Saturday, May 28, 2011 Blackfoot "baby" ultra

Jer, Mom and I entered the 25km Blackfoot baby ultra race. The race started at 11am. Jer took off ahead of us and it was the intention that he would do it in his time and Mom and I would do it together. I was a bit concerned about keeping up with Mom because she has been training for this and I have not. We ran pretty steady the first 11km... very little walking and mostly just walking the hills. The first 11km has some hills but they are less steep. When you come around the turn at the 11km aid station you hit the horse trails, which is sandy hills - LOTS of them back to back. These hills have haunted my dreams since 2009. They felt easier this time, albeit, not "fun". After these hills though, the race got noticably harder. I found the trek between the 15km water station and the 21km aid station the hardest - both physically and psychologically. It's full of the most intense section of hills (lots of up, little down) and it's also the point where we were getting worn down. Seeing the 21km aid station was awesome and knowing there was only 4km left felt nice, although I was tired and crazy sore at this point. My left ankle had been hurting since very early on (maybe even before the 5km point if I recall) and then around 7km I started to get hot spots on my right foot so put socks on (was wearing my 5fingers). After about 13km-15km my right foot started to ache - top of the foot, particularly around the big toe joint. My hip flexors started acting up as well, first the right one, which I have had problems with in the past and then both. I just kept moving, knowing I had to stay warm to keep from seizing up. We could hear the cheering of the finish line before we could see it... then we could see the cars parked so we knew for sure it was close. We ran the last bit to the finish and it felt so good to be able to stop. We finished about 3hr50min (I don't have an official time yet) and 2 years ago we did it in around 4hr15min I believe. Jer unofficially did it around 3hr10min.