Western States Training Weekend (Part 1)

Three days of running the Western States course with aid stations, drop offs and new friends, what a fantastic way to spend a long weekend

Admittedly I started to get nervous before heading out to Sacramento;  what if I was disappointingly slow?  What if the altitude, even though not terribly high, bothered me, what if what if?   I was feeling like it was going to be a measure of my training, but coming so close to the race that if I didn’t measure up then it would be too late to do much about it.  It made me sweat a little thinking about it the Thursday before I flew out. 

Up at 3am and out the door for an early morning flight.  I had a layover in FL where I knew my sister in law would be getting engaged soon.   I hoped the storm would hold off for their celebration. 

Arriving in Sacramento we had a little rental car detour but after a few hours we were in Auburn.  The woman whose airBNB we stayed at was delighted to have some states runners staying.  She told us She had some top ten women stay several years in a row.  Gotta soak up that good top ten juju!

I was fortunate to room with Jackie Merritt, last years F7 who was nice enough to fill my head with all sorts of things to help plan for a good race

We dropped our luggage and walked to the finish, and then back up the course towards Robie Point.  It was an overcast day, very different from the typical race day weather.  As I got my first glimpses of the course my excitement grew. 

That night I slept well, but only because 15 hours of travel will make me tired.  

Day 1 of camp

We woke up and hopped into the car to drive to Foresthill where check in was.  RD Craig Thornley told us a little about the section we were going to run that day.  It was chilly with a chance of rain, another atypical weather day. 

The bus ride up the mountains I spent chatting with Jackie and trying to ignore my anxiety.  The busses dropped us and we all just began down the hill.  I was told there was usually snow this Tim of year, at least in patches, however this year there wasn’t a spec of snow.  Quickly we happened upon Camelia Mayfield who had just raced her way in with a golden ticket from Lake Sonoma.  It would be her very first 100 mile race.  The three of us continued downhill chatting and enjoying the cool weather.  Eventually we lost Jackie, somehow we missed each other pausing at different times to adjust/pee.  The rest of the run I kept wondering where she was, I thought she was ahead while she was actually behind after several pee breaks slowing her down.  

The miles flew by with Camelia and eventually Ian Sharman, who she knew from Bend.  He had lots of good information to share and the two of us soaked up his wisdom as best as we could. 

Just before we arrived at Foresthill we caught up to a group of women who had run WSER several times by top ten automatic entry, my coach Meghan was part of this group.  She had a big smile and hug for me as we all ran into the finish together. Some of them continued for more miles.  The rest of us stopped for the day.

After jackie finished we packed up and drove back to Auburn where we ate and got into bed fairly early, still feeling like we were on east coast time.

Western States Training: Fast Forward to 6 weeks left

The last few weeks have flown by as I have been feeling like I needed to play a lot of running catch up….and therefore neglecting this blog.

As you may know if you have followed this blog March was mostly spent bedridden healing from a concussion.

April was a jump start back into training with Bull Run Run 50 as a training run.   It all felt great for about a 50k, I was on pace to better my previous time, and then the brain wheels fell off.   I started feeling like I had tunnel vision and just kind of weird.  Fortunately Sophie Speidel caught up with me shortly after I hit this unhappy place….if you don’t know her, she’s a really fast masters runner from VA.  She was also using BRR as a training run, and her wise words helped reel me back from pondering a dnf.   I switched mentally from the mindset of “race if you can,” to “you have only been back for 2 weeks, if you finish this 50 miles it will be a great training run to have under you” and decided that hiking/running it in was the new goal.    My take away from BRR was twofold.  Spending a month in bed isn’t great for racing, but if you have been consistent with your training in the months leading up to inactivity you can still cover the miles–just maybe not perhaps at the race pace you would have liked.  Thanks coach Meghan Laws for keeping me in shape!  The second part was that maybe using races that I have previously won as a training run isn’t my thing…there was too much expectation going into the run already knowing that I had finished it almost two hours faster 5 years ago.

Once I got over my little BRR ego burst, the rest of April went pretty smoothly.   The weekend after BRR I was back to 20/15,t then 30/20,  then 40/10 on April 28.  This run was an interesting run, super fun, quite the adventure.

Promise Land fell on the same day, so I thought to myself “what a great opportunity to run long, and maybe see some friends running, and use the aid station at the top of Apple Orchard Mtn.”  Bethany Patterson had recommended this route for WSER training months ago, and I finally had the chance to get up there and run that section of the AT.

I woke up that morning and drove the 3 hours up to Lynchburg VA, arriving mid morning and ready to go!  The run started at the James River bridge and went up into the James River Wilderness before climbing through the Thunder Ridge Wilderness and then up to Apple Orchard Mountain at 4,208.   There is an aid station near here, but I had a hard time finding it.  First I was taking in the view from the top and continued down Apple Orchard Mtn, when I realized I was supposed to take the gravel road down from the peak instead….then I saw markings for the race course, and headed down that the wrong way for several miles….finally I got it right, 22 miles later—just as the aid station was packing up!  So much for watching my friends run, but I was super happy for the water and coke they supplied me with before they packed up.   Because I had been noodling around at the top for so many hours, I was off my projected time estimate, so in order to get back down before sunset, I hopped onto the Blue Ridge Parkway so I could ZOOM back to a slightly closer-to-my-car trailhead.  After a few miles of very runnable slightly downhill road I caught the trailhead at Petites Gap, gaining me more daylight speedier miles.   From Petites Gap there was just under 10 mile back to the car.   I choose this section of the AT for its gradual climbs, and more runnable trail.  The AT can be notorious for slow going rocky, rooty miles….this section was quite runnable.   I got back to my car long before sunset, hopped in and got home by 9pm.   Just in time for bed!  Things I learned from this trip.  I don’t always read texts well when I’m running.  I should always drop water.   DONT FORGET YOUR WATER FILTER.   <—  that!  My husband so lovingly bought me a water purifier, I brought the bottle, but forgot the filter.  There was a lot of running water and pretty falls I could have filtered for water.   Oh well, I had several backup plans, like…get a ride from the aid station worker,  hitch-hike?  Ask a through hiker for their filter? Not the best options, but I never felt like I was actually in trouble.  Plus my (new) phone has a long battery life, and plenty of cell service up on the BRP.  I finished with 38+ miles and 8,434 ft of gain (and descent since I had to come back down the same way) and happy adventure legs!

The following weekend was a family vacation to Hilton Head Island where I relaxed, ran a little, chased my nephew around, and caught my niece’s chest cold….blah!  Good thing the rest of this week has been recovery!