Rosaryville 50k

Even with the most perfect race day conditions, a trail ultra can be a lot like a box of chocolates.

I signed up for Rosaryville at the end of May. I was going through a lot with my mom's health and decided not to run Old Dominion 100-miler in early June. I needed something familiar, close to home, and affordable to look forward to in the Fall. I also knew that I'd likely be able to convince a friend or 2 to run it together. Sure enough, it didn't take much to get Arielle on board. 

In July, a friend offered me a free race bib for Marine Corps Marathon, 2 weeks prior to Rosaryville. I thought it might be nice to have a very motivating, long training run. Arielle had decided to do the same. We ran a lot of miles together over the next few months. However, her training was impeccable. She stuck to her plan. My life was a little chaotic. My mom's service, family visiting from out of town, Fiona's 13th birthday, a spiritual pilgrimage to the Grand Canyon had made it nearly impossible for me to get any long runs in on the weekends leading up to MCM and Rosaryville. I did the best I could, but I knew I would have to rely on muscle memory, mental tricks, and mantras to get me through. The one thing I was doing right during my training was running trails. In fact, most of my weekends I spent out in Patapsco. 

Marine Corps ended up being one of the best marathons I've ever run. I felt great nearly the entire race. Arielle's company, the spectators, the sights, the signs, the humbling moments of remembrance, and the ridiculously funny moments really helped distract me from how hard it is to run 26+ miles. 

After I leaned heavily into recovery and tapering. I told Arielle, as a reminder to myself as well, "if we can run a marathon, we can run a few more miles at a slower pace on more forgiving terrain. We are going to be fine."

On race morning, Arielle, Kerrie and I met at 6:15am in the parking lot of Whole Foods. I drove us to Rosaryville State Park. It was a 45-minute drive, and the sunrise was spectacular. It was a good day to have a good day.

Arielle made these cute stick figures of us with AI's assistance. We parked in the field, found our 4th friend Kim, grabbed our race bibs, used the port-a-potties, and packed up our vests with necessities. It was a tad chilly, but the sun was coming up and felt strong. It was going to warm up quicky. Despite the wind and rain, we had over the past 24 hours, the ground was relatively dry, and the leaves were still glowing in the woods. There was a race briefing to go over the course, the aide stations, the drop bags, and markings. The woman who sang the Star-Spangled Banner was ah-mazing! 

As we moved up to the start line, we heard a couple guys joking about their plan, "we're going to start slow, and we're going to finish slow." That sounded about right. 

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ... Go!" And we were off. As we made our way across the field and down the road to the trail, we stayed close to one another. We passed the first aide station or "party" as I liked to call them. I shared that instead of counting down miles (31) or loops (3 and a bit), I liked to count down in party stops aka aide stations. Rosaryville had 6 parties along the course and a 7th final party at the finish line. 

As runners spread out across the first few miles, we quickly warmed up. We stopped to take off our jackets. Kerrie kept running. I knew she'd be faster than us. She had trained so well for Marine Corps Marathon and got sick a couple days before the race. She decided not to push her body through a marathon and wanted to find something else to run with all of that magnificent training. It didn't take much to convince her to try a 50k. She didn't, however, own a pair of trail shoes. She wore her normal road shoes, which she had done before for Ragnar races. 

Kim had trained for Patapsco Valley 50k that was 3 weeks back. The Sunday before the race, she played tennis and hurt her hip. Kim showed up at packet pickup for PV and told the RD that she didn't think it was wise to run a 50k with aches and pains. He convinced her to submit a virtual 50k time. When she said she was feeling better, I suggested that she sign up for Rosaryville so she'd have company and aide stations. Kim was ready! She had a drop bag, Glide, and a strategy. She was going to finish this 50k and get TWO finishes! So what if it was double-dipping! 

We kept a really solid pace and believe it or not the course seemed familiar to me. This was my 4th time running this course. It was my first 50k in 2018 after running the Baltimore Marathon 3 weeks prior. I loved it so much that I ran it again the next 2 years. I had never gone back to look at my finishing times before - 6:34, 6:35, 6:34. I couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe I could get keep the pattern going with a 6:35? 

