All About Angela

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Spokane River Run 50k (2016 Edition)

April was a whirlwind of chaos.
Not much running.
Some biking.
One race.
An epic failure of a vacation.

Let's start with the race..... A couple weeks ago, I ran The Spokane River Run 50k....It's one of the few hometown ultras that we have here so it's kind of mandatory to participate. Last year, I set my official 50k PR here (which I have not come close to beating). Any time ambitions went out the window when I woke up with horrendous cramps from starting my period....The joys of being a female athlete! Just some background TMI for perspective here, I've been on a birth control shot for six years.... A welcomed side effect is the lack of monthly sad times....Because I'm forcing Jeff to get the ol' snip-snip, I didn't see the need to continue the quarterly process of getting stabbed in the butt. Running on my period is relatively new territory and I will not lie about the fact that I've been a total baby about the whole situation.



Honestly.... I don't have any thrilling tidbits to share about this race. Cramps really fucking suck.....And the problem with period cramps during a race? They feel similar to what you get before having explosive diarrhea which let's be real....can and does happen in an ultra. Thankfully, I had the distraction of sharing a few miles with friends - new and old - along the way. At one point, I literally laid down on the ground and allowed a hiker's dog to lick the sweat off my face. This was a great morale boost - who doesn't love puppy smoochies?!? And yes, I'm the type of person that will stop in the middle of the race to pet a dog.... Because duh.... dogs are awesome.

We're in the middle of a seasonal transition that is happening much quicker than I'd like.... 70 degrees after consistent 40 - 50 degree weather.... It feels like you're in the Sahara without a drop to drink.  No matter how hard I pushed, I felt like I was barely moving. The 50k consists of  (2) 25k loops.... They are not the same loop but you're routed through the start / finish area in order to begin the second loop.....You could see people finishing the 25k..... Individuals chilling out, sipping on cold ones..... Man, that sucked.



Shockingly, I came in 4th female and 1st in the 30 - 39 AG..... Admittedly, it was a relatively small field but still.... Always good to finish strong after a rough day....


My husband and son (13) did the 10k....I'm super proud of both of them. This was Dominic's first 10k....I was a bit nervous for him because he'd only previously run 4ish miles (last October). Like a typical teenager, he refused to express any emotion about the whole experience. I worried that he'd start out super fast and then completely fizzle out.

 
He finished just a few seconds over an hour and placed second in his respective age group. This kid constantly impresses me. When I asked him if he enjoyed the race, I received a grumble - moan - eyeroll.
 
I was 45 minutes slower this year BUT I nailed a couple really important things....
 
(1) I paced super consistently.... Granted, I wish the pace were a bit quicker but consistent pacing has always been a struggle so I call this a win!
 
(2)Calories, Calories, Calories..... I'm finally getting the hang of this whole dealio.... Having the Tailwind in the bottles up front helped a great deal in managing intake. Both bottles were filled with roughly 200 calories, I drank over three plus nibbled on random items from aid stations (side note - hot gummy bears are gross).