Prairie Spirit 50k: I Run UltramarathonS

The short:

I now have two data points to tell me that the 50k is not "only" 5 more miles than a marathon! Prairie Spirit didn't go quite as I hoped, as I didn't better my debut time or negative split, but I set a Kansas overall female 50k state record and a new Prairie Spirit female course record with a 3:37:06 on the rails to trails gravel course. I loved this training cycle so much, so I stepped up to the starting line feeling like I'd already won. I couldn't execute as I wanted, even though I had great weather, a nice course, fantastic pacing buddies, and the best crew. Thankful but not satisfied...and I am definitely going to run a third 50k now, once I forget how the end of this one felt!

Official results are here, including course records.

Kansas state records are here (you have to click on 50k after following the link).

Top 50k 2022 North American performances are here, and currently I sit at #5.

My Strava activity is here.

Race photos are here.

My dad's video of the finish is here.

Awards at the finish

The long:

I was more intimidated going into this race than going into my first 50k, because I remembered how agonizing the final 4 miles of the race felt last time! I think I benefitted a lot from the ignorance is bliss thing before I'd run a 50k - not only about how the race would feel but also about what performances were good. I ran fast in my debut but I didn't understand the implications until afterward, some not until days or weeks afterward (e.g., I ended up with the 4th best North American/3rd U.S. women's time of 2021 and was under the time standard of 3:35 needed to apply for the 2021 USATF World 50k team).

This time I had higher goals and expectations based on all of that, namely to break 3:30, make it into the top 3 women's 2022 times (the U.S. 50k national champs took place a few weeks before this race so there were some fast times to beat), and net a time to apply for the 2023 USATF World team (under 3:33). Conflictingly, I also was really scared of the end-of-the race pain!

Colin and I trained for the race together through some pretty brutal winter weather, including the two coldest races either of us had ever run, but race day gave us nearly perfect weather at 32 degrees at the start. The north wind was 8-10 mph by the time we were at midway, meaning we had a headwind from mile 17.3 to the finish, but considering the race was in Kansas I don't think we could have done any better! My biggest fear going into the race had been a 30+ mph headwind for half of the race.

Sunrise start

Colin and I planned to run together, and Andrew was joining at the mile 17.3 aid station, which was when 50k pacers were allowed. I was confident that Colin and I would be together at 17.3, so I knew I'd have someone to run with the whole time, which was comforting. It was also great knowing that Andrew would be with me during the hardest part of the race with 17.3 fewer miles on his legs than I had on mine! The rails to trails course wasn't very scenic and much like Frisco looked about the same the entire way - also much like Frisco it kind of felt uphill both ways. My race plan was to run the first 5 miles at about 7:00, the next 5 miles at about 6:50, then the next 21.1 [gulp] at 6:40-6:45, hoping to average 6:45ish. I positive split my first 50k and really wanted to negative split this one. I thought my fitness was similar to where it was for Frisco, so I hoped more conservative early pacing would yield an overall faster time.

Colin and I were leading the race before mile 1, tailed by two men who we met shortly after. Hans was an experienced ultra runner and Logan was an Ironman triathlete running his first ultra. We bantered, laughed, and worked together for the first 20 miles of the race. At mile 10 I pointed out that we were 1/3 finished but it turned out I was the only one optimistic about that! The miles flew by, and I was trying to keep tabs on where we were so I could execute my fueling plan of a gel every 3 miles, but many times I'd look down and be further along than I thought, which is always a nice surprise. I stayed on my gels well though, and it felt like I was almost constantly taking one. The race required that you carry fluid so I ran with handhelds that I switched out at each manned aid station.

The mile 10.8 aid station

We picked up pacer Andrew at the turn around, which we ran past because there was just a timing mat on the ground - no cone or sign or other indication. I knew the turn around was supposed to be at that aid station so I asked "where do we turn around?" after we'd run well past the mat, then someone told us "there!" pointing back to the mat. Jon said he was yelling at us to turn around at the mat but we didn't hear him. He also said that aid station wasn't ready for us since runners from the longer distances had been coming through - they started earlier than us and continued on south to their turn arounds, plus they were more apt to stop vs. our turn and burn plan. We probably lost about 10 seconds there, which didn't seem to matter in a 50k but in the end it did (stay tuned!), especially since we'd also run a bit past the ~2 mile turn around for a similar reason.

