Psycho Wyco race review

"Welp, at least I made myself finish." I keep saying to myself as I hobble around on my swollen, bum ankles today. I knew I hadn't trained enough of the past several months to compete in a 50k but I thought I could at least do the required three laps and finish.

I had run on the course many times. The KC Trail Nerds train there on Thursday nights and we usually do one lap (10+miles). No problem with that length...but my body usually starts breaking down around around the 'high teens'. It's not the dreaded 'wall' that marathoners talk about, but it's my flat feet and weak ankles that start to ache. I was just hoping that they could hold up for all three laps.

The weather in KC has been wonderful since Christas - mostly 40s and 50s and sunny. So it came as a surprise when I closed the door to leave and saw SNOW! And I saw on the news that it was only going to reach 30 degrees as the high. Thank you Mother Nature. You're not making it any easier for me. I don't mind the cold weather, but the snow makes the course HARD to run. Snow makes hill climbing harder...and even worse, the snow will melt and leave mud, my leave favorite thing on trails. I enjoy cruising on fast, rolling hills. This course is anything but: huge, steep, muddy hills to climb.

The number of people at the race took all of us by surprise. Ben, the race director, said last year, he had 40 people to sign up. This year after adding the raceday applicants, the total was 230 runners! (60 for the 50k; 50 for the 22miles; 120 for the 10miles). Ben did a marvelous job in organizing everthing (T-shirts, medals, food, marking the track, etc). Other KC Trail Nerds supplied food, soup, chili, etc so we had plenty of carbs to power through. I'll post pictures of the medal (w/ my logo!), T-shirts, and pics from the race soon!

I cruised through the first lap with no problems, but about halfway through the second lap, I knew I was in trouble. I completed the second lap after 3hr: 45min but I knew my feet were finished for the day and ready to hang it up. Call me determined (or just stupid), but I HAD to earn my finishers medal so I headed out for the third, and final, lap. It was bad...I tripped, hobbled, and whined my way through the last 10+ miles and crossed the finish line after 6hrs: 40 mins (yes...that's correct...it took me almost three hours to finish the last lap...barely more than the first two). I wasn't last place though!!! And considering it was only the second time I had ever run over 20 miles, it was an accomplishment....maybe not the smartest thing to do, but something I felt was important: to finish my hometown race in which my running group, KC Trail Nerds, sponsored.

As I crawl (literally) around my apt. today hoping the pain will go away within a few days, I consider myself lucky to be able to get outside and push myself. Maybe pushing (i.e. - hurting!) myself to finish will be a 'defenitive moment' for me. Nah...who am I kidding...it was just a race....