And for a bit more nerves, it's supposed to be a VERY beginner ultra. The 25K very hikable and the 50 a great beginner ultra. Hm... I got 2 loops of 25.6ish miles of rollers in the trail. Hm. Then I look at the cutoff time, and they are giving us 10 hours! What?!? There isn't a single RD, who isn't a mean sadistic S.O.B so I am worried. Maybe that's why it's supposed to be beginner friendly? I don't know... Stay tuned.
On a positive note, I'm only mildly worried about the whole shower thing post race. There's a YMCA near the race and they will extend courtesy to me and after some paperwork, I'll be able to use their shower.
Hopefully, the weather will hold out and it won't rain for me during the race or post race as I try to depart Georgia on my flight.
It's over and I'm on a plane coming back to NYC... Time to catch up now.
The flight was good and Atlanta airport is HUGE. Long walk and a sky train later and I'm standing on a long line at the Hertz counter. Finally my turn. Got a mid sized SUV. Wanna be somewhat comfy and it wasn't expensive. Finished there and another long line. No SUVs. Sucks. In front of me is a woman and her older mom. They are also waiting for an SUV. We are waiting. They tell them that their SUV is here and it turns out it's reserved. We are all waiting again. Then a new batch of cars shows up. They got them in a KIA and tell me to get the Buick. But the Buick is MUCH nicer. I wasn't sure what to do but mom is already settling in to the KIA and so I got the Buick. The Buick Enclave, I think that was the name, was a high end awesome car. Another long line to get out the lot but that's ok as I have the massage roller going at my back. Oh yeah...
An hour and 15 minutes, finally, I'm near the hotel. I go get food for lunch/dinner/breakfast and go check in.
Room was fine but the person in the next room over has their TV on LOUD and I can hear everything. It only took about 5 minutes of my bird sounds and they lowered the TV. Nice.
I eat and chill. Time to go to sleep.
Wake up is here and I'm ok. Getting things done. Plan is to do the race and hopefully race over to the YMCA for a shower. If not, then a rinse in the sink at the airport. I really don't want that but I wanna get home.
Stomach is weird but that's ok. I'm packed and I have my go bag all ready. It has flip-flops, towel, soap/shampoo and clothes. Ready to rock it.
Go to race site. Temps in higer 50s and it's weird but I'm one of the few in a singlet. Most are in hoodies. Some short sleeves. Bathroom and the little blue pill and I'm good.
There are 3 races going on... The 50Kers go first... We are doing 2 loops of 15.6 miles. About 30 minutes after us the 25Kers go. They are doing 1 lap. About 15 minutes later, the 25Kers with dogs go. Only weird thing is is that the RD mentioned that each loop is 17 miles long. That's NOT good! I don't need bonus miles when I don't have time for it...
The loop is not easy. This trail race is harder than the Greenbelt. The website listed the distance between eacn aid stations but they don't seeme to be right. We are mostly on the blue trail but at times we are off it. The first few miles are moderate. This race is supposed to be all rollers with over 1,500 feet of elevation in each loop. Monster mile is naughty... Didn't have a better name for it. Next is the fire lane which also sucks in a big way. Basically climbing up a mountain. The rest is "easier".
First loop I run with Carson. He falls twice on the first loop. Eventually I pass him and he is chasing me. That's ok. My stomach is sending weird messages. Not a lot of port-a-bush opportunities tho a lot of poison Ivy options. After the 3rd aid station, I found indoor plumbing and that helped a lot. I guess Carson passed me at that point because I never him saw after that except at the finish. I meet up with Matt and we are together. We (my fault) miss the last turn to the finish and they send us back. Wonderful. We go again and I'm with Matt. We are just talking. He is undertrained but that's ok.
We finish approx 7:32 with a woman who apparently had a huge fall and has blood going from both knees and an elbow.
I meet up with Casey, the wife, and his 3 daughters and his parents. Casey did the 25K. He needed to sit so Casey got the kids in the car and she drove while I followed to the campground showers. NICE. I don't like cold water showers but I couldn't get the hot water going but still it felt wonderful... The go bag was excellent too.
A few things to mention... The RD seemed to appear everywhere meaning at all 4 aid stations. I was amazed at that. Some places tho, the water tasted like garden hose and was terrible but still had a good spread. The course for the most part was very well marked. Any time there was a turn, we had flags. At times, we had a "WRONG WAY" sign. Some places even had a streamer so bikers could go through but we couldn't. Still, there were 2 places that I wished he had something. Also, I like constant re-assurance so more flags or streamers would have been nice.
In any case, straight to the airport with a small stop to get gas. Returned the car and got on sky train to the terminal. Then a looooong line for TSA. Both the dog and a bunch of agents were on break I guess. That sucked. Then an ultra marathon to my gate. Haven't had real food since 2am and here I have lemonade and chocolate covered pretzels. Oh well. Still, I made my gate and I have a great seat.
I didn't get to eat pie in Georgia but the people sitting near me had pie... Sucks. Smelled so damn good. I thought of asking for some but they scarfed it down so damn fast so they can attack the ribs they brought too. Oh. My. God! Seriously?!?
It's all good. Almost back in NYC. Yay...
Got Georgia and that's all that counts. Well, that and a mental health day...
I did meet a woman from Illinois I think that is a Marathon Maniac. Had a "funny" conversation with her.
ME: Hm... You know you have some white liquid thing running down your leg? HER: Yes... *sigh* One of my gel burst open. ME: And you know what it looks like, right? HER: *sigh* Yes... Yes I do. ME: Good! Then I don't need to tell you. HER: No. No you don't as she was laughing...
I also came across a guy and a girl running together and talking. I hear her telling him how she flew from Denver and how on take off, a bird hit their engine and that they needed an emergency landing and a new plane. Of course, I could not resist and I had to butt in saying, "unless you land in the Hudson River, it doesn't count". They laughed. She liked it tho she said that she did hear some pilots talking about her plane and such...