When we turned around, we also turned into a headwind. We went single file: Andrew, Colin, me, Hans, Logan. I was still in a good place but didn't feel like I should drop pace much, so I told Andrew 6:45-6:50 instead of the planned 6:40-6:45. He's a great pacer and also took the wind for us as much as he could. I could tell Logan was struggling to hang onto us, and I'm not exactly sure when he fell off but it was between the turn around and mile 20. He'd been hoping for a sub-3:00 marathon during the race, which would have been a PR for him, so my heart went out to him. 

Mile 17.3 aid station bottle hand off

Hans picked it up around mile 20, and after we clipped through a 6:39 mile I told Colin that he should go with Hans if he wanted to race for the overall win, but I didn't feel ready to pick it up. Colin didn't feel comfortable speeding up either, so we continued at 6:50ish. There was also a fast man who'd started late, so that was an X factor for the guys' placings; the race changed their start times from past years and some people had planned around the old start times so they allowed people to start late and use chip time. Hans knew who the other fast man was and thought he would be the one to beat (spoiler: Hans won, the other man was 2nd, and Colin 3rd).

The final manned aid station was at 23.8, and I was looking forward to seeing my family one last time on the course and getting my gel with 100 mg caffeine. My bottle/gel hand off from Jon went seamlessly, as had the first two exchanges, but when I unzipped the pocket of my fresh handheld my gel wasn't in there! I almost asked Andrew to go back for it, but muling was against the rules. I asked Colin if he had an extra gel with caffeine, but he didn't have any with caffeine. I didn't think I needed the gel - I still had one on me to take between there and the finish - but I sure needed the caffeine!

I tried to stay positive, and looked forward to seeing our marathon split. Our average pace for the entire race was hovering at 6:52-6:53, so I knew we wouldn't quite be sub-3:00, which was somewhat disappointing but finishing strong was more important to me in this race. I felt like at Frisco I was really concerned about keeping my marathon under 3 and not having any miles over 7:00, which may have hurt me in the final miles there. We passed the marathon in about 3:00:40 on our Garmins, but don't worry, I am not counting that against my sub-3:00 streak since it was in a 50k - although if I was under I'd have counted it, haha!

I felt a little better than I had at Frisco at that point in the race, but also not as good as I'd have liked to have felt, meaning I didn't feel confident about finishing strong. Colin began pulling away from me. Before the race I kept telling him that it was going to be just like Run with the Wind, where he pulled away in the final miles at 6:15 while I stayed at 6:45. This time I didn't stay at 6:45, but he did pull away! I stopped looking at my watch at that point and just gave all I had to get in as fast as my legs would carry me. 

Pain face final stretch

I felt okay enough until a bit after mile 28. When my watch beeped 28 I told Andrew, "Only a 5k to go!" but I was losing steam quickly. I kind of knew where we were at since we'd run the opposite direction on the same trail early in the race. I kept willing us to get to the highway crossing, for my watch to beep 29 and 30, to get to the pavement for the final mile. I could see Colin in the distance ahead of me and I also kept willing him to turn left, because I knew when he did it was only about 200 m to the finish from there. In my mind, the last 5k took longer than the first 28 miles, and I gritted it out but it wasn't pretty, and the final mile was all gentle incline which sure didn't help. I was quite thankful to hit the finish line because I was beyond running on empty! My official time was 3:37:06 - the 5th fastest women's time in North America in 2022. The reason those little bits of lost time at the turn arounds mattered? The 4th fastest time is 3:36:58. I'm more frustrated with myself for my slow final mile, but at the time it was all I had.

Clock shot

Kansas Record

5th in North America in 2022

Prairie Spirit top times

After I took a couple of minutes to gather myself while holding onto the building, the race organizers continued to announce information about my race - course record and Kansas state open female record. I knew I'd hit those times because I'd looked them up beforehand; they were my C and D goals for this race (A was sub-3:30, B was PR...but E was finishing of course!). I celebrated with my family and friends, accepted my awards, and vowed to never do that again.

But, of course I'll do it again! After all, I just know I've got a faster one in me! The agony of those final few miles and the pain for the remainder of the day will fade away, and I have very much fallen in love with 50k training. I'm still primarily a marathoner and this race was also my longest long run for the 2022 Boston Marathon on April 18, but there's something about those 5 extra miles that, God-willing, I am determined to solve.

More race details are here.

Miles from Mentor runners

The race asked me to pose for a pic
by the finish for their social & I wasn't
wasn't quite sure what to do, but this
is what they got from endophin-me!

