Introduction
In spite of the fact that I've worked at Schmidt's Garden Center since March 2007, this is my inaugural blog post. I started work at Schmidt's during my Sophomore year at Oregon State. I graduated last year with a degree in natural resources, and have left for up to six months at a time while pursuing internships and serving in AmeriCorps. For now, I am back full time and am looking forward to another spring at the garden center.
Working at Schmidt's is great for a lot of reasons, but I particularly enjoy the time it allows to pursue other hobbies and passions. This past weekend, I traveled to Forest Grove and ran in the Hagg Lake Mud Run 25k. Pictured left is myself after the race. My shoes and lower legs were completely coated in thick mud, as were other patches of my body from falling or pulling myself up steep sections of trail.
My Main Past-Time: Running
Running is a passion of mine which I have pursued off and on for over a decade. I began running in middle school after it took me over 13 minutes to complete the mile run in PE. This slow time bothered me; starting the next week, I began getting up an extra thirty minutes early before school to run. My early loops took me just around my parents' neighborhood, but I eventually expanded my routes to include all of the fantastic trail systems available around Corvallis, such as Bald Hill and McDonald Forest. Cross country was my sport of choice in high school. I completed two seasons before quitting due to nagging running injuries from which I was unable to completely recover.
The next several years were off and on when it came to running. Every time I tried to start up again, the same ailments flared up. I gave up altogether for awhile in college. Instead, I went to the gym and exercised on ellipticals, exercise bikes, and in the pool. I will confess: I hate the gym. I hate lifting weights, I hate stationary cardio equipment, I hate gym fees and fighting for parking spots and operating hours. Since I'd been doing all of the biking and swimming, I decided to enter the Beaver Freezer Sprint Triathlon in April 2010. The race was pretty fun, but my favorite part was, of course, the 5k run.
After the Beaver Freezer, I abandoned the gym and took to the roads again. The first year was very slow for me as I eased back into a running routine. My 'runs' consisted of mostly walking and stretching. In three miles, I would stop five different times to stretch, trying to avoid a recurrence of my running injuries. For some reason, I decided to run the Portland Marathon in October of 2010. I went into the race basically untrained, but managed to complete it nonetheless. It just took a very long time.
This past year I've developed a consistent running routine, and in 2011 I competed in four local races:
Corvallis Half Marathon (2:10:00)
Heart, Health, Home Half Marathon (2:15:00)
McDonald Forest 15k (1:25:00)
OAC Turkey Trot 10k (48:08)
Upcoming Races
The Hagg Lake Mud Run was initially selected as a February race to help prepare me for my ultimate goal: The Eugene Marathon on April 29th. I'll be reporting on my progress and there will, of course, be a race report. I also managed to register for the Chicago Marathon before it filled up (45,000 people registered within just 6 days!), which is on October 7. My brother recently moved to Chicago and I visited him in January; it's a fantastic city to spend time in, and I am very excited at the prospect of running this iconic race.
Bonus reading material: Hagg Lake Mud Run 25k Race Report
Short version:
3:16:14, 193/314 finishers. Fastest finisher came in at 1:46:22. Fastest 50ker from previous day came in at 3:45:03.
Long version:
I signed up for Hagg Lake back in January as a guarantee of getting in at least one long run for my Eugene Marathon (April 29th) training. However, I've somehow been sticking to my training and have gotten in all of my scheduled long runs so far. This also had me prepared somewhat for this race, at least in terms of distance. However, there is really no way I could have prepared for the amount of mud I had to face. The closest I came in preparation for this was completing a long run in semi-melted snow and slush more than a month ago, as the traction was similar.
I volunteered at the 50k the day before the race. This required me getting up at 4am to get there by 6:45am. No matter; with my shift over at 9am, I was able to catch a few hours of sleep in the parking lot at Trader Joe's afterwards. Volunteering gave me a chance to chat with ultrarunners. Not that I'm considering doing an ultra this year. Absolutely not. However, they were able to give me advice on training, nutrition, and other topics. One guy who directed traffic with me, Jerry, who has run a couple 100 milers and countless other, shorter-distance ultras, was very helpful. He told me that I should wear a heart rate monitor in order to schedule walk breaks efficiently. This would be good for me, since I often get overzealous and burn myself out early in races. A woman whose name I didn't catch was fun to chat with, and I learned later that she's an 11:15 Ironman triathlete finisher. I'm not really famililar with Ironman times and how they correspond to ability, but I have a feeling that's remarkably good.
