Dances With Dirt - May 2010

This was the hardest race I will ever run. Since I'd run three half marathons I thought that a trail run would be a fun adventure. The race description made it sound like hell, which seemed like an exaggeration until I got there. I stayed with my friends the Schultzes, who just happened to live 10 miles from Gnaw Bone, Indiana the night before the race. They fed me pizza and wine, always a good pre-race dinner. The next morning I hopped in the rental car and followed Mapquest out to a field. Literally a field with a large barn of some kind. There were only about 200 runners and as we signed in they asked for our license tag numbers so that if someone's car was still in the field they would know to send a rescue team. I began to get alarmed. A man with a microphone stood on a truck bed and warned us there had been 8 inches of rain in the previous two days so parts of the route were underwater. We already knew we would have to cross several creeks so that didn't sound too bad. A few people withdrew. I decided that finishing in less than 3 hours would be an accomplishment, an entire hour longer than my training pace.

The horn sounded and we were off. Not too quickly as it turned out as the first 6 miles were on horse trails with mud at least 10"deep. It didn't matter how tightly you tied your shoes, no matter what they got sucked off by the mud every other step. My socks were so disfigured from being pulled off and on that I finally sat down, took them off, and threw them in the woods, telling myself that cotton is recycleable. We finally came to a road through a camp ground where they had the first aid station. Every runner had to check in to make sure we weren't lost (yet). Little did I know but because the roads were flooded they only had 3 aid stations, not nearly enough given the conditions. The pavement didn't last long and we were back in the forest, this time forging creek after creek. I just gave into getting wet and didn't even bother to find easier crossing after about the 8th rushing rapid. I was glad to have my phone with me and took several pictures during the race (hey, not like it was going to be a PR). A nice guy from Detroit caught up with me about then and joined me in fighting our way up some serious switchbacks for the next two miles. This section was all OFF TRAIL. I had trained at Oak Mt ON TRAILS LIKE A SANE PERSON. After finding myself wandering off course several times I caught up with an older man who must have been able to see how close I was to collapsing at this point and offered me a swig of his Gatorade. I'd have been happier if he offered a piggyback ride. We finally reached the top which took us back out of the forest and into the section affectionately called "The Ski Slope". It should have been called "The Ankle Breaker". This was a steep, downhill slope about a 1/4 mile long covered in golf ball shaped rocks. Running down it would have been a suicide mission. After that it was back to flat land and the random field in the middle of nowhere. They had water hoses set up so we could rinse off. You can't tell how muddy I am in the picture above, but my shoes are normally lime green. I drove back to Fred and Jennifer's wearing only my underwear and a sports bra, then hosed off again before even attempting walking on their snow white carpeting. I'm pretty sure they will never let me stay there again.

Finish Time: 3:29:20 (ave finish time was 3:15:35)