Havin' a Crappie Weekend Outdoor Festival Fun

The short:

Running the 3-race Havin' a Crappie Weekend Challenge made no sense and complete sense at the same time. The Challenge consisted of 3 races that I don't typically run: a 1 mile, a 5k, and a trail race - but due to a series of events (see "The long" for details) I committed a few days before the race. My goal was to win each event and The Challenge with a moderate amount of effort, since these races were 6-7 days before my season goal race. Some might call this whole ordeal poor judgement, but I call it part of keeping running fun - and I had so much fun!

The Crappie Challenge:

• Crappie Day 1 mile in 5:43 for 1st OA
• Crappie Day 5k pacing Abby in 20:17 for 1st OA (tie!)
• Haulin' Bass 13.3k Trail in 1:08:49 for 1st OAF

Results are here.

5k finish

The long:

This all started when my friend Abby was considering running this 5k to try to break 20:00. I offered to pace her because I love helping friends like that (I paced her to her first sub-6:00 mile!) and it fit pretty closely with the run I had planned for that day. My schedule was 12 miles via 4 easy, 4 at 50k goal pace (6:45), 4 easy - it seemed reasonable enough to do 4.5 easy, 5k at 6:25, 4.5 easy instead. 

I then messaged my friend and Crappie Weekend race director Joy to ask a question about the race for Abby, and found out that there were nice opportunities for local prize money in it, increased by doing the 3-race challenge. I shared the race information with my running group and said that someone needed to take advantage of the prize money. Abby thought she only wanted to do the 5k, and Casey decided she would do a trail race on Sunday, but I couldn't talk anyone else into running it and then I couldn't leave it alone! Although I don't have much interest in all-out racing a 1 mile, a 5k, or a trail race, it seemed sensible enough to do them all in this situation.

Abby and I drove to Stockton Lake together on Saturday afternoon. The mile was at 3:00 p.m. and the 5k at 3:30 p.m. I was hoping I could win the mile with a 5:59, and then Abby and I planned to finish holding hands in the 5k after I paced her to a PR. Neither one of these thing quite happened, but the outcome was still a good one.

I got a little quick on the mile (something about a race!) and ran 5:43 for 1st overall. It felt so good that I started wishing I'd really raced it. I then paced Abby through two perfect 6:25 miles on the hilly 5k course. We'd run the course to warm up so we knew what we were in for, but hoped that she could still make it. She would have definitely broken 20 on a course without 220 ft of elevation gain (!!), but the last mile got her and she finished in 20:17, which is still her second fastest 5k ever! We'd planned ahead to finish holding hands, so I grabbed her hand and celebrated as we finished overall together. The timing company then came over and told us that Abby's bib registered 0.02 before mine, so she was the winner. I'm not counting this against my overall female streak though (undefeated in 2022), since I was pacing and really we tied. :-) She made me take the award under the circumstances (i.e., she left it in my car); originally I'd told her that I was going to kick ahead for the win in the last couple of minutes, but finishing together was much more fun! Our finishing video is here.

This was so fun!

Sunday morning, Casey, Abby, and I drove to Stockton Lake together. Casey had planned in advance to run the 7.7k trail race, and Abby had so much fun the previous day she decided to go back for the 13.3k trail race, which I was also running to complete the Challenge. I had no idea what to expect, I never run trails, I don't own trail shoes, and I was 6 days out from my 50k goal race, so the whole thing was a brilliant idea.

Fast friends

My goal was to win the trail race, which would also guarantee I'd win the 3 race challenge. I did, with one fall and two wrong turns in the process - each time I got back on the correct course pretty quickly though. Trail running is so different! I felt like I was looking down the whole race because footing was tricky with big rocks, tree roots, rock formation things, mud, etc. I had no sense of where I was due to all of the weaving and winding around, so it was weird. Further, I wasn't exactly sure how far the race was, so that was humorous! I did the math during the race and figured it was 8.x, and everyone said after that it was about 8.5. My main competition was Abby, but I came out with the OAF win, and therefore a win in the challenge. Casey won overall in the 7.7k!

Trail race awards

We stopped for brunch at a Mom and Pop restaurant post-race, and had more laughs than I can count. It was a great way to spend the weekend before my final taper! I used to race all-out super frequently, then I went through a phase where I only wanted fast times next to my name in race results so tried to only do "perfect" races, but now I'm in a place where I'm more than happy to run races as workouts - and it's a nice place to be.

bRUNch twins

Awards

Running of the [Arctic] Squirrels

Remember the cold weather PR I set at the Cabin Fever Reliever last month? I bettered that at the Running of the Squirrels 5k, which took place in a 12 degree air temperature and 0 degree wind chill! Yay?

