The First 50

So, there are so many things I missed on the long road to Haliburton, but the important ones will resurface in the telling of the actual miles.  I know Rick was relieved when we were out of the driveway just before the last minute deadline.  The time at the start before the race is kind of jumbled together.  I know I had a cup of coffee and was thrilled to see how the bags of milk were used (the Canadians have pitchers that house the bags - curious).  I know I was in line for the washroom (Canadian for bathroom) where I met a road runner from N. Carolina who was doing the 50 miler.   He said he liked to do a 50 now and again so he never felt the marathon was that hard.

Soon it was time for the pre-race prayer and piping down to the start.  I was beyond surprised to find myself tearing up.  At the start?  WTF, me?!  Relief to be starting?  I have no idea, except that I certainly felt emotion.  Then Ann brings out a "Time to Shine" poster for us!  I would put a heart, but blogspot doesn't seem to like them.  OK, from now on I'll "less than 3" it.  Ann, we all less than three you!

The start was at 6 am sharp.  Yay!!!  Scout and Squirrel were doing it.  The Jedi went out ahead of us a bit.  We had to use the headlamps; Hali is in the most western part of our timezone.  OK.  This was good.  We were doing it.  We settled in to a sort of rhythm.  Well, the LSD rhythm.  It didn't take too long before I said I thought we had to be running some of the ups, the very runnable ups that the other people were walking.  The Squirrel agreed.  We put on our very politest, "Excuse me, on the right/left" and pushed on.

Not too long in, I needed a visit to the woods.  This is one of the "long road to Hali" things that I didn't cover.  Around January, I started with GI issues.  They never really resolved.  I've mostly stopped losing weight, though I'm down about 16 lbs.  The Squirrel has been very patient.  We just know there will be lots of stops for me.  She walks till I rejoin.  Did Mindy use the woods this first time, too?  I just know we both were looking for hand sanitizer by the first aid station.  They didn' t have any.  Guess that's something for crews or drop bags.  Our crew, who turned out to be the best 100 crew ever, took 2 stops to get the kinks out, figure out how to deal with the other crews, set up where, have what we need when we needed it, but they did get it together.  I had to think back to realize they weren't perfect to start.

The weather was decent, but not ideal.  The temps remained in the mid-60s for the day, but it was humid.  We also had little bouts of rain, just enough to make the roots, logs, and mud slippery.  Still, it was not upper 80s or whatever the VT100 had.

Somewhere along the way (in the 30 mile range?), I wondered why we were doing this.  It felt just like our 50s, but we weren't going to be done in just 15 or 16 miles.  OK, suck it up.  Mindy had blisters starting.  I kept having trail debris fill my shoes.  So, for every aid station we could blow through just saying our numbers (thanks Tailwind :), we had our share of sitting in our chairs being tended to.  Mindy took some real time to pop the blisters somewhere around here.  She wanted to get on top of them so they were a real issue later.  And though I thought I had all this crap in my shoes, there never really was that much.  It also always seemed to be in the same spot.  Curious.

The guys told us Jedi was 10 minutes ahead, 15 minutes ahead, then we were getting closer.  I'm not sure what mile, but we went by just to have him pass us by not stopping at the aid station.  We headed out of the aid station talking to Garth, a really cool local who was running his third Hali 100.  The first he DNFed, the second, though in the worst conditions of the history of they race, he finished.  He said he was at mile 75 pretty much with lots of doubts of whether he could possibly finish.  Garth said he learned a real lesson in perseverance that day.  Wow!  What a difference from Downer Guy we'd met just a few miles earlier.  Though we told him we were doing our 1st 100, DG proceeded to make it sound like the worst possible decision anyone ever made.  Ugh. 

Talking with Garth, I had an eye on Jedi, not more than 150 feet ahead of us.  Garth's wife was the head of aid station 5.  She was an ultra runner, too.  From the sounds of it, maybe the better of the two of them.  You could tell he was proud of her.  "Hey!"  We were being yelled at by Straw Guy (an older runner who wore colored straws in his hat.  He handed them out to the women he wouldn't mind marrying).  We'd missed the turn!  A very obvious turn!  We yelled up to Jedi, made sure he turned, and headed back after SG.

Finishing the 50, we decided to take some time to attend to things before heading out.  Squirrel wanted to tend her feet some more.  I wanted to change.  I asked where was a good place.  Pete said there was a wash room and pointed.  Turns out it wasn't the building he thought, but one much further than I really should have gone.  I should have just changed in the crew vehicle.  Oh well.  I was happy with our 12hr 8 min 50 time; we were OK.

Well...lets go just a little past 50, at least past S&S's longest run.  It was cool heading out and weird too.  As we'd pass the 50 milers heading in, they'd say, "Have a good night."  I loved it and yet...the night was coming.  Nearly around the lake, I told the Squirrel when my the Garmin said we'd gone 55 miles.  That beat Peaks 54 (by the way, why my license plate reads "SCOUT54").  Into new territory...