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By Dan Walsh
Mud was the story for my third tour of duty
at the Bull Run Run 50 Miler. The weatherman predicted high
50's and steady rain in the morning with temperatures to drop
in the afternoon. A total 340 people started before the daylight
came up.
Course conditions quickly deteriorated over
an out and back section in the first 15 miles. I fell three
times in this early part of the race passing through trampled
clayey mud about 2-inches deep.
The course gets hilly about 20 miles in.
By the top of a hill your quads scream looking for a break.
By the bottom of the next hill, your legs are again in agony.
By 32 miles I was in need of an extended
walk with the hope of extending my ability to run a little
later in the race. The power walking I did on a treadmill
at the Y over the winter definitely helped from here to the
end of the race.
My thoughts turned to hypothermia as I ran
in a sleeveless shirt, the temperature dropped in the afternoon,
the wind picked up, and the course started passing open areas
on top of hills. I snagged a pair of gloves from a support
crew along the way and later donned a trash bag I grabbed
from an aid station in an attempt to keep warm.
One last monster hill climb, through a field,
down a trail and to the finish. I ripped by trash bag off
just in time for them to get a picuture of me crossing the
finish line. My official time was 10:51:18. My slowest time
in three battles at Bull Run. A total of 259 finishers completed
the course that day. Not bad for such miserable trail conditions.
Three days later I am still gimping along
with stiff muscles. I got no blisters, but some pretty good
chafing under the pits due to an ill-fitting trash bag. I
twisted an ankle twice early on, but had other pain to deal
with during the day. I wore through the heels and a few toes
of both socks, and just tossed my relatively new shoes into
a trash can near the finish line rather than dealing with
cleaning them.
Bring on MTB racing season! Enough running
for this year.
http://www.vhtrc.org/brr/
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