Woodstock 50 Mile - What Do You Do For 14 Hours?

I finished the Woodstock 50 Mile Saturday – my first 50 mile. I’m finishing up the race report and gathering pictures, but I wanted to make a quick post this morning.

I finished in 13 hours and 47 minutes and brought home a 4^th place age group win.

A non-runner friend asked afterward, “What do you do during that whole time?” Well, my race report will answer all that tonight, but for now, enjoy these brief summaries from the trail race experience: 

• You make new friends – blessed to make friends with fellow first time 50 milers Matt and Lori
• You chat – about anything and everything with the people you run with even for half a mile, and the aid station volunteers too!
• You follow the flags – or like Matt and I, you misunderstand the flags and miss a sign and end up having to do the course a little out of order, but still all the same distance covered by the end.
• You give cheers to fellow competitors – “Good job” became such a reflex too that two mountain bikers passed us at mile 23ish, and I told them Good Job on just their morning jaunt. LOL
• You obsess over your hydration and when you last peed – I managed hydration great in this race and the 50-60 degree weather certainly helped. Me to Lesley: "I kinda need to go to the bathroom but if I do then I'll have to get my sweaty compression shorts back on and in place, and I'm worried I'll chafe out here on the course." Priorities!
• You freak out over food options and count calories on the fly – “You have no potatoes?” “No coke?!? Okay, give me the Sprite. Wait, let me see the bottle, how many calories in 6 oz?”  “Today, I LIVE for soup!!”
• You enjoy the beautiful forest all around you – rolling hills through a giant wooded Michigan recreation area!
• You try not to fall over – that takes so much of the mental strength of the day but makes time pass quick
• You try not to get too hurt – 4 decent scrapes across the legs by overgrown bushes that reached out and grabbed me. A bruise from a stick Matt kicked up that tried to impale into my shin. Minimal chafing, mostly at the top of my compression shorts, and a tiny bit at my heart rate monitor strap and the inside of one knee. No blisters!!!
• You lean on your pacer for support – Lesley was my rock and such an amazing help. I can’t imagine having done this without her!
• You gather memories – The biker that was drunk as a skunk before I started at 6 am. The girl in tie-dye leggings. The super nice trailrunner volunteer at Aid Station 2 who has run Rocky Raccoon 100 in my neck of the woods before.

More details tonight. I promise it’s worth it if you want to see what 50 miles is like or want to know more about the Run Woodstock event. My reports tend to be decently detailed since I write this to be able to relive the memories and event myself when the details start to fuzz up as can happen a year or two later! Rereading my race reports make me smile later, so that’s my goal when writing them. Later!