Fortunately, I wasn't planning to truly race this one so the weather mattered a lot less, but it did make me less excited about running that morning, mostly because I thought we were through the worst of the winter weather for the year. It snowed the day before the race but luckily the roads were clear.

Spoiler photo, but I wanted it to be the featured
picture on this post

I really wanted to try to win another porcelain squirrel trophy, and I'd be doing a training run in the bitter cold whether or not I ran the race, so I headed to the event as planned. I usually don't care about race awards that aren't cash (just a side effect of 30 years of running!), but I really adore the white squirrel trophies from this race. They are the only running awards I have displayed in my house! The race fell 2 weeks before my 50k goal race, so I'd planned to incorporate it into a long run workout. My original plan was to run it at threshold pace (6:00-6:10), but when I saw the temperature I started rationalizing that marathon pace would be just fine if that was enough to win overall female. After the race I planned to run the course a second time at marathon pace, then run easy to 18 miles total - but I was being such a wimp about the weather I told Colin that we could always just run 12 miles total on race day and do the 18 on Sunday!

Colin and I had the same goals for the day: overall wins without running too hard, plus the marathon pace miles then easy miles to complete the long run. We got in 5 easy miles before the race, and running north into the wind was very brisk but we've run in worse. I covered my face in Vaseline so I wouldn't need to wear a mask, which helped a lot compared to having nothing on my face.

When we lined up for the start, it looked like Colin's main competition would be a few high school boys. As the race took off, I was in overall female position within 100 m, and Colin was leading the race. I picked off the high school boys between us within the first mile, passing the last of them just as my Garmin beeped. I 'd settled on aiming for threshold effort and focused on staying strong and even throughout the race. I have been doing most of my workouts with Spencer and missed having him along! Colin was quite far ahead of me and there was only one volunteer on the course, but it was well-marked and we'd run it as part of the pre-race easy miles (plus we'd run it three times last year!), so it was easy to follow.

The race was pretty uneventful, and I knew it was going to be 3.2+ from running the course once already. My watch beeped 3 right as I turned onto the final road, and instinct took over and I picked it up for the final bit even though I didn't need to. Colin was waiting for me to finish, and a lady from the Regional Library interviewed us together after I came through. I made her take note that we were from the Miles from Mentor group! I didn't get to look at my splits until I finished running for the day, because I put everything on the same run (easy, race, jog, marathon pace, easy) so I didn't have 5 activity uploads like last year, but eventually found out my splits were 6:10, 6:12, 6:07 (5:39 for the final 0.24). Colin ran hard and would have run a PR (mid-16/5:20ish pace) had the course been the correct distance, so I felt bad for him - though he can definitely break 16 in good weather with someone pushing him.

We then jogged 0.5 and ran the course again at marathon pace: 6:27, 6:23, 6:16, which felt great. After grabbing a drink we started our easy miles to finish up the day. When we were at about 14 miles total, we looped by the school where the awards ceremony was to use the bathroom and check on awards timing. The band was playing, which we knew from last year was the start of the awards ceremony (the race is a fund raiser for the high school band), so we stayed inside to pick up our white squirrels before heading back out to finish the day's mileage.

During our marathon pace miles - I forgot 
to take my bib number off

In hindsight, I kind of wish I'd raced the race like Colin did, but I also just didn't have it in me mentally to race a 5k that morning! I think it was a combination of a heavy training week (my Wednesday workout was much harder than this day's workout), knowing I probably wouldn't have to run all-out to win, knowing the course was long, being afraid of 5k pain, and the weather. I wouldn't have run anything impressive, but I could have run faster than threshold place. But, saving my all-out racing for the Prairie Spirit 50k and the Boston Marathon is probably a better plan! And, I got the squirrel, so all is well, right?

Results are here, my post about the 2021 race is here, and my Strava activity is here.

2022 winnings

My 3 squirrel set

Creepy

Anatomy of a 116 mile week

My goal for this season was to top out at a weekly mileage of 108-110, cautiously bettering my previous highest of 106. I hit 109.5 the Monday through Sunday week of February 21-27, and 110.3 the week of February 28-March 6. Due to moving a double I ended up with 116.1 miles on my rolling 7 between February 25 and March 3 - normally my rolling 7 doesn't fluctuate much, but this was kind of dumb luck. Who knows if I'll ever surpass this, so here's what I did!

