Triple Lakes 40 Mile Run 2009
By: Hazel Tapp
Greetings all: first of all a really big thank you to you all for the really nice support, both before and after this event. It really, really meant a lot to me to have you all out there, actually taking the time to support me in this venture of “insanity”.
Jason, Michelle, Siohban, Brian, Jonathan and I made our way Oct 3rd to Mil-Bur park, Greensville NC, for the annual trail half, full, and 40 mile race this last weekend. Its a quiet park venue with a few hundred max entering the three races. The start was 8amish am (slight delay probably caused by the not enough porta potty line) for the full and 40. Brain, Jonathan and I got a lovely send off from the half starters (9am for them). We had good weather, I had sneaked along my MP3 (not permitted) and after a short panic where Michelle helped me find my copious pouch of food that dropped off my belt, I was calmly on my way. The first 10 miles went by very easily, scenery was lovely, I was, for once, paying attention to my race plan and doing the Jonathan trained run / walk strategy (run 25 minutess walk 5 to the top and bottom of the hour) and chatting briefly to the stream of marathoners flying past.
The ultra guys were a relaxed lot: I met a Leadville 100 veteran who had a huge sandwich visible in his back pack and we chatted for several minutes before one of my walk times came up and he “took off” into the distance. The early walks were sort of tough. I was full of energy, blocking the single track, and just generally seeing walking as a chore. Then, I remembered all my food, so I happily started seriously tucking in: my PB & J sandwiches, accer gu’s, M&Ms, anything Lance likes, all demolished, and that was just one of the walks. With hindsight, this was a great use of time, although partially boredom driven, it kicked in some energy long after my appetite faded. I was going slow enough to digest the food, plus my pouch got a lot lighter!!
The second ten miles found me passing and being passed by a group of 40 milers who kept up a steady but slow jog while I stuck to my run walk strategy. The highlight was meeting Jonathan (me at 17, him at 22) as he headed home from the turnaround. The trail was pretty nice. Runable with roots, ups and downs but nothing too steep or silly. Boardwalks over streams and scenic lakes to our left. Very pleasant. I trundled on in a happy daze. Soon, the wannabe Jonathan’s came flying past. They didn’t look half as speedy or relaxed as our UCRR hero, so apart from a happy hello, I could offer them no comfort on their prospects of winning.
Eventually, about mile 18, I saw the first female and congratulated her on being ahead. Not long after, I tripped and went flying. Muddy hands and knees, I had dropped my gloves early on. Oh well. By now I was anxious for the turnaround which was also an aid station and at 20 miles, spent a happy few minutes washing off my knees, shocked to see some abrasions. I hadn’t felt a thing. A lot of runners had drop bags here, I was glad I didn’t as the aid stations were well stocked, and I didn’t feel like I needed anything.
As the phrase goes, “beware the chair” so I hit the track and started heading back. Within a mile or so I was shocked to pass about 6 or 7 females still coming up and realized I was very likely in 3rd or 4 th place. This was really a pivotal moment for me, they were not far behind, do I resume run/walk, relax and let people pass, take it slow and enjoy the day? Well of course not. The “THIS IS A RACE AND I’M AHEAD, HOW OFTEN DOES THAT HAPPEN?’ mentality gripped me.. Now what do I do? Well run of course, I pretty much took off with a kind of “well its over half way” thought process going on. I almost immediately fell over again this time at speed, and, with the next aid station 5 miles away, decided I could adapt to a bit of mud for a while. My new, never before thought about race strategy, was to run pretty hard and walk anything technical and see what happened. Miles 20 – 30 went by in this vein. One lady caught me up and was clearly much stronger than me, so after a happy exchange she eased off ahead. The main overtaking I did was Guys walking or hobbling, saying things like “I’ve had better days thanks” to my friendly inquiries.
The trail got quieter but it all seemed pretty doable and I trucked along fairly steadily. The wall hit about 29-30 miles. I was suddenly very tired and aware of the folly I had run into. I still had a long way to go. What was my plan? I didn’t have a clue. An aid station at mile 31 was a cheerful experience, 10 or so clapping, cheering people perked up every runner coming through and I knew I was way ahead of the 3PM cut off requiring a night light. However, as I headed off into the woods my mood changed rapidly. I was really tired, I had 9 miles left and I didn’t have a plan. What was I going to do? I was stuck in a hole and trying to dig deep for the comfort of mental resources, “keep moving towards your goal” “one foot in front of the other” etc. It was very quiet but I knew there were plenty of people catching up behind me if I started to quit. By this time, I hadn’t seen anyone for several miles, I was in a world of my own and was astonished to come up on the original first placed female who I hadn’t seen since mile 18. I think she saw me because she was able to take off really fast and despite a perk in my enthusiasm at the thought of over- taking I had nothing to answer her rapidly disappearing speed. I fell back into my funk assuming she’d got into a long walking break and continued to ponder my fate.
By now, my emotion was basically pissed. I didn’t care about the nice trails, I didn’t care about the nice views, and I didn’t really care about the friendly people walking dogs (who I did bless with a fake smile). However, at mile 34 I began to realize I had a new plan. 6 miles left = the last six miles of a marathon. I knew I am the worlds expert at staggering home a “gone out too fast” final 6 of a marathon. Plus, I calculated I had a fair chance of breaking 8 hours if I maintained the stagger. OK. Game on. I continued a slow jog, cranked up the music and plodded along. At about 35, I passed lady number 1, who this time limped to the side the trail and told me her hip was hurting. This was depressing, it was hard to move on, and I promised her I‘d warn the aid station she was coming. At the aid station I passed on her news but didn’t linger, “only 5 to go”, I had to keep rolling. The last five were much of the same, slow, painful, doable, with the last mile a cruelly mis-marked 1.3 costing me my hard calculated, but not much lamented, sub 8 hour run. Finally, I came out into the sun, looked for the finish and cursed my way around a tortuous little lake, which once probably held throngs of marathon spectators, to the finish. Two people recorded me across the line and I was very happy to see Craig and our dog.
Result: 8 hours 2 minutes. 40.3 miles. 3rd female finisher and 25 / 56 total finishers.
Post Race thoughts: There’s a lot of pluses for the soft trail but minuses for the endless roots and ups and downs. Legs are mostly recovered and don’t feel any worse for wear than usual post marathon stuff.
I’d like to dedicate the day to Michelle, who has always been a quiet but tireless supporter of us all in the club, has much wisdom to offer, and showed wonderful support to me both leading up to and before this event. Thanks Michelle, for all you do. Michelle ran a great race that day, did a speedy half marathon and came second in her age group. Great job girl. Tim and Jason were right there with her, with Siobhan a minute or so behind. Brian finished strong and had a great trail marathon day.
I think we all know that Jonathan was the Giselle of the day, who amazed us all with his “sprint” win. What a way to take an easy 40!!!
