Dropping a quick post to share a bit about the 50k race I completed a few weekends ago. Last year I had heard about ultra distance running and ambitiously signed up for the Overlook 50k in Auburn, put on by the indomitable Ann Trason. In 2014 I dropped out at mile 16 after many hours of puking in 90 degree heat and I left feeling quite defeated. This year the race was held a bit later in the year and I tentatively signed up again. I had more than 1000 running miles in 2015 but I was nonetheless incredibly apprehensive to give the race a shot, seeing as I failed the year before and didn’t fancy barfing on the side of the trail as the kind sweepers looked on!

Flash forward to 2015 and a few days after arriving back from a trip volunteering in Gaza, I am making my way up to Auburn for the race. At Auburn Running Company I shyly went about my bib pick-up eyeing Ann Trason with admiration from afar and declining to attend the pre-race feed in typical introvert style. I did take supplying my emergency contact number quite seriously, hah!

The morning of the race my heart rate was through the roof I was super nervous! Sitting in the school bus at 6am I was surrounded by a bunch of my fellow runners who I surmised to be ultra die-hards and much cooler than me. The bus driver’s local history commentary on the way up to Foresthill was awesome though and in true nerd style I listened to a meditation podcast on my phone to try and get it together.

As soon as the portapotty line dwindled the race was off! My heart rate was still much higher than usual and of course I was basically freaking out. My initial goal going into the race was to keep my HR around 150 bpm for the first half, but I quickly scrapped that and told myself to focus on other aspects of my plan. I kept the nutrition simple as I had on previous long runs, 2 gus/hour for as long as possible, water whenever I felt like it, supplemented by some salt tablets and trader joe’s cheese puffs. I decided to walk all the ups and run everything else, and not push the pace at all until the second half. This plan worked more or less!

I kept my pace really slow for the first half, and as soon as I passed where I started puking last year I began to feel much more confident. I ran through the first aid station and basically felt awesome from mile 9–25. Due to my conservative start, I did end up passing a lot of folks in the middle miles which was a nice booster as well.

Throughout the race the volunteers at the aid stations were absolute sweethearts. Coming through Rucky Chucky aid station an incredibly kind woman immediately offered to refill my pack with water. It was so sweaty, it was nice of her to even touch it! At one point I also saw the sweeper who I remembered from last year since I was in last place. I wanted to be like “Do you remember me, puke girl?!” but went with a simple “I remember you!”.

When I eventually crossed No Hands Bridge around mile 26 there was a small cheering squad there. I almost teared up because at that point there were only a few miles to go and I realized I really was really going to finish the thing.

That said, the final miles of the course were uphill so that was pretty fun to encounter after you just ran a full marathon! I definitely walked those ups and by that point I was barely holding on to my stomach. I’m not sure what I was missing at that point nutritionally, but I was missing something. For those final miles I walked very near to an inspiring age 65+ ultra runner woman (pictured below). She was so chipper and called her husband when we got to Robie Point to alert him to come pick her up. Her tone of voice was like she was just finishing a little morning walk hah! There is something for me to aspire to!

When I popped up into the park and crossed the finish line I definitely shed some tears. I couldn’t believe I actually finished and accomplished something I had been dreaming of for over two years! Ann Trason shook my hand and said welcome to Auburn! I jogged about the parking lot a bit just to make my watch pass 30 miles, grabbed some water and found a kid in the parking lot to take my picture. In some ways the finish was anti-climactic as I didn’t have any friends or family there and there wasn’t much fan fare. In a way I find that absolutely perfect though; my quiet and powerful journey with running continues on.

All-in-all I found it incredibly gratifying to fail at something and come back a year later and succeed. It’s inspired me to take more risks and dream big in other areas of my life, and it was definitely a confidence builder. Huge thank you to the aid station volunteers, Ann Trason and Overlook Endurance Runs for putting on an event that has been a big event in my life two years in a row! A few weeks have passed now, I’m recovering fairly well and am already pondering the next long trail run on my list!