Feb. 25: 

• 8.08 miles easy a.m.
• 4.02 miles easy p.m. - Usually I don't double on Fridays, but I changed this one from Thursday to Friday due to much better weather on Friday afternoon. Since I had 5 doubles in 7 days instead of my typical 4, I got a higher mileage PR than expected.

Feb. 26:

• 26.05 miles on a hilly route (1365 ft gain) via 10 miles easy then 16 with 0:45 pick-ups to about threshold pace at the beginning of each mile. Doing a 26 mile long run definitely helps you hit higher weekly mileage!
• Core workout

There was birthday cake after the 26 miler!

Feb. 27:

• 16.02 miles easy. Back-to-back long runs also boost mileage quite a bit, and I love 50k training because of them.
• Short strength workout

Feb. 28:

• 9.08 miles easy a.m.
• 5.04 miles easy p.m.
•  Core workout

March 1:

• 10.09 miles easy with 4 x 150 m on the track in the middle a.m.
• 4.10 miles easy p.m.

March 2:

• 14.2 mile workout via 3 miles warm up, 8 mile wave tempo (alternating 1 mile @ 6:00-6:10 with 1 mile @ 6:40-6:50) on rolling hills, 3.2 mile cool down a.m.
• 4.31 miles easy p.m.
• Short strength workout

March 3:

• 10.02 miles easy a.m.
• 5.01 miles easy p.m.
• Core workout

This group is the main reason I ran this mileage

I wrote about my first ever 100 mile week here, and my second here. This training cycle I had five Monday through Sunday weeks of triple digit mileage, and it's definitely become normalized to me at this point...some might say this means I'm getting crazier, hahaha! But does anyone who isn't crazy run a 50k?

Run with the Wind 25k

The short:

My training buddy Colin and I were planning to run 15 miles at 50k pace within a 23 mile run on 2/19/22, so when I saw the date for the Run with the Wind 25k (15.55 miles), I thought maybe we should run it for our workout. Then I saw that if I ran about my 50k goal pace I could break the 25k state record for my age, and that solidified the plan. I ended up setting the age 41 state record with a 1:45:37, winning overall female, and hitting my 50k goal pace almost on the nose with a 6:44 average. It was also my first time racing during a 100+ mile week! Colin won overall male, and my friend Amy who came for a steady pace hilly Boston training run won her age group and set the age 50 state 25k record!

Running half the race distance at pace was also pretty humbling. I'm not sure why I thought it would be easy, but much like running 12-13 miles at marathon pace during training is exponentially harder than the first 12-13 miles of the actual marathon race for me, running 25k at 50k pace was no walk in the park. I don't think I could have really run any faster than I did even if I'd gone in with the plan of racing all-out. Amy said that the challenging hills in the race were harder than Boston's, which made me feel better about dying up one of them, and made me certain this was good Boston training in addition to good 50k training!

Results aren't posted online, but the race sent them out in a spreadsheet that I included a partial screenshot of below.

25k state records are here.

My Strava activity is here.

My fast friends & our awards

The long:

I've run this race 3 times previously, in 2010, 2012, and 2015, which was enough to know that 1) you never actually have a tailwind the entire way, 2) it's hilly, and 3) 25k state records are generally easily attainable since it's not a common race distance. The race organizers announce the night before the race which direction it will run, and this year was Sarcoxie to Carthage, which means primarily a west and north route. The wind was behind us going west and we had a headwind going north.

Because "Run with the wind going west & against 
the wind going north" is much harder to fit on a sign ;-)

My running buddies and I decided to drop a car at the finish first, then drive to the start together so we'd be in control of our return time and make it easier for the volunteers who were driving people back (no shuttles at this one!). Amy and I met Colin in Carthage, and just after I jumped back into my car after peeing behind a building while waiting for Colin to arrive, a guy drove up and asked us if we were going to Sarcoxie. I said yes and he asked for a ride. When then pulled around to where Colin had just parked, and I got out of the car and told Colin, "I met a guy while peeing," which wasn't 100% accurate but I found it humorous. The man's name was Brady and he, like 99.9% of runners, was really nice. Everything before the race took longer than planned for various reasons, so we only got in a 2.4 mile warm up instead of the 4 miles we'd planned.

