In Ultra News

Thursday October 23rd I drove to Newport, OR to participate in a 48 hour endurance race called Dìa de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). My wonderful friend, Sally, let me stay with her in Newport when I was not racing for the weekend. Her daughter and also my friend, Amber and her almost 2 year old daughter came over for a visit. We had dinner at Sorella in Nye Beach. I had a brick oven pizza with mozzarella, Romano cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms, red bell peppers, sun dried tomatoes, and zucchini. So yummy! After dinner Amber helped me prep some electrolytes for my race and I played with her daughter. Like usual, I didn’t sleep really well because it was the night before my race. I probably got 5-6 hours of sleep. 

Friday morning I was up at 5:15 AM even though I wanted to sleep until 6. I got my things together and headed to South Beach State Park at 6:45 AM. It was windy and rainy. I put my head lamp on, rain suit and scoped out the staging area of the race.  I quickly made friends and witnessed all the set-up happening in the stormy weather. I set up my 2-person tent in the rain and transported all my waterproof bins full of fuel, hydration, first aid, gear, cords, toiletries and clothes from my van into my tent. My tent would be my personal aid station/home base/changing room. I then checked in and got my bib (race number). It was raining pretty good so I stood with 27 other runners under the bag drop tent until the race started. 

It was either the 1st or second loop that I noticed a fellow runner running in flip flops.  I came up to him and said, “Do you mind me asking what kind of flip flops those are?” He said “a $10 pair off of Amazon.” I asked, “Do they give you blisters?” He said they didn’t. He told me about a foot/ankle injury that made it even more painful to wear running shoes so here he was running in flip flops. We ran a couple loops together. He was very chatty and found out all about his family, work, travel and food. It sure helps time and miles fly by when you are engaged in conversation with other runners! I made some other friends and shared miles with them too. 

At 8:58 AM we grouped up behind the start/finish line. There were 28 of us running the 48 hour race and other runners would join us over the course of that time doing 24 hour, 12 hour and 6 hour races. At 9 AM we were off! We would run the 2.4 mile course as many times as we could in the time frame we signed up for.  The course was about 60% trail and 40% paved path. A section of the course was on the South Jetty which was very exposed and was probably the hardest section because of that.  We encountered rain, hail, gale-force winds, thunder, lightning and even tiny spurts of blue skies. 

I changed my clothes probably 6 or 7 times throughout the race. Nothing like running straight into hail and 60 mph wind! That loop totally soaked me! I thought I was going to get hypothermia, but I reminded myself that my core was still warm and I would make it to the warming tent.  When I finished that loop I asked the lovely volunteers to make me a cup of noodles and told them I would come back for that after I go to the warming tent. The volunteer brought it to me. Loved that! The warming tent had 2 cots set up and 2 propane heaters. 

Friday evening Emily and Maegan arrived. Emily’s family had an Airbnb nearby and Maegan and her husband had a hotel room close by.  Betsy initially wasn’t going to be there, but rearranged things to be there and totally surprised me that night! I was only missing Kristene from my dream team crew.  She had her own race though. I forgive her.  Emily was able to take my wet clothes, towels and shoes back to her rental to wash and dry them and bring them back. Each one of these incredible ladies also did some laps with me. I am so blessed! I was and am incredibly supported! 

At one point I was feeling overwhelmed and had a good cry in my tent. Emily helped me put things in perspective. 

At another point I decided to take a nap in the back of my van.  I had an air mattress, sleeping bag and pillow set up in there. It was Friday evening and I wanted to try to get some sleep before running at 9:30 PM with Emily. I was able to sleep for about an hour and a half.  I must say it is so hard to get out of a warm, cozy, dry sleeping bag to get out in the cold to run some loops.  I got out and did it anyway.  It is a lot easier when someone is counting on you.  Emily and I were blessed with very little to no rain until 1:30 in the morning. The next time I took a nap was Saturday night. Now I feel like I am blurring everything together. The point is that that time I hardly slept because I just wanted to be done. I was feeling pretty anxious. I told my crew and Emily that I didn’t get much sleep, but I want to get out there and finish it. I only needed to do 6 more loops at this point. When I got out of the van I asked Maegan and Emily what they were grateful for because I wanted to focus on gratitude and positivity.  I was feeling everything but that just before coming out my van.  I was not going to let that take control though. I was going to finish that 100 miles no matter what! We were blessed with 3 loops of very little rain and even a starry sky. When we were at the aid station after those 3 loops a storm quickly came in — hail, thunder and lightning. We waited probably 10 minutes until it died off and continued on. We saw some other lightning storms in the distance a few other times. After I crossed 100 miles the race director told me that if I had it in me to do another lap I could possibly wind up placing 1st for all the females in the 48 hour race.  I said, absolutely! Let’s do it! Emily, Maegan and Betsy got to join me for that last loop.  My friend, Sally even came out in the middle of the night (2 AM ish) to see me finish. She agreed to stay for the additional lap. We shared some great conversations as we walked the last loop together.  I led the pack. I even found some extra energy to jog across the finish line for the final lap.  I completed 43 laps! I am so proud! I am so blessed! I placed 3rd overall and 1st for the females! It was epic! It was everything I wanted and more!