in the overall rankings. A bit disappointed at how slow I was, and how hard of an effort this was, but considering I was barely able to eat, I guess I did fine.

Garmin Time - 8:44:52

Garmin Distance - 32.16 miles

Garmin Pace - 16:20

Elevation Gain - 3,808'

Miles 1-5 - 12:13, 18:33, 16:01, 16:33, 13:44

Miles 6-10 - 15:06, 15:08, 14:21, 15:06, 15:00

Miles 11-15 - 16:38, 19:06, 18:14, 11:33, 11:52

Miles 16-20 - 13:30, 16:30, 13:17, 16:04, 14:46

Miles 21-25 - 17:46, 19:11, 18:36, 14:32, 17:51

Miles 26-30 - 19:22, 18:28, 20:54, 18:30, 20:36

Miles 31-32.16 - 17:21, 16:41, 12:00

Thoughts:

• Pretty good for an inaugural race! 
• Aid stations were really good. I wasn't expecting so many food options, but there was even hot food at most aid stations - definitely something you don't expect at "just" a 50K
• Early markings were really good, but in the more technical sections towards the end there was definitely significantly less.
• The app we were told to use for the course was "ok," but it only showed you where you were on the map, not what direction you were going or any further detail. I much prefer loading a route into Gaia and being able to tell better where I am.
• The section from the last full aid to the water drop was WAY longer than it should have been. Had I known it was going to be so much longer, I definitely would have taken more water with me, and probably forced myself to eat more.
• Cute race shirt, that was optional to get.
• Unexpected medal, which I liked!
• Amazing and FREE race pictures. I got four times as many pictures in this race than I did in all 4.5 days of Bigfoot. Crazy.
• I just didn't love the course. I don't know what I was expecting, but I really thought we would be in the woods or something. This was definitely more of a "desert" environment, and a lot of it was on mountain bike trails. There were a number of bikes out as well, which wasn't a ton of fun.