50 Miles to Freedom!!!!!!!

Earlier in the year Patrick and I decided to sign up for the Carl Touchstone Mississippi 50 Mile race. The day for the race came a lot quicker than I anticipated. That and the fact that I had never run any distance over 34 miles had me a little bit worried about not finishing. However, time was not going to wait on me to get in some extra training. So the day before the race, me, Holly, and Patrick set out on the road towards Laurel, Mississippi. We arrived friday night and set up our camp site 30 yards from the start/finish line. We then headed to the pasta dinner and race packet pick up. It was pretty cool to see wide array of people that showed up to do the race. Some were new like us and some were veterans with Western States Shirts, Boston Marathon shirts, and the like. It was really a motley crew. If you have ever seen an ultra marathon crowd, then you know what I am talking about. Soon we were back at camp and asleep to wake up the next day to try our hands at 50 miles. We woke up to people arriving at 4:00 am for the 6:00 am start. I made my coffee and ate some peanut butter on graham crackers. Soon we were toeing the starting line in the dark. The course was set up as a 12.5 mile loop that we had to complete four times. The first lap went down fairly easy. Patrick and I stayed together and kept our 12:00 minute/mile pace. We figured that we could easily do 12.5 miles in 2.5 hours. That would put us 1:15 minutes ahead of the time cut off. Amazingly, after the race started I didn't have any doubts that I was going to finish. In my mind, someone was going to have to physically take me down to make me fail. After the first two laps, I felt great. Holly had opted for the 20K earlier that morning and was supposed to run the third lap with me and Patrick. When we arrived at the end of the second lap she told me that she was going to wait and run the final lap with me. Cool!! Patrick and I set out for the third lap, keeping our same pace. We were a little bit behind because of stops at aide stations and bathroom breaks, so I was constantly trying to figure what pace we needed to be running. At some point around mile 27 or so, I did some terrible math and decided that we were not going to make the time cut off. I took off and started pushing it hard, leaving Patrick behind. I cranked my i pod and started laying it down. When I got a couple of miles down the trail, I started re figuring on the time and realized that we had plenty of time. At this point I decided that I would just go for it. When I got to the start/finish line at the end of the third lap, Holly was waiting on me. We took off and I new that I had 37.5 miles under my belt and only had 12.5 left. We walked a little bit and ran a little bit. Holly was behind me letting me set the pace. I was walking all of the uphills and sprinting the downhills. After running that route three times in a row already, I knew where to go hard and where to avoid obstacles. Soon we began to see people walking in front of us. This made me want to go faster. We began to pass people left and right. We probably picked off 8-12 people who had run out of gas. Around mile nine of the loop, there is a mile and a half out a back section down a gravel road. Holly told me that she was going to skip this and go ahead to the finish line so she could get my pictures as I came across. With just three and a half miles left, I knew that I was going to finish. Emotions began to flood over me when I was thinking about the accomplishment. I almost started to cry but quickly regained focus and started to pick people off on my way to the finish line. I crossed the line at 10 hours 43 minutes and 21 seconds!!!!! I now have one 50 miler under my belt. Which by the way has a new shiny gold buckle that was awarded to everyone who finished the 50 Miles. Patrick came in shortly after to complete his first 50 miler an get his belt buckle as well. After a short celebratory rest, we all three loaded into the car and headed back to Memphis. We got back into town around 12:00 that night. What a day.

Overall, this was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

I can't wait to do it again.