rhode island 6 hour

ok, i know i said i was back. and that was like 10 days ago. blogging is hard with a toddler you guys, seriously (truth is actually i didnt even try. i already KNOW its going to be hard to get blogs written... and thats IF i have things to blog about. which i DO! but it will take time). so deal with it (ahem, katie). but a blog post! a race! i actually have been running this year, im sure thats no surprise to anyone. actually, ive run quite a lot this year (also no surprise). current mileage: 1,895.41. apparently a direct flight from westbrook, maine to riverton, wyoming is that exact distance. cuz ya know, that airport weve got here in the brook (??). id love to update this blog about some of the runs/races ive done this year (oh maybe i just should have blogged?!)... and i will. because they were fantastic and i want them written down. and should have written it all down directly after they happened because now im gonna be all yeah i had a really cool race and it was super fun and awesome with great friends! but i forget most of everything that happened.

sorry.

BUT this past weekend i ran a race ive never run (haha "race")... and it WAS super fun and awesome and i remember SO MUCH about it (mostly due to the fact that i can still feel the effects of it...achy achy snap pop)

earlier this year i DNF'd (did not finish) my first 50k at pineland. i likely wont write about it because it sucked (other than bff finishing her first 50 MILER! and jocelyn winning her age group. and lots of other bad ass friends doing bad ass things while i sulked and drank my feelings away). i basically felt like i was gonna puke and still had 7 miles left to go which i felt would be ridiculously painful puking and slow walking. so i packed up and walked back to the start area from the mile 24 ish aid station. i had a beer (or 3) and some food and felt awesome! go figure. but i needed some redemption, so i registered for this 6 hour race in rhode island in november thinking ok ill go get it done there (and lots of time to still back out and decide it was not a great idea and just not go). what actually happened instead was i went and ran 40 miles around a high school track in august (yes, 160 something laps). haha. i should write about THAT. it was amazing. 

but i still was so excited about the rhode island 6 hour, and maybe a week before the event, my friend katie decided to make terrible life decisions join in on the fun too. what are friends for if they wont come run ridiculous amounts of miles with you, right?! i have a lot of these friends. and we're all freaks awesome, clearly.

i decided it also takes a ridiculous amount of food to run for 6 hours, so i went shopping on friday. i wasnt planning on eating this during the race, it was mostly for after. fun fact: i barely ate any of it. go figure.

pre race: 2 pieces of bread and pb and nuun

during race: tailwind (naked & raspberry buzz), pretzels & pb

post race: waffle chips, banana, and coffee (not pictured)

i drove down to rhode island sat am, with a stop in newton to do some pre race miles on heartbreak hill (and stopped at heartbreak hill running company to get myself a oiselle bra. a necessity, obviously). i met up with monica at the rhode runner store in providence for another awesome rhode runners top before getting a salad at whole foods and heading to katies house. we ate chips and cookies, watched a movie (discussing many important life things), had some pizza and beer (healthy choices after the chips and cookies, of course), and worked out some stiffness with yoga, led by katies 2.5 year old. who, no surprise, does yoga way better than this old chick.

my yoga skills are yet to be perfected

not. flexible.

we went to bed fairly early, despite not having to get up all that early (race was at 8am, about a 20 min drive... and who am i kidding, i go to bed early every night). i slept well and woke up ready to go (home, not run. who really wants to run for 6 hours?!). actually, though, i was pretty excited. yay running! i am pretty sure katie felt the same way.

it was a chilly morning (40s), but was supposed to warm up to mid 50s throughout the day (which i felt would be warm). 40s felt great compared to the starting temps at mdi a few weeks before (33 i think). we bundled up pre race but were prepared to shed layers when we started.

we met up with maddy and sean and got our numbers & tshirts/bibs, set up camp (seans chair and a bag of food), and talked about how ridiculous this life decision was. per the norm.

oops

we scoped out the competition (haha), took some pics, then lined up at the start to get ready to go.

k. i think im ready. maybe.

friends! neon! (katie, me and future race winner, maddy. no surprise)

so i guess if you had to say i had some "goals", they were mostly not to go out like an ass racing a 5k, run for 35 to 38 miles, try to get top 10 female. piece of cake, right? mmmmm cake. yeah, so one of those things happened. well i didnt really go out like a 5k, but we went out fast. way too fast. for 3 laps, maybe 4. oops. i told katie we had to start on the start line behind maddy, because why not. who cares. once youre out on the loops, no one knows where you are compared to everyone else. (oh yeah- course was a 2.7 mile loop. kinda awesome, kinda sucky. awesome because every 2.7 miles you could quit! and eat! and see friends! and poop. whatever). but, sucky because you could quit. and the hills that you knew were coming (after the first loop)... yeah they were still there. oof. loops. whhhyyyy. (remember when i did a loop marathon and i puked for 22 minutes? and ate bugs?! (not why i puked). yeah i remember. loops! ahhhhh)

ok so yeah. katie and i took off and were all like "weeeeee! this is fun! look at the scenery! this course is beautiful. we love running! this isnt bad at all! oh yeah ok we have a few turns here. these hills might not be great on lap 10. but weeeeee the course is kinda downhill towards the finish! one loop done! yay keep running! loops, we love loops! oh but we should slow down. but yaaaay running is fun and we are fast!" im pretty sure for the first 4 laps we discussed how we needed to slow down.

