Twisted Ankle Marathon Report!

Queen Bee

Hi! I'm a newbie here, but wanted to tell y'all about the toughest race of my life. I'm kind of cross-posting this report from another forum, and hopefully I took out any references that don't make sense Wink

Race: Twisted Ankle Marathon, Summerville, GA (my second marathon, first trail marathon) http://www.rungeorgiatrails.com

Short report: 6:43 (15:22 pace), 2nd age group, one fall, 3 ouchies

A little background:
This was my second year at this marathon - last year my husband and I swept the Half marathon course. We are friends with the RD, and this year we also helped mark the marathon course, so I knew what I was getting myself into (not sure if that was a blessing or a curse tho Wink

)

Saturday morning:
Oh boy - my nerves are about to kill me. I eat a bagel with PB and about 14 bananas, a couple of gatorades, and some water. Geared up, and we headed down to the start. I'm a little blank on the time before the race started - I'm familiar enough with the course to KNOW that it's going to be hard and almost wished I was going blindly into this. Off we go! Have I mentioned yet that my wonderful husband has decided to run with me? Thank goodness I wasn't going to be alone! So, we go, starting near the back. My nerves are gone and I'm just thinking about making it up to the top. Over the dam, up a little hill, thru the campgrounds, and into the woods we go. Up up up to the beautiful marble mine, and then the downhill evilness before Becky's Bluff. As we start going up again, a guy passes us saying, "This must be the 35% incline part" Oh no, no it isn't. *Caution Steep Grades Ahead* Here we go. I tried to get the several people that were right behind us to pass, but they said they were happy where they were. Great - I'm leading about 6 people up this damn bluff. Up up up up up upupupupupupupupupupup...I had to stop and finally they passed. We could hear laughing and cheering and knew we were getting close. And there it was! With a longing look towards the left in the direction of the Half Marathoners, we turned and headed right.

There was a lot of walking uphills and running flats and downhills at this point. We were on the trail for a bit, then onto a rolling gravel road. We actually passed quite a few people, and I was afraid that would bite me back at the end. Off the road onto a very cool little switchback downhill trail that was a lot of fun to run down (I'm really good at the downhill Wink

). The lead runners had passed us going the other direction back on the gravel road, but now we were starting to see other runners coming back up! Hey y'all!!!

We got down to the bottom and I was excited to see a bathroom - grabbed some powerade, a couple of pretzels & gummis, and back up we went. Going up that lovely little trail wasn't nearly as fun as going down, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Walk walk walk...back to the gravel road, then the trail. We stopped at the aid station here, where one of the wonderful volunteers gave me some of her coke - and that was the BEST!!! I felt like a new person! This was about the halfway point for us, and we reached it at a little over 3 hours. On and on, thru the aid station at the turn to the finish, and on and on...We had caught up at this point with a woman that we played leap frog with pretty much until the end of the race. We would pass her on the downhills, then she would pass us on the uphills.

Up to the next aid station (and Half Marathon turnaround) and on...onto another gravel road and down to the 2nd marathon turnaround! We socialized a little too long at this aid station and the woman we had been running with came and went - oops. But the watermelon and smiles were worth it! Back up the gravel road - I had a low time right here, b/c this was the part of the course that I had marked and it had taken us about 3 hours to do, not including the extra part to the finish for the race. But DH cheered me up, and I started smiling again. It wasn't long before we got to the Half turnaround aid station again, and I thought to dump some cold water on my head - damn that felt good!!! So I did a couple more - lol. I was soaked, but felt invigorated! A bit too invigorated tho - as we started going down the hill, I busted my ass - landed on my right side elbow and knee, and my calf cramped up. DH was trying to pull me up, I was yelling NO NO NO, and I'm surprised the aid station peeps didn't come running. The cramp went away, DH pulled me up, I looked in disgust at the right side of my body that was now covered in GA red dirt, and we kept going. We somehow managed to catch up to our friend, and as we passed her she noticed my now freely bleeding elbow and asked if I was ok - I was, and DH said, "It wouldn't be a trail run if she didn't hurt herself Wink

" We just kept trucking along. This was by far the longest part of the race - knowing the next aid station was the turn to the finish with only about 3 miles to go, and that most of it was downhill. Finally get to the last aid station, pour some water on my head, elbow, and knee and keep going. Yay downhill!!!! At this point I catch my toe on something but manage not to fall - DH was behind me going "oh no no no!" the whole time tho. Back to the marble mine, down a rough rocky road and back onto the asphalt, where there is another *(&%)@(&$@_( hill back up into the campground. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Come around a curve to a mighty cheer and there's a drunk group of hashers from ATL and I don't know who else b/c my eyes get all teary! They are just cheering and yelling and it gave me chills (or maybe that was the heat! it was about 87F at this point). Back onto the trail, out around the lake, and damn is it hot and sunny running across the dam. Our leapfrog woman had passed us again somewhere in here, and I knew we weren't going to catch back up. Another gravel road, more asphalt, damn you RD another gravel road plus hill - oh damn there's the ranger station and there's the bridge. Across the bridge and I'm thinking "Don't cramp, don't cramp, don't cramp you can't fall in front of everybody, almost there" and finally, we were there!!!! 6 hours and 4 freakin' minutes later we finished...and boy did it feel good!!! I don't know that I've ever been happier in my entire life - I REALLY enjoyed it, but I was REALLY glad to be done :p I somehow even managed to finish 2nd in my age group (I didn't ask how many were in it, and Becky didn't tell!).
As I was rinsing the mud off myself, RD asked if I wanted the bucket of ice water dumped over me - ok sure! So she and DH poured it over me, and it was cold but felt SO good. Then for extra measure the RD's kids threw a couple extra cups of ice water on me Very Happy

I love those kids. I really should have soaked my feet in the ice water....

The Aftermath:
My elbow is mush, my knee not so bad, and my feet are the most sore part of my body. Oh, and I have just a tiny bit of chafing on my back from where the Camelbak was rubbing my sports bra. The two little steps into my office are torture, but totally worth it. I can't wait for next year...to sit my asss at the top of Becky's Bluff and just smile and cheer people on, knowing exactly how they feel Very Happy

Here's some injury pics - don't look if you are squeamish: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaMWzRq2cNWcx&notag=1