The start heads down Pinnacle Valley Rd 2.7 miles to the trailhead of the OT which immediately goes to a steep, stepped descent and through a nice 1 mile section to reach the first aid station which marks the East Summit of Pinnacle Mtn. the first section took about 33 minutes to cover so the Sun was just starting to peak over the horizon making a "picturesque climb" like the race website states. But I've climbed Pinnacle before and had no interest in the view. I descended and ran around the mountain's base trail to reach the East aid station again at mile 6.7 in 1:14 putting me up there with the leaders where a novice like me probably shouldn't be. My "crew" for the day consisted of Helen, Lindsey and my parents. Helen and Lindsey first met me here to pass along my hand held 22 oz water bottle pre-filled with some nutrition shake. This gave me a little more lead on who would eventually be the leaders since they all stopped at this aid station. Of great personal note, someone had a giant horn that they continued to blow as people approached Pinnacle. So, running through the woods with that horn going off made me think of the "Horn of Gondor" from the Fellowship of the Ring and had me smiling with visions of me "hunting Orc."The next section involved a short spur on pavement and then started the main trail section. The area between here and the Northshore aid station (16.9) is the hilly part of the course and took a bit of effort to get through. I reached Northshore with no major events and was well ahead of my goal time. Going into the aid station, I was focused on getting to my drop bag and getting out as quickly as possible. Here I began consuming my concocted race nutrition drink consisting of nutrition powder, Gatorade and BCAA/glutamine powder with a little salt. This tasted surprisingly good and overall seems to have been an excellent addition to my racing strategy. I was amazed at those people who have no need to stop at aid stations. Personally, the 2-4 minutes I spend here aren't too much of a hindrance especially if it means the difference between hitting a wall later. This translated to me being viewed as delirious by the aid station captain and led to a rather funny conversation that resembled a mother with her four-year-old asking if I wanted real food instead of my red goop and if I knew where I was going.
After Northshore begins the quick sections of the course and I don't remember really walking any of this section up to the turnaround. Since it was a bit lower, there was a good amount of collected water from the week's rain a few days before. This made for some squishy sections and for the creek crossings to be a bit more interesting. I made great attempts at hop/skip/jumping of these creeks when possible and actually made myself quite proud with my dry feet. Then I reached a creek with rushing, knee deep water with a cable strung across. I made one last attempt at dry feet and tried to army rope crawl. I failed and accepted my newly wet feet with plans to change shoes at the turnaround. I reached the turnaround in great spirits especially compared to the fellow runners around me and even garnered a few laughs because I was singing along with my music coming out of the woods.
My crew was at the turnaround (26.3) with Vaseline and a change of shoes. I slabbed on most of the container of Vaseline over my compression socks and put on the new pair of shoes. Helen gave me more of my magic white powder drink and I was off. I left the turnaround at 4:32 in about 5th place. Coming out, my pace definitely began to slow considerably and could not get myself to run as much as I should have. Cramping was an issue as it has been in the past and I became very conservative hoping that these cramps wouldn't become debilitating. This time through, I accepted the idea of wet feet and hopped straight through most of the streams. In this section, I also began to be passed by some of the more experienced runners and I remain in awe of the consistent motors that these men possess. Since it was an out/back, I got to see some of the people I know doing the 50M like Cliff and Jenny which always improves the mood. I decided to focus on my hydration during this section and ended up drinking much more than I probably needed. I reached Northshore again, still ahead of my goal, and was once again greeted by my merry crew who helped refill my bottle. Dad, of course, gave me words of caution and video taped my arrival and departure through this aid station. I also got to see Harold Hays here who was waiting to pace Jenny in the rest of the 13.4 miles past this point. He passed along some words of encouragement and finished with, "Don't let us catch you." I didn't plan on letting them...
I did, however, didn't execute that plan very well. This next section is generally a blur and involved more walking than I should have allowed. Here I finally turned off my music and immersed myself in the sounds of the woods and my own feet hitting the trail which was a soothing experience even after the long day. I had my first and only fall on the last 0.1 mile of trail here but popped right up and continued with only a small loss of momentum. I completely walked the road section to return to Pinnacle's trails and mostly walked back the the third run in with the East Summit aid station. On the way there, some day hikers asked how far I was running and why. I said, "50 miles...for shits and giggles." They laughed, I didn't. But what kind of mood do you expect me to be in after 45 miles of pounding trail. I headed back down the flat area between the visitor's center and Pinnacle and stopped immediately for a 4 foot water moccasin stretched out across the trail. It won the short standoff and forced me off the trail to get by. I climbed the stretch of stairs to the parking lot and decided that that was it. I ran another half a mile then stopped. I looked at my watch and saw that I had about 32 minutes to make a 2 mile distance to reach my ten hour goal. I started my power walking routine which seems to be the 50 mile close for me through my first two races of this distance. I finally saw the start line with 3 minutes to go and decided to run it in on this last section. I finished in 9:57 and stood in front of Chrissy for my award. She held it behind her back and asked, "Did you earn it?" "Oh yeah I did." I scooted around a bit around the finish area consuming some chili, a few cheeseburgers and a beer. I headed off with my crew to kill some Mexican food after I showered, of course. All in all, I consumed right at 5,000 calories of my nutrition shakes. I do feel like a could have shaved at least half and hour off my time with more running but I just didn't know how my body was going to react to this distance. This gives me hope for the future.
I am now a firm believer in compression socks for a boost in performance. I typically am hindered by cramps after 4+ hours of running but this seemed to subside by wearing these socks. I have also since worn compression tights to bed for recovery and have noticed an acceleration in healing compared to even shorter distances like a marathon. I was back pounding pavement on Tuesday and am starting to look forward to a summer of hard training and another short at the TATUR Midnight Madness 50 on July 1st.
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