the race clock coming in thru the start/finish each time was fairly daunting. id basically count down the hours i had left whenever i saw it. oh, weve been out here for an eternity hour. only 5 left to go. youve been running 3 hours you freaks?! youre almost done with your long runs/silly marathons by now. oh wait, THREE MORE HOURS TO GO. hrumph. it was hard. im not sure when we actually hit the wall, but BAM. we ran (hobbled) straight into that damn thing. hard. we didnt talk much. i thought i might puke. when we did talk it was discussion about whether or not we'd even make it to the marathon distance (10 loops). BUT the race enticed us with these fantastic scarves! (mind you we hadnt even seen the scarves yet, but we wanted one. we needed them!) so we carried on, complaining a lot. we made it through 8 loops. took a little break and basically said ok, lets get this done and be done with it. 

once we were on the 10th lap (the marathon distance is about 2 miles into the loop) we walked a lot. and complained more. and took silly pics. and walked some more. and texted sarah (who told us to stop taking pics and run.... um hi, this is awful and we are in pain!) and planned our finish once this damn lap was thru.

were so stupid! and want to be done!

we did some run walk run walk series, and finally made it to the marathon distance, just under 4:10 i think. we had big plans for some fancy photo at the spot (by "we" i mean "i"), and i got these gems...

we took our running very seriously

were smiling because were almost done!

we made it through the loop, and katie said she was done (went to the car, changed her clothes, like really, done). i was certain i was done (had been feeling very bad stomach wise, as well as a lot of joints and random body aches not feeling great). but i really wanted to keep going and had over an hour and a half left til the 6 hours was up. i had pineland in the back of my head and felt if i got some food in me i might feel a little better (up until this point i had drank water and tailwind only).

i sat down (not a super great decision), and had some pretzels and peanut butter (super awesome decision). it felt glorious at the time. getting up was difficult, but i needed to get up and go if i was going to do any more loops (ugh, loops).

break time so i didnt puke

when i started running again (loop 11), i actually felt really great. im sure people thought i was part of the relay- i was just passing people left and right. the wind on the first mile was fairly rude and unnecessary. i passed the 50k mark on the road (i wasnt there in the mileage yet, but knew if i completed this loop it would only be one more mile after that) and i knew i wanted to get back to it. crossing the road i knew i was heading into a tough part of the course... what i coined dead mans curve, and then the hills. they really werent bad the first few loops, but they felt like mountains now. i was all alone running through the trees, up and down the hills, with "spirit cold" on repeat. it was actually quite peaceful, and i felt great.

i came in through the loop averaging low 9 min miles and decided i definitely had one more loop in me (despite knowing id probably have time for 2 more). my knees bothered me a lot on that 12th loop, but i was excited to get to the 50k mark and head across the road for the final stretch.

i kinda blend in with the orange cones. 32.4 miles, done.

i immediately found katie and said "ahhh your scarf! i need mine!" and then we needed a pic, obviously. and then i think i ate 10 cookies. no exaggeration.

all races should give out scarves! and soooo proud of this girl. xo

we cheered people in (and taunted people to go out for "one more lap!" thankfully no one did that for me... i mean, thanks guys, wheres the support?! jk) and then we saw maddy come in, rocking the female win (again). she had passed us on our 6th loop and the male winner passed us every 3 loops at a blistering 6 min pace. you crazy ultra people.

seriously, we love the scarves.

this "race" was super fun, despite me saying id never do it again (maybe. anyone want in on a relay team?). totally worth the drive (i found a great place to stay if anyone needs it), the weather was fabulous, the course was challenging but beautiful, good people and support (aid/food/water/cheers). definitely a different type of race than im used to, but id recommend it to those looking for something different than just your typical road race (keep in mind this is coming from a girl who ran 40 miles around a quarter mile track for FUN. but yes, do this race. i recommend). i headed home before the post race party because i wanted to get out of the area before the pats game let out (and i was tired. running 32 miles is not a day in the park! well, it was 6 hours in warwick city park... but you know what i mean). i stopped about 20 minutes in to the drive to get a coffee and some water... wow. walking. it hurt real bad.

oh shit. everything hurts.

recovery hasnt been terrible, but i didnt run until thursday. and by run i mean kinda hobble jog walk. i felt like i had blown out my ankle or something but that seems to be better now? (ibuprofen helps). i also went swimming on tuesday which loosened things up a bit. i should maybe do that more. (dont count on it).

see? max elevation 45 feet! not terrible.

but over and over and over... pretty terrible

haha... positive splits at its finest 

weeeeeeeee we love running so much! for half marathon distance...

the 8th and 11th lap takes into consideration my food and bathroom break

theres no excuse for laps 9, and 10. sloooooow.

rhode island 6 hour

32.4 miles 5:22:55

19/75 overall

9th female

scarves!