Running Mom's Motivation

This is my race report that I posted on the Runner's World Website...

What an awesome day for racing yesterday was. It got a little hot in the middle of the day, but since we were in the woods for most of it, it wasn't too bad. For those that don't know what DWD is, there is a 50k ultra, a 50mile ultra, and a 5 man 100k relay. This is all through the trails of Hell and Pinckney, MI.

Most people, including me, think of Southeast MI as being pretty flat. But the hills in Hell are something to talk about. Each leg of the race has a special name. There are 15 legs in the relay. Names include "Where's the F'ing Bridge?", "This Sucks", "Purgatory", and "The Stripper Pole." Each leg is rated on hills, water, and mud factors so that you can decide ahead of time whom should run which legs.

This was my first year doing the race, so I didn't really know what to expect. As we were pulling into town around 7am we started noticing all sorts of people in the road with head lamps on. They kind of came out of nowhere, so I am glad we didn't hit one of them. I had forgotten that the ultras started at 6am. When we pulled into the initial parking area I was in awe with all the people. It looked like one heck of a party going on at 7am.

Soon enough it was time to start and our first man took off with a huge wave of people dressed in everything from normal running clothes to women's underwear. Each leg of the race was unique and I can't tell you about all of them because it would take forever and thank goodness I didn't get to see all of them!

I had the third leg of the race. It about 3.5 miles. It was called the Rave Run. It was a nice run. The runner from the leg right before me got lost for a while, so I was really hyped up and ready to go when she got into the exchange point. I took off like a flash (at least for me) and quickly realized that I was running way too fast for my abilities. I slowed way down for the rest of the run. I had to walk a few hills, but I ran most of this leg. It was a good hard trail run, but not anything too over the top. I think it and one other leg were the only legs that didn't have something really hard. I fell right on my butt coming up to a road crossing as my feet slipped right out from under me on the wet grass. After I landed, I took inventory and noted that nothing felt injured, so I got up and finished shortly there after.

It was awesome coming into the exchanges because there were so many people standing around cheering and waiting for the next runner to come in. On some of the legs you needed to cheat and send out the next runner before the last one came in so that you didn't finish too late in the day. Even at these exchanges people were yelling and cheering. There were many people who passed me on the trails and were very encouraging. The volunteers were also a great help reminding us which markers to follow and giving encouragement along the way. This race was awesome because so many of the people were demonstrating what many of us have come to find in other runners...it is a great bunch of people.

My second leg was called Swoosh. I thought I was going to puke when I started because I had a headache all day and it was at its worse at the beginning of this leg. It was supposed to be any easy 4 miler with a low hill rating. THEY LIED! The hills on this leg were big. There were none like the Stripper Pole, but there were just so many of them and quite a few large ones. It was quite rocky and there were a lot of trees down along the trails. This was the leg where I could have easily gotten lost. We would be running along a perfectly nice, groomed trail heading out straight in front of us and suddenly the markers would just turn off the path and go down into the woods where there was no trail. The people that map out these trails are sadists! This leg had a little poison ivy. There was one small area of black mud that it looked like a lot of people had run through. But after my experience getting stuck up to my hips a couple weeks ago, I decided to go around. As a side note, when people got to the mud on the Where's the F'ing Bridge leg, there were ropes to help people get out and our team mate said there was no way someone as short as me could have made it through there on my own.

So the major thing about Swoosh was the hills. The good news was that my headache disappeared about half way through this leg. It took me an hour and 5 minutes to run just over 4 miles. When I got back my team was there again screaming and cheering me on. They are all much better runners than I am, so it was great having their support and them letting me take part in this event with them. When I got back, I yelled "those hills were a B*@ch." My team enjoyed hearing about my pain.

After getting back to the exchange (where my teammate had already left on the next leg) it was off again in the car to the next exchange. So that is pretty much the way the rest of the day went, moving from one exchange to the next. I was continually in awe of the Ultra runners that we saw throughout the day. At the finish, when our last man was coming in, the rest of us met up with him and crossed the finish line together. We all got medals and t-shirts that have the section of the release form where it mentions our possible injury or death printed across the backs. We had beer waiting at the finish and each team got a couple pizzas. There was a band playing as the final teams were coming in and the announcements for different prizes were being made.

It was an incredible day and I still can't believe that I was there to do it. I was filling in for another person on the team, so I don't think I will be able to do it again next year. As a runner that hasn't even been running a year yet, I was so thankful that my team included me and I got a little teary eyed thinking about it as I sat and watched the other teams finish. Our final time was 12hours and 2minutes.


Total Miles Yesterday = 7.5 Approximate Miles Since Starting = 487

Posted in: on Sunday, September 9, 2007 at at 7:39 PM