May 16, 2009 Jemez 50k Race Report

Jemez 50k May 16, 2009
33 miles
7781 gain/ 7781 loss
9 hr 54 minutes

I started training for this race towards the end of January with a group from Austin. This would be my first mountain race and my first 50k! I had planned to do a 50k last fall, but one I dnf'ed and then I got runners knee so was unable to do the other ones I had planned. Plus I wanted to take the time to recover for Jemez.

I was healthy during all of the training for Jemez (well I did have a case of bronchitis in Feb where I had to take a couple weeks off), but remained uninjured until 10 days before the race. Not sure what happened to cause this, but I developed a quad strain on my left quad. Any weight bearing activity such as running or jumping hurt. I was very worried that I wouldn't be able to do the race. The race meant so much to me though that I was going to do everything I could to be able to race it. I ended up getting some anti-inflammatory rx from the doctor on the Wednesday before the race and on Friday afternoon was able to jump on my left leg without pain so decided that the race was a go!!! My new race plan was to power walk when it hurt too much, to have fun during the race, and to finish. Time no longer mattered.

Jon, I and Domingo (my dog) drove to Los Alamos from Austin Thursday after work. We stayed the night in Lubbock and arrived in Los Alamos on Friday afternoon. Jon's parents were meeting us there.

Race Day:
I woke up at 4:15am to make the 6am race start. I had a chocolate poptart before the race, yum! Our race started out in the light, the 50 milers were already out on the trail. The race started out on a short section of road at about 6800 ft. When I started running I was VERY surprised at how hard it was to breathe. It wasn't hard breathing just walking around. I had to do 33 miles of this! I started with labored breathing but it did get easier as time went on. At least the breathing part did. During this first section of trail I concentrated on controlling my breathing and to get a good rhythm down.

The next section of trail ascended Guaje Ridge. This was our first big climb of the day, 1540 feet of climbing. Jon would be doing this climb a couple of hours later during the half marathon. John Kuss passed me on this section, he is a faster climber then me. I met a few people on this section of trail and chatting to them made the climb go pretty fast.

The next section went down Guaje Ridge to Caballo Base. This part was fun. It started out downhill so I passed a few people, I love the downhills. It is funny to think when I first started trail running I use to be scared of downhills. I had to be careful on the turns though since I slid a couple of times. After the downhill we came to a waterfall and a short ladder we had to climb. The trail meandered around a creek for a little bit until we came to Caballo Base.

I grabbed a fig newton from the aid station before I started the climb up Caballo Mt. This was the 2nd big climb of the day, up to about 10480 feet. The 50 milers and the fast 50kers were coming down as I was climbing up. It was hard to keep a steady pace on this section since the trail was narrow, and I had to move over a lot to let the downhillers go down. I took a restroom break off trail on the way up. Later on I heard there was a bear near this section of trail. So glad I didn't run into him!!! It was fun seeing so many other people from Austin during this section of the course. I have no idea how long this took to climb since I was watchless but it seemed to take forever. It was definitely worth the climb, the top was beautiful. There was even a cool golden I met on top. I think her and Domingo would make good friends....

Coming down Caballo Mt was my favorite part of the race. I got pretty good speed going down and really only had to stop once when my nozzle from my hydration pack fell off. When I got to the bottom I was surprised I was there already since the time went by so fast. Time goes by fast when you are having fun.

By now my left quad was hurting but only when I ran. Also my right Achilles started hurting. Must be from all the uphills. I started out walking the next section to pipeline. I ran/walked the rest of this section until it got to a pretty big/steep climb. This climb was my 3rd big climb of the day, it was hard! Robert, my coach, was volunteering at the pipeline aid station. As I went to grad a p&j sandwich he told me I was limping :) I didn't care though, I just planned to walk if I hurt to much to run.

From pipeline I made it over to the ski lodge. This was an out and back section of the trail. Wow, this part of the course was so much different then the rest. There was a big field of aspen trees. I hadn't realized they had those in New Mexico. I was hurting and tired during this section so did a lot of walking.

When I got to the ski lodge I was happily surprised to see Jon and his dad there. I spend my longest time at this aid station, they even had real bathrooms there! I dropped my pack and camera off here and carried one water bottle the rest of the race.

I made my way back to pipeline and headed back up Guaje. This started up a hill which was a wide jeep road with beautiful views of the town. Too bad I no longer had my camera. I was mostly alone during the rest of the race so turned on my ipod (low volume) to keep me company. There was a girl I would see during the rest of the race, I would pass her on the downhills and she would pass me on the flats and uphills. There was a great single track section after the uphill through the trees which was mostly downhill. For the rest of the race I ran most of the downhills (Even though it hurt my quad!) and walked the flats and hills.

Jon met me to run the last 2 miles with me. I had been looking forward to this. There was a very fun xmas themed aid station at 2 miles from the finish. All that was missing was xmas cookies. I wonder if they had any earlier....

The race had an evil little climb near the end. I got cheered in by the Austin group as I finished :) Plus my dog and Jon's parents were there. I was so thrilled to have completed my first 50k.

There was nothing I would have changed about this race. The weather was perfect, the scenery and views were more then I could ask for, the aid stations had everything I wanted (I barely had to eat the food I brought), not once did I get lost or confused, and the course was challenging with fun downhills.