Dinner the night before consisted of the most delicious hot wings I've ever eaten and jelly beer at the Whiskey Soda Lounge with Megan and Mike. Special thanks to Anna Scalley and her sister/BIL for letting me crash with them.
On race day, I woke up at 6 and ate a PBJ, banana, coffee, and Rolaids. The drive took only about 45 minutes, so I got there at 8. I sat in my car for awhile listening to music and thinking that maybe I'd be able to beat my closest PR at this distance, which would be 2:15 for a trail half. I'd set that PR in October and was significantly more fit now, although I'd had a lousy last week and a half of running. My feet always ached now, my right shin was hurting again, I'd been experiencing awful heart burn at any run more than an hour in length (hence the Rolaids with breakfast), and my pace was suffering. In short, I'd just been feeling really burned out. However, I quickly abandoned any hairbrained notion I'd had for greatness as I slowly, carefully walked a short stretch of trail connecting the parking lot to the race start pavilion. There was a lot of mud. Thick, slippery, sloppy mud. I had to walk slowly and carefully to avoid falling, as people all around me fell and cursed under their breath. That was alright. This run would just be for fun.
The first two miles consisted of pavement and gravel. I felt very strong and let myself go out pretty fast. After all, I knew that once I hit the trail, I'd be at a crawling pace. Even with the first mile uphill, I wasn't even breathing through my mouth yet and felt comfortable with the fast clip.
Running on the trail, however, was an entirely different matter. The mud was very slick, and I probably irritated a lot of people I'd passed on the road as I was forced to slow my pace. Everyone else seemed to be a much more confident mud runner than myself. I scooted out of the way as much as possible, and a couple dozen people ended up passing me in the first mile on the trail. However, I was able to pick up the pace as I forced myself to be a bit more daring and speed up. It was going to be a very long race if I couldn't bring up the courage to run in this slop.
I hit my stride, but was still balancing and carefully executing each and every step I took. This became mentally and physically exhausting as the race wore on. At a couple of points In the first half of the race I had to come to a complete stop, as people were lined up waiting to go through the most narrow, steep, slippery sections one at a time. As is usual with almost every race I do, I passed people on the uphill and got passed on the downhill, except where it was too dangerous to pass safely.
There were two aid stations, one around mile 5.5 and another close to mile 10. I hadn't fueled on any of my long runs so far, but took in a gel and water at the first station and gatorade at the second, as I knew this race was going to be much more strenuous than any of my previous long runs.
I spent the first third of the race stressing about passing or holding people up behind me. After the first aid station, the crowd thinned out and I ran mostly alone. This allowed me to really hit my pace and zone out until the second aid station. After that, the trail became bog-like. I was forced to walk probably 2 of the last 5 miles, simply because running was impossible. Even walking, I was struggling to stay on my feet, stumbling and sliding around worse than I'd ever experienced. I never had any bad falls during the race, but ended up on my knees several times. My gloves were caked thickly in mud from catching myself.
I could feel myself tiring out around mile 12. Fortunately, another stretch of road came around then. Running on the pavement felt freeing, and I found that I wasn't nearly as tired as I felt as I was able to really kick up the pace for the 3/4 mile stretch and passed some people. However, once the rout took us back on the trail, my right hip began hurting, and then my right hamstring. Just because I could run faster on the pavement didn't mean it was necessarily a good idea. I kept my pace more conservative after that, but it didn't matter, as the rest of the race was just trail anyways.
The finish couldn't have come at a more welcome time. My hip and hamstring were quite painful, and I was worried I had pulled something. Hagg Lake had left me completely exhausted. Mud coated my lower legs, hands, and various other spots. There was a huge amount of food - hot dogs, chili, grilled cheese, fruit, and cookies - but nothing appealed to me. I chugged a bunch of gatorade and ate some cookies, then walked the quarter mile back to my car. I wrapped up in my space blanket to keep from muddying my car up too much. My shoes ended up in a box in my back seat. I still haven't decided if I should salvage them or not. I'm leaning towards salvage, but haven't gotten around to it yet.
Overall, I'm happy with with my time of 3:16. My average pace was 12:36, of which two miles at least were not just walking, but carefully, slowly making my way through sinking, slippery sections of trail, and sometimes not moving at all. I can't imagine doing the 50k, which is two laps of the same course, but those finishers get growlers. The day after I wasn't nearly as sore as I thought I would be. All of my balancing muscles/tendons are tender, though, namely my ankles, knees, and hips. An hour of yoga last night helped remedy this discomfort.
