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I looked up the participant list and I think only 12 are doing the 50K. Everyone else is doing either the 10K or the 20K. Wonderful. Gonna be alone. I then spy Erik Kuhi's name. Awesome. I reach out to him and it takes a few days BUT he is bowing out. Work stuff. Boo...
It's a Sunday race. No real time limits except they don't want you in the park in the dark. I don't wanna be there in the dark either... I'm hoping for a decent time.
Did I mention that I registered only a few days before the race? The course used to be a big lap followed by smaller loops. I think 2 days before the race, the RD put out a message that he will not have time to mark the big loop, so we will need to do 5 loops instead.
I don't remember how, but I suddenly realize that Gary Thompson is registered. A friendly face. Reached out. Hoping to have company.
Sunday rolls around and I do my thing. I leave the house. I'm thinking 70 miles = 70 minutes so about an hour and 20 minutes or so. All goes well. Not tired. I cross over the Verazanno Bridge. I cross over the Outer Bridge Crossing and I look at Waze. I only have 78 miles more to go. WAIT!!! What?!? That doesn't make sense...
I start freaking out. I pull over and reset Waze. Still 78 to go. I continue but a little while later, I do it again. I'm resigned to trust it so I continue. I do get there successfully. I see cars and a sign. Cool. Restroom and a deep breath. It's cold but whose shiny white legs since they are wearing shorts do I see? Gary Thompson... Of course. I greet him and his person (Jenn) with "those sexy legs gotta belong to Gary Freaking Thompson"...
I met Jenn for the first time. She's awesome.
I also saw the famous Elaine Acosta. She remembered me. She is great. She did really well even tho she fell off on of the board plank type bridges.
Soon enough, we have the meeting right before the RD sends us out. It's confusing. People aren't sure where to go or what to follow so people aren't too happy but he explains the course and eventually we start. I was worried but the course was VERY well marked. Thank God...
Loop one as usual is recon. We got hills. He said something about climbing over a fence. Not sure what that means until we get to the fence. It's only about as high as my knees but later on it sucks.
I run on/off with 2 guys. They drop me eventually. I start loop 2 and half way through, they come up behind me. This happens continually.
I run most of a loop with Jaclyn. At the end of a loop, she stops to change shoes and I know she will catch up to me. I'm going slow as she gave me a Coke... She never catches me. Later I find out that she had GI issues.
I run most of a loop with 2 young 20ish year old ladies. Nice talk with them...
I'm alone a lot. I'm hurting and dejected. Lot of time, those 2 guys suddenly catch up to me and leave.
I'm trying to hydrate. Taking a bottle with me constantly and taking a bottle at the halfway point at the unmanned aid station.
It's ok but depressing. Really slow time for me. I finish way later than I expected. Really slow for me. Still, it's all about who shows up... Got first for age...
I had to ask for a medal which sucked. The RD is really nice but he had to go somewhere so I think he was a little scatterbrained... When I finished, the finishers arch was GONE. He yelled to me to look at my watch...Someone took my name, bib number and time and texted someone else.
No food left. Oh well. Gary and Jenn, tried to give me some of their Hero but I would not have eaten that anyway. They did give me some snacks which was very appreciated.
All in all, not a great day for me but I suffered through and that's all that counts I guess.
I changed clothes and drove home. Got home ok. No issue with being tired. I went upstairs to shower. After I took my clothes off, I noticed some dirt on my lower belly which didn't want to come off. I figured it was caked on so I grabbed some tweezers and pulled it off. As I did, I heard a pop. Weird. Looking at it, I realized I had a tick on me or rather burrowed a little into me. Pretty sure I got it all but it put a damper on things. Oh, yeah... I then called for Elizabeth to come up immediately. She asked if I need anything and I said to just come up and fast. I then had to stand there and let her search. Sucks.
No other passengers thank you but still...
I then informed Elaine and Gary as to what happened and that they need to check. Gary was shocked as I was wearing the most clothes. I think it's because I left my bag out so when I changed clothes, I basically placed the tick on me.
Elaine's person was freaking out. He has never gone to a trail race before and was terrified of ticks. Elaine and I have done plenty of trail runs and have never encountered a tick before so thought that his fear was dumbfounded. Oh well. He researched it for me and told me that it takes 24 hours to transmit Lyme disease which made me feel good. The tick was probably on me no more than 2.5 hours. I did end up making a virtual doc appointment and they told me that actually it takes 36 hours for transmission which made me feel a lot better. I have no symptoms even though they can take a few weeks to manifest. I no longer have a mark on the site so that's good too.
All in all, a real pretty race even though it can be pretty lonely...
