Bills' Bad Ass 50k FA report

It was not a typical November day in Northeast Ohio. The sun was shining, and the temps were warm. An unbelievably warm, beautiful day in November. Perfect weather! I thought for sure it would be snowing or rainy and gloomy for this "race". This was my first FA, and many lessons were learned during this one. This reminds that yes, I am still a newbie, and will probably be a newbie for a long time to come!

Early a.m.

I woke up around 4 a.m., showered, and could barely stomach eating breakfast. "DAMN!" I thought. I feel like crap. Usually I have 2 packets of oatmeal, piled high with fruit before a big distance race. I could barely eat one. I almost got sick afterwards. I'm not quite sure why I felt crappy, nor did I care. I was just completely bummed.

Could it be?

Mistake #1: The night before I took a hot bath. Hot baths are one of my downfalls. Knowing that they are pretty much no good at all - I still do it. I never ever ever take one the night before a big event. Until Friday. Blech.

Mistake #2: Spaghetti. Well, the spaghetti was not a mistake. But my homemade HABENERO spaghetti sauce was. Not too bright eating that the night before. Yeah uh huh. Sheesh!

Mistake #3: Well, I've said this before, I've gained 10 lbs since YUTC by not eating right. Still running, but eating some bad, bad stuff. This was the major factor in my crappy performance at Bills' Bad Ass.

Besides all that, hey it was a great event! I officially met some of my facebook friends, and met some new friends as well! Ultra runners are the most amazing people ever! Such an experienced group was at Bills', and I was in awe of pretty much everyone! Once again my son's old Y running coaches were there, Chris and Crystal Basich. Chris ran the 50k and Crystal ran with their dog for a bit. (Leadville runner from previous blog) It's always good to see them!

The course:
The course consisted of 6 loops along the Perkins trail in the CVNP. Some nice hills, but the baddest hill of all was at the end, a steep climb (up and down) that felt 10 times steeper after 30 miles of running!

The start:

Was just a simple, "Ok go"! Nothing big, no gun going off, no siren - just "GO"! Awesome. Brian Musick was there, and Chris, Brian, and I ran for a short time. Yeah until I thought I was some kind of Bad Ass and ran ahead. Ummmm no!!!!!!!

Throughout the race:

Next I saw Tanya Cady from the NERC running the opposite direction. I was a little puzzled, and asked her if I was going the wrong way. She said no - but I'm still confused!!! Soon after I wound up running for awhile with Melissa, who has done the Burning River 100 miler and is hoping to get into the Western States run. We talked about running (of course), family, and how women view themselves. It's amazing how much we put ourselves down and how we look at ourselves sometimes! Good discussions! I also ran for awhile with Mike Keller, a facebook friend who I had not yet met. We talked a bit, and it was good to finally meet him. I'm sure there will be many more races to come!

Again Chris B. and I were running together, and I told him I pretty much wanted to puke. We were running with a couple of other people, whose names escape me, but they were great! One of them was a former skydiver who knew Dan Mathie (previous blog) and we discussed skydiving for a bit. Chris ran ahead, but before he did he said there would be some electrolyete capulets waiting for me when I got back to the covered bridge area. I never heard of these, but he said they would help. I forget what loop this was, but sure enough when we got to the parking lot my son and Crystal were there with the electrolyete caps . I took two right away. The nausea would come in waves after that. Sometimes it seemed to be improving, and then - no. It went on and on like that for awhile. I then saw Shannon, an awesome runner who gave me pretty good advice. She explained I really did need to take more. And I needed something, anything - Gatorade more E caps, something! After returning to the parking lot for the last 5 + miles I took 2 more E caps. Soon I felt alot better - better than what I did for the previous 25 miles. Seriously, and the run was almost over? UGH! I am so grateful for everyone who gave me advice though, I will take this with me to my next races/runs, of course! I am wondering though, will I always feel like a newbie? Will there always be new things to learn? There probably will be. Each new run brings new challenges and new ways of learning and dealing with them. I apologize if I'm leaving people out, I spoke with so many great people it's hard to keep track!

The end:
The end was marked by a run up a HUGE hill to get a Dum Dum sucker, and run back down. Feeling a bit better, I was pumped more now (or maybe it was because I knew that this was the end!) This hill was wild! It felt good to reach into that container and get my "trophy" though! I got a cream soda Dum Dum, and it was the best damn sucker I have ever eaten! When I got back to the parking lot/van I marked my final time and got my shirt. Yes a shirt for an FA! It is now my favorite shirt, it has an awesome design and there were women's and men's styles, which was great. Very nice. Even though my time was not that great due to many mistakes, in the end I did have a really good time, and am glad I stuck it out for the whole thing. Thank you Chef Bill and Bill Wagner for putting on a great FA! Maybe next year we will luck out and get some more mud and some snow in the mix. Now THAT would be Bad Ass!