My first 50k = 31 Miles ... Mendon Ponds Park on Nov. 5, 2011

‎"I never feel more alive than when I'm in great pain, struggling against insurmountable odds and untold adversity. Hardship? Suffering? Bring it! I've said it before and I've come to believe it: There's magic in misery." - Dean Karnazes 
(I liked this quote, but honestly he is just talking, since Dean can't feel any pain!)
 Mendon Ponds Park, Rochester, NY
November 5, 2011

The Mendon Ponds 50k race...
50k runners had to do the 10k loop- 5 times!  There was also races here the same day that began at 9:30 for a 5k, 10k, and 20k. 50k race began at 8:00am.


(A photo essay... There were a lot more pictures but I only selected a few of them.)


I did the 20k at this race in 2009 and figured I'll do it again (last year, I was at NYC Marathon, the same weekend.) I was filling out the registration and saw there is ALSO a 50k race! I thought to myself "I can do that... hmm, what if it snows? ...I don't want to run THAT far in bad weather! ... What if I'd rather sleep in that morning?  What if..."  RIT Running Club informed me that I needed to sign up a couple of weeks in advance, to credit it towards club donations, so I agreed and signed up. I paid the $20 entry fee, still thinking if it snows or cold rain, I can switch to the 20k and just lose $5.... The weather was basically perfect, although I can admit the longest training run I'd done in the month prior to it was 18 miles...

This was the START line for the race... amusing because start line signs for races are generally a good bit larger. Western NY Ultras wanted to do it differently! 

A view of a couple of people on top of the hill, from the starting line...

55 people came out for the start of this race... 49  people finished this race...

Near the end of first loop, sporting my awesome sweatshirt from Sehgahunda Trail Marathon, from May 2011. It was 26 degrees at 8:00am but warmed to about 48 by the time I finished, and the sun was out through the day. 

...This was when I started telling the photographer that there was a golden back that a way. (turns out it was his dog.) ...I'm used to seeing deer along a trail, but I had just been getting into my runner high, when a gold retriever with came dashing through the woods and across the trail!

 Blazing a hill on the course during my 2nd or 3rd loop... that hill is a LOT tougher than it appears to be, due to being loose small rocks and dried dirt.

  

Thank goodness... my ankles are still attached...

A pretty photo of some of the race trail. It was some wide carriage like trails and some very narrow single-track trails. 

This is me finishing my 3rd loop, when I decided  I had warmed up enough to ditch the wind-breaker.

This is me finishing my 4th loop...

This man is asking if I am done and I said I still have ONE more loop!

Beginning my 5th loop... ouch :o)

Wow, there's so few people there that 

the birds became the main attraction.

More birds...

There were benches sort of like these scattered in random places, along the trails of the race course (as well as equestrian horses and couples young and old- enjoying walks) ... When you are running ALONE for 98% of that 31.5 miles, these benches can play mind games... wanna rest or will you keep running? (I never touched any of them, but I'm just saying it was tempting, on 4th and 5th loop.)

Striking a "Prefontaine pose" as my friend referred to it as, while I finish for last place, which is the hardest place. (I did however win my age group though and I was the youngest female finisher, only female finisher under 30!)

I finished in 8 hours, 24 minutes, and 9 seconds.  My legs were just totally killing me, especially the way that my left leg was getting mad at me, for my mind making it do double the work, after my right leg decided to basically go into fail-mode, by the 2nd loop.  (I'm having surgery in 3 weeks for a tumor on my right femoral nerve, and it has been causing great deal of weakness to that leg.  It is the hope of me and my doctor that the muscle there will be able to regain some strength, with work of course, after the tumor is removed.) 

Time for a 6th loop, eh?

Getting my finisher's medal

<-- Food that way (the little sign says "soup & bagels"!)