Late Fat Ass Report

I can't believe it's over. In fact, I think that's why it's taken me so long to post...Then it really would be done. Before I get to the actual running, which is what this blog is supposed to be about, I have to gush a bit. I love the Trail Monsters. I love them individually and collectively. I love that they love to run, that they are so much fun, that they made my 50th the best birthday I've had. I love my neighbors who shared in hosting the fat ass and came up with whatever I forgot. I love that my brother came all the way from Colorado for barely three days to participate. And I love Rick who always supports my running even when he's been struggling so long with injuries. What a lucky girl I am!

The day was perfect, bright sunshine, light wind, and mild temps. I was still in my pj's when a caravan of cars began to pull up the driveway. As usual, my cooking took longer than I thought. No matter, everyone milled around socializing while I popped in the bacon breakfast pizza (I didn't get to the spinach, mushroom, and onion one till supper).

Without a lot of fanfare, 22 runners set out on our 5.16 mile loop. I think I made such a fuss about the rugged conditions of the course that most of the runners were pleasantly surprised. Still, there were lots of lumps and bumps in the bare fields, some icy spots, and crusty snow that would loosen up as the day went on.

I was the Monster that knew the course; I lead the way. Since most of the run was in open field, it was fun to look back and see the runners all finding their own paces. The front runners are all faster than me, but the adrenaline of it all let me lead at a decent pace. It wasn't till after the hill across the street, around the fourth mile, that I began to fall back. I was yelling out the directions to the front runners, Blaine, Chuck, Ian, Bob, Jamie, Lily, Ryan (not Snowman, not my Ryan, but the dinsosaur's Ryan) to keep them on course around the cones - what I thought would be the only part of the course that would be hard to follow. Turns out George would try to stretch the distance out some along the power lines and a few people would take a line through the prickers here and there.

Still I managed to stay just behind the lead group to finish the first loop in 49:41. That was two minutes faster than when I ran with Lily the week before, which was two minutes better than I ever ran solo. Ian refueled quickly and looked eager to get to the second loop. He looked at me like "coming?". Nope, I would take a bit longer to refuel, recover, and change into short sleeves and a fresh sports bra. From the stat board I see I took a full 7 minutes longer to get going. Well, at least that way I got to see Snowman hand off their precious Samantha to Danielle, who'd run the first lap (They had friends up from MA and still made time to both share in the day. Thanks, guys!).

I started the 2nd lap with Steve Day, a friend of Rick's from work, and we picked up my brother, John, for a bit. An unexpected need to visit the woods, left me solo for most of the rest of the loop. That was fine, just surprising given how many runners were spread out over the 5 miles. I did meet up with John for the last mile.

He was refueled and ready for his 3rd lap much quicker than I. Turns out my refueling took just over 12 minutes (same as after the 1st). I was feeling good for about a mile. Then my ITband, which hadn't misbehaved in a long time, started twinging. By the time I'd gotten to the motor-cross portion of the course, about 3 miles in, it was really yelling. I tried some stretches and kept going. At mile 4, I was on my back trying a more intense stretch. It helped some and I made it back, but decided to call it quits. I had intended to do 4 laps. If my ITB felt like that during Pinelands, I'd push through, but, not for a fat ass. This way I got to enjoy the other Monsters as they came in and told their stories of their runs AND there were so many goodies to sample.

Lets see, there are a few things...Karen and Alosaurus' kids are great. They both ran one full loop and part of a second. They still seemed to have boundless energy the rest of the day, playing on the pond, running around the yard, burning cattails... They were outgoing and polite, pleasures to have around.

Bob Poirier made being 50-plus look pretty good. Not only was he one of the three to go the distance, he was the first to finish. And finish looking damn fresh!

Lily and Jamie were the other two finishing all six laps. It was Lily's first 50k!

My brother did four laps, had to get up before 3am to make his flight out of Boston, and said he would have finished the other two laps Sunday if he had a later flight. Then, after reading much of Born to Run on the plane, said he would have run all 6 Saturday if he'd read that first!

I'm going to call it a post even though there are lots more stories of the day. It's 2am...Kevin's blog has his take on the day.

What a way to turn 50!