This race used to be pretty good sized for the area (~200), but this year it was tiny at 32 participants. You kind of assume that a race that small won't be competitive, but there were a man and woman on the starting line who looked fast and had on Vaporflys.  When we took off, Colin and I moved into the lead fairly quickly, but they were right behind us. After we put a little distance on them, Colin told me that he'd heard them talking before the race about starting easy then cranking it down. I was not in the mental space for really truly racing, but I told him that if they came up on us I was going to go with them because I wanted to win the women's race. I also told him that I didn't mind if he and the guy went ahead of me if he needed to race for overall male. Our race plan before then was to run 12 miles together at 50k goal pace (6:45) then we had the option of fast finishing from there if we felt good. When we turned into the north wind, I told him that if the man and woman caught up to us, I was going to tuck in behind him because the wind sucked and 6:45 pace is harder for me than it is for him (though it's both of our 50k goal paces, the differential between his half and 50k pace is much larger than mine is)!

The pace felt really good for the first stretch going west, which was pretty flat and with a tailwind. I kept an eye on my splits to keep from going too fast. When we turned north into the wind, we also hit the first of the bigger hills, with a climb of about 60 ft. Colin is a much better uphill runner than me, so he gazelled up the hill while I sucked air for the first time of the day. Once we crested the hill I caught back up, and we passed one of the four country houses with three dogs that came out to chase us. They were all bark but no bite, but strange dogs during a race isn't ideal, especially for Colin who got bit last year when we were on a 22 mile 50k training run. When we turned we took a look back and saw we had probably a minute on the next two runners, which made me feel pretty safe about our overall leads.

That stretch into the wind was pretty short (~half mile), then we turned back west for about a mile before another half mile stretch that was into the wind and had another tough hill (about 50 ft of gain in that one). We then got another mile of running west with a tailwind before turning into the longest stretch against the wind, which was about 4.6 miles long. I was timing my nutrition and thought we were about to hit mile 8, then my watch beeped 9 and I was pleasantly surprised - always great to learn you're a mile closer to the finish than you thought!

Mile 10 was a gradual incline of about 50 ft, with an aid station at the top of the climb. When Colin spotted it, he told me he was going to run ahead to the porta-potty there. He floated up the incline in front of me and I took the opportunity to back off slightly because I wasn't feeling very strong on the hills. When I passed the aid station the volunteers excitedly told me, "You're in the lead; he took a bathroom stop!" I told them not to worry, he'd catch me back quickly. I tossed my gloves at the aid station and continued through while Colin was in the bathroom, but a few seconds later he was out and back in stride with me. The next mile felt easy because it had a lot of drop (80 ft), but then mile 12 contained a pretty steep 80 ft climb. When I saw it I told Colin I'd stay as close to him as I could, but I know from training that steep climbs are pretty much the hardest thing for me. I can tackle a long gradual hill FAR better than even a really short steep one. Power is not my strength!

Tossing my gloves at the aid station
while Colin was in the bathroom

Colin pulled away from me dominantly on that hill. I climbed up it the best I could, and my left hamstring gave me some shooting pain in the process. I think it was the combination of carbon plated shoes (the only time my hamstrings bug me) and the hill, but I slowed to a shuffle/almost walk for a few steps to alleviate it. That did the trick so I got up the hill and continued to watch Colin pull away into the distance. After the hill we had about 2 more miles into the north wind, and I just kept telling myself it was going to get much easier when we turned back west!

It did get easier when we turned west, but anytime I tried to push my hamstring yelled at me, so I settled into steady and scrapped the possible fast finish. I was also feeling pretty fatigued and doubt I could have managed it even if my hamstring had felt great. I could tell Colin was doing the fast finish, as he was pulling steadily farther ahead of me. I knew that there was one more turn, into the Carthage High School parking lot to the finish line, so I just kept hoping for Colin to turn, and when I saw him turn left I gauged how much I had left. I stayed steady and finished it up.

Country road racing!

Colin was waiting for me after his overall win, and we went to his car to change shoes and get nutrition. We had 5 more miles to run since our warm up was shorter than planned, so we headed back out on the course to cheer Amy in. She was in her last quarter mile when we got back out so we didn't have to go far! We cheered her in, and somehow she managed to run 2:00:00 exactly - although they were hand-timing and I told them it was really 1:59:59! This was a new state record for age 50.

Colin and I continued jogging around while Amy got some things out of the car, and conveniently enough she had a 3.5 mile cool down, which was exactly what we had left when she was ready to start. We ran out 1.75 miles on the course and back, cheering on everyone coming in. It was pretty lonely out there so I like to think we helped! I was pretty fatigued, and it was one of the most sluggish death marches long cool downs I've done - and that's saying something, based on my history of making races into really long runs!

