My first 50 mile race! If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be running 50 miles, I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s been a slow but natural progression, from running a lap around the park to running 3 miles to running 6 miles to training for my first marathon to doing my first 50k. I stayed with 50ks for five years, and never much felt the urge to venture beyond. Marathon to 50k isn’t a huge jump, but 50k to 50 mile felt enormous. When I finally did get the courage to register for my first 50-miler in 2008, I got injured a few months prior and had to pull out of the race. So although I registered for the Rocky Road 50 miler just a few weeks before the race, it was really a distance in the making for the past few years.

Putting the “rock” in Rocky Road

For all the slow buildup leading to this race, there wasn’t any anxiety or drama associated with running a new, scary distance. It’s funny, but I had a really peaceful feeling about this race. No nerves, no doubts. Maybe because I’d been racing so much this spring, or maybe I was just older and wiser and knew that I was ready for it. Whatever the reason, I just accepted the distance and didn’t stress. I even slept like a baby the night before! (That NEVER happens.) The race was in a gated community in Orange County, so I was up at 4 am to drive down for the 7am start. The course was not physically challenging, but it was tough mentally: a hard 5-mile loop on singletrack, then 3 out-and-back sections of 15 miles each to make the 50 mile total.

This was a great race—I felt the best I had during a race so far for the 2010 season. It started on a bad note: we’d driven down to Julian from LA the night before, and had horrible traffic leaving the city. The first hour we traveled 13 miles. We finally arrived in Julian close to 10 pm. The B&B was cute, but our room (and bed) was tiny. We settled in to sleep around 11, but I could NOT get to sleep. I literally tossed and turned most of the night. I would guess I dozed around 2am, and got up at 5, with periods of wakefulness in between. So I was exhausted and not feeling my best at the start.

Twin Peaks 50k was my first ultra in over two years, and I was ner-vous! Quick backstory: In November 2007 I fell during a race and slammed my knee against a rock. This seemingly small injury nagged me for the next few weeks, and after I stupidly ran a 50k in early December, my knee was officially A Problem. It took almost two years of resting, very short runs, and lots of hiking and strength training before I felt confident about running longer distances again. I gradually built up my runs until I was running significant mileage to prepare for Twin Peaks, but I still wasn’t sure how my knee would hold up or how I would feel.

After feeling so great at Twin Peaks in February, San Juan Trails was a real struggle. On paper it looks easier than Twin Peaks (less mileage, less elevation) but it felt much more difficult. Part of it might have been my body: I was having stomach issues and hadn’t been keeping much food in since Wednesday, including not being able to choke down as much breakfast as I would have liked. I finished most of my oatmeal, but didn’t have the banana or gummies I had before Twin Peaks. Also, I’d only gotten 3 hours of (interrupted) sleep the night before, so I didn’t have as much in the tank to start.