Monday, November 10, 2008

Rockledge Rumble 50K

photo credit - Mike Langille

The Rockledge Rumble was my very first ultra in 2006 – and actually my very first trail race. I don’t think I had even run on a trail before doing this race. The Rumble got me hooked on trail running and has been a favorite of mine ever since.

This was my third year to do the race and I had hopes of breaking 6 hours on the course. However, I made some rookie errors and paid the price. I finished in 6 hours and 28 minutes. You always learn something while racing, but why do I have to learn some of these lessons multiple times?

I started the run right on target – in fact at the halfway point of the race I had a five minute cushion on my goal time. But there were some warning signs already lighting up my dashboard. I had not peed at all for the first 15 miles and I knew I was not drinking enough and getting dehydrated. I tried to rectify the situation by drinking more at the aid stations, but I was already too far behind.

Around mile 20, I started to throw up. And I repeated this just about every mile to the finish. Any time I tried to pick up the pace and push myself a little harder I would vomit. And I could not get much fluid down my stomach without it coming back up pretty quickly. If this was a shorter race, I would have slowed down considerably and fixed the problem. But since it was a 50K, I decided to just push it as hard as I could and fix it after I finished.

My pace slowed dramatically from mile 20 to the finish and I lost many minutes while taking my throw up breaks. But I was able to finish the race strong and I was still smiling at the end. After finishing, I powered down many, many cups of water and finally started peeing again.

I went out to the race with my buddy Matt and Josh. Josh PR’d in the 30K – he had a good race knocking 30 minutes off his previous time. Matt ran the 50K and did well (as usual) even after running 70 miles at Cactus Rose the previous weekend. I was very excited to introduce my friend, Lauren to trail running during this race. She ran the 15K which was her longest run to date. She had some knee issues, but still finished well. I told her (and Josh confirmed this) that running this 15K will be harder than the upcoming White Rock Half Marathon. So this race gave her plenty of mental toughness to finish White Rock.

The Rumble is put on each year by my running club – NTTR (North Texas Trail Runners). This race gets many people started in trail running in our area. It is supported by experienced ultra runners and an excellent RD – Tom Crull. I recommend the race all the time to my running friends and look forward to it each year. Next year I will carry more water with me between aid stations and do better.