After finishing up I foam rolled in the parking lot while Amy stretched, then we all went into the high school to put on dry clothes, to enjoy post-race food, and to attend the awards ceremony. They had hot soup as part of the post-race food, which I'm really appreciating at these cold races! 

No way is she 50, right??!

In addition to my overall female award, I also got an award for setting a state record and another one for the top age-graded performance. I was actually #2 on that, but first place went to the race organizer, who ran 7:20 pace for 15.55 miles at age 69! I was so impressed by him. I tried to make him take it but he said he'd made it and wanted me to have it.

I can have a meal off my awards

The day was full of laughs and memories. Though I wish a 25k at 50k pace had felt easy or at least moderate, post-race I've put it a little more in perspective, especially while writing this post. 1) 13 miles at marathon pace in training is always terribly hard for me, 2) I was in a 104 mile week, 3) I started said 104 mile week already fatigued due to racing the Cabin Fever 20k in a 5 degree wind chill last weekend, 4) about 6 miles of the race was into a 14 mph wind, and 5) the course was challenging. Here's hoping that 6:45 pace is do-able for twice the distance on March 26!

I have three 25k state records still - I had
age 31 but it was broken in this race. 41 is
my fastest even though I truly raced the 
other years!

Cabin Fever Reliever 20k

The Short:

I busted the rust in the coldest conditions I've ever raced in at the aptly named Cabin Fever Reliever 20k on 2/12/22! When I saw the race morning wind chill of 5 degrees (19 degree air temperature with a 16 mph wind), my race goal changed from "beat last year's time" to ".........???" I was able to win overall female (not easy because my training partner Casey was also in the race), and set a new Missouri state record for the 20k for age 41. I ended up about 20 seconds off my 2021 time, but with a faster average pace on my Garmin on the new course - more on that below. My running group completely dominated the event! In the 20k we had 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th overall males (Brad, Colin, Toby, and Spencer respectively, with Toby taking 1st masters male), 1st and 2nd overall females (me and Casey), and 1st masters female (Amy, as they took me out of masters). In the 10k we had 1st and 2nd overall females (Sierra and Christian), and in the 5k 1st overall female (Sarah)! Brad, Toby, Casey, and I all broke single age state records.

Results are here.

My Strava activity is here.

A video of me finishing is here.

20k state records are here.

Most of the Miles from Mentor 20k-ers

Race wind chill = not a PR I want to improve upon

The Long:

Much like last year, I was really excited for this race to kick off a new season! I like this event as a rust-buster, because it's low-key and very close to home. It was more competitive than usual this year, since most of my Miles from Mentor running group members ran one of the races. It was a good thing I was so pumped about the race, and that I signed up a week in advance when I the forecast said 35, because I'm not sure I ever really wanted to race in a 5 degree wind chill! Luckily, we'd had one workout in a 7 degree wind chill in January that had gone better than I'd expected, so I focused on that. I didn't taper for this race, but it fell during a cut-back week, so I had 89 miles on my rolling 7 instead of 100+.

With so many friends at the race, it was laid back and really just felt like a workout. We warmed up together, lamented about the weather and especially the brutal wind, and hoped for the best. I ran 2.8 miles total before the race, including strides.

Pre-race group shot!

Spencer and I have been running workouts together and hoped to work together in the race. Casey planned to try to stay with us for as long as she could, and Sarah wanted to run about our pace for her 5k so went out with us as well. We ended up having us 4 plus a super talented late-50's local runner named Matt and another man we know named Kevin together for the first mile or so, then Spencer, Matt, and I unintentionally gapped the other 3. I could tell Spencer felt really good and I hoped I could hang onto him. The effort level felt a little too spicy, but I kept telling myself "stay with him, it will be exponentially harder alone", which is what I tell myself every time Spencer is pushing workouts and I don't want to let him gap me, and which usually works! We dropped Matt around the 5k point, and I basically just hung onto Spencer until between miles 5-6. I wanted to help him, but I didn't have it in me to do so. The 20k did the 10k course twice, so we ran through the finish line then did a hairpin turn to go back onto the course. As usual I hadn't looked at my watch, but I saw the 10k clock at 39-mid and hoped I could even split for a high-1:18.

