Frosty 50k Recap

The Frosty 50k was last Saturday at Salem Lake, and other than the cold start, was anything but Frosty :) 
I was looking forward to a relaxing run at the lake with more than a hundred of my closest friends, and with some of my really close friends.  Steph and Crystal ran the 50k with me and Kristen ran the 25k and then provided crew support.  The 50k girls hung together for Lap 1 (15.5 miles) and part of Lap 2, and then we all decided to suffer alone.  It was not an easy race for anybody, perhaps due to the 70 plus degree weather that took us all totally by surprise for January.  Whatever the reason, it was still more successful than my last 50k- Hinson Lake 24 hour- in September.  So, overall I was very pleased with the day.  I was concerned since Coach Ian has me running slightly less miles per week on average, even though he insists it is good for me :), but my legs felt pretty good for the distance.  They always get tired in those middle miles...around Mile 13 I am always like, "wow, my legs are already tired, how am I ever going to make it XXX more miles?"  But somehow, I always do, and my legs are not usually my concern by mile 28 plus.  The biggest issue this race was that pesky old nausea...which seems to get me a lot.  Not to worry, I am working on my nutrition and hope to have this dialed in by Umstead!  I chatted with Coach Ian this week, and he thinks he has a solution to my problem---so I am giving it a try.  Stay tuned.
Steph, KO, and I all drove up to Winston Salem Friday evening/night for race packet pick up...which was actually at someone's house.  We then headed to Kristen Mangie's for another night of pre-race prep, dinner, and fun.  We finally got to bed around 10:30 or 11- and of course I couldn't sleep again.  Oh well!
Alarm at 5:30, out the door at 6:30, and at the race at 7:00 AM (after a slight detour in our directions).  We called Kris for directions and he was still in bed????  Come on, buddy...but Gibby was waiting patiently for us at the Start Line.  I found Gibby and we all relaxed until close to start time- much warmer in our cars than outside for the 36 ish degrees.
We headed to the start line about 7:45 and found Crystal.  Her 30th birthday is this weekend, and this was her first ultra, so we presented her with a special present- Peanutbutter Gu's...per Steph, this is Crystal's favorite. (The boys were left in charge of party hats and bubbles for the finish line)!
Lap 1 went pretty well.  The 50k girls all stuck together and were doing pretty well...a nice easy pace designed for running lots of miles.  The course is out and back, twice, so we got to see the leaders close to the turn around (well, actually we saw the leaders not so close to our turn around).  We came in from Lap 1, with no falls...yay Steph.  I was going to mention this, but didn't want to jinx her, so I had a silent celebration!  I was wearing shorts this year and didn't want Steph to take me down again :)  Thanks to Adam for coming out to cheer us on :)
After a quick refuel, we headed back out for Lap 2....I didn't have that same energy that I had last year after the re-start, but we all kept going.  I was struggling to decide how to get the calories in, as the nausea was bad at this point.  And very unusual, no one was talking....we even tried saying, let's tell stories, and the stories were all brief and challenging.  Poor Crystal- usually the girls can't stop talking...why else would we go run in the woods in the cold early morning hours.  Ella, Ginny, and Aunt Gloria greeted us at mile 18ish (and again at mile 27ish)...this helped lift our spirits!  After about 23ish miles, we all just kind of headed on our own, with different issues.  I put on my headphones and just kept moving forward....the last aid station was out of Mt. Dew (gasp), so I grabbed a Krispy Kreme donut!  After getting half down and giving the rest to Ella (it was her lucky day), I had some new energy and picked up the pace a little those last 3 miles...it really was the longest last 2 miles I have covered in a while.  Either way, I finally found the Finish Line and was very excited.  I had a good time, other than a few minor patches, but my memories tell me it was a fun race- and that's what important! And I think we are all eagerly awaiting another go at this course in 2013!!!  Hopefully it will be Frostier next year!

For now, the Frosty 50k video, for your viewing pleasure!

You can view by clicking this link or by the video below:

http://youtu.be/MhSF7yjP_I8