Our early group about 0.25 in

The course changed from previous years, in good ways (a little less hilly) and bad (7 hairpin turns). The upside of all of the out-and-backs was that they split up the brutal wind. Navigating a hairpin turn kills your momentum and for me is mentally tough though. We also all thought they had the turn around that we went through 4 times out too far. Garmins aren't perfect, but everyone's read about 12.6, whereas last year's course read a little short for everyone, and anytime the turn around is marked by a Gatorade bottle in the middle of the road you kind of have to wonder... (if I did average 6 seconds/mile faster this year in much worse weather, I'm stoked)

2022

2021

After Spencer gapped me between miles 5-6, I was in no-man's land the rest of the race. Matt was next behind me, and Casey was after him, but I knew from the hairpin turns that I had a pretty safe lead. I had a lot of ups and downs with how I felt during this race. One minute it would be "I'm doing this, I'm strong!" then the next, "Are my legs going to hold up/this hill is terrible/this wind is killing me/just get in". The cold and wind got to me a bit on the second tour of the route. With this being a local race put on by my running club, Ozark Mountain Ridge Runners, I knew a lot of people on the route who were super kind in their cheering, which really helped. The OMRR President was at a spot we passed 8 times, and almost every time he yelled, "There's our hall of famer, Sara!" Seeing a lot of other runners everywhere on the course that was also open to traffic was a little bit of a cluster, but it was also really encouraging.

Every time I heard my watch beep during the second half, I counted down a mile..."okay, just 5 miles left...okay, 4 mile tempo...okay, 3 miles, you can do this...2 miles, bring it home...1 mile, kick!" and used all of the mind games I could. I think I should have taken a gel, because you burn more glycogen when it's that cold, but I couldn't fathom taking off my mittens to open one so hadn't carried one - this ended up being ironic because I tossed my mittens at the halfway turn around because they were too hot (though I did regret that when I went back into the headwind!).

Parking lot finish

The last mile seemed to go on forever, plus it had a couple of hills that didn't play nice, but when I finally got within view of the finishing clock I could see it was on 1:19 and I wasn't sure if I could make it in under. I didn't - I finished in 1:20:08, so I positive split the thing - a reminder that I should have listened to my body instead of staying with Spencer! I don't run as fast when it's this cold (no one does, because physiology), but it doesn't hurt me as much as heat I don't think! The announcers gave me a hilarious shout-out as I came in (including, "Looking hot. Coming in hot!"), and one of my running buddies who was spectating caught it on video.

When race spectators have to wear parkas...

After the race, I went out for 5 more miles for 20 on the day with Spencer and Colin - actually 20.3 total. I kind of felt like I ran the cool down in a dream state and in slow motion, and I could not get in grilled cheese and soup fast enough in the post-race area!

I was really proud of our Miles from Mentor group! Everyone ran their hearts out in brutal weather, and we had so much fun out there! Several of the athletes I coach in the group PRed (Colin, Spencer, and Casey). Races are wonderful, wins are a blessing, and competing is a gift - but the best part is that every day I get to do something I love with some of the best people I know! I'll race again soon, but tomorrow I get to run more miles and that is amazing.

Cute trophy on adorable hoodie

This is pretty normal for this area but
not the easiest racing terrain

OMRR Hall of Fame

On January 29, I was inducted into my local running club's hall of fame. Ozark Mountain Ridge Runners is an awesome organization that I've been blessed to be a part of since I moved to the Springfield area in 2010, and this was quite the honor.

My parents were able to attend!

Two of my running buddies introduced me, and they are truly the best. Their short speeches can be viewed here.

Love these two

My 2 minute acceptance speech can be viewed here, and is also written below:

I had my speech on my phone, hah

I'm honored to receive this award, and being part of OMRR has been amazing. Back in 2004 to 2009, before I lived in the Springfield area, I became acquainted with several OMRR members at races around the 4-state area. John Everett [current OMRR president] included me in the club even when I lived 2 hours away! I met several long-time members, and then when I moved to the area in 2010 I immediately felt at home in this running club.

After serving on the OMRR board in 2017, I developed an even deeper appreciation for everything the board does. Our board is very hard working and passionate! I hope to rejoin the board down the road when I retire, but really they do so much that I could not keep up. Make sure to thank the board members often!

Every weekday at 5:30 a.m., you can find me running with the Miles from Mentor competitive group. This group improves my life every day! They are all talented competitors, but they are also really, really good people. They also inspire me to chase big goals, but more importantly to be a better person.

I run about 99% because I love it and 1% for training, which often surprises people because I am competitive. While I do enjoy racing, nothing is more valuable than the day-to-day process. Thank you for being part of mine!

A few of my Miles from Mentor sub-group buddies

Doug was the male inductee for the year

She looks happy here but was "so
bored" most of the evening!

Running buddies are the best!

With the OMRR President and Vice President