I could sense that the aide station was approaching and a couple minutes later we could smell the bacon on the grill! Yeehaw! Pierogies, bacon, pop tarts, pickles, cookies, soda, gummy bears, chips, M&Ms... it was heaven! We loaded up on the goodies. Bacon with pierogies was delicious!

"See you in a bit!" shouted the aide station captain. Just the encouragement we needed to hear to keep on keepin' on.

The next section had some rolling hills, a nice bit of solid ground on a downhill section. One nice thing about this race is that the closest thing you get to a stream crossing has a plank of wood so unless you are trying to pass someone at that exact spot, you can slow down to walk across it, and your feet stay dry. 

Our pace was impressive and I knew that we would be slowing down at some point, just not yet. At the end of this first loop, we stopped at the port-a-potty and then headed over to the aide station for goodies - Gatorade, potato chips, gummy bears, and Ramen!! Arielle, Kim and I all got a cup of Ramen with noodles and looked at each other as we tried to eat the noodles without a fork or spoon. Call it primitive, savage or just plain funny as we slurped down the noodles.

I kept going back and grabbing more gummy bears from the table and finally had to move it. "Come on, grab your goodies and let's GO!" I shouted at Kim and Arielle. We all were just commenting on how great we felt despite it warming up a bit. About a half mile later, I took the lead and was just chit chatting away. I thought, "this pace feels great and also feels faster than my usual pace for a trail ultra."

All of a sudden, my left foot tripped on a root. My whole left leg seized up, while the top half of my body was moving at full speed. To break the disjointed momentum, I decided to roll forward on the leaf-covered ground to my left to break a harder fall and to avoid Arielle and Kim from running into me and falling themselves. We all got quiet and I got up pretty quickly to keep moving. 

"I need to walk a bit," I said. My left hamstring was not happy, and I could tell my left foot did not want to pick up high off the ground. I thought maybe shuffling would feel better (and it would be faster). So, I started to jog a bit a couple minutes later. If I had to stop I still had the opportunity to make it back to the start/finish ahead of me with the drop bag section approaching. As soon as I had that the thought ... 

"F*CK!" My left foot kicked something again under the leaves and my whole leg locked up - from my knee to my glute. This time I knew my leg was not ok enough to keep running at that pace. I told Arielle and Kim to continue on. I was going to walk a bit and try to figure out how bad my muscles were. 

As I walked, I told myself I could walk another loop and still have plenty of time to be at the finish line to cheer the others on. I shuffled, paying even closer attention to the placement of each foot. I ran a bit, then I'd walk. I let others pass by for the next 6 miles. I went through the aid station and grabbed some snacks. The aid station crew were so cheerful, "see you one more time!" I knew that wasn't so, that after this loop I would call it quits. I didn't want to let them down, so I didn't tell them.

As I shuffled on, I thought about how great it was just to be outside on such a beautiful day. If I wasn't going to cover the 31 miles, I was at least going to be outside for as long as possible! About a mile past the aid station, there is a pretty steep downhill that leads out to a field section. You can hear Crane Highway and tall powerlines. I noticed that someone was sitting on a downed tree at the bottom of the hill and it looked like my other friend Kerrie. I hadn't seen her since the start when she took off. Uh oh.

I approached her and noticed another runner was with her. I looked at her leg and it was pretty bad - blood, smeared dirt, and already looked a little swollen. She was relieved to see me. 

"I took a really bad fall coming down that hill," Kerrie said. "I'm done." She said that she had just seen Kim and Arielle and they told her about my leg and weren't sure if I was going to continue or not. 

I thanked the runner for staying with her. Kerrie was hoping to find a way to get back to the start without having to hobble another 4 miles, but after we walked a bit out in the field, we realized we were nowhere near the finish line and where the cars were. Someone had given her a piece of Nuskin tape to stop the bleeding and keep the wound as clean as possible. 

I told her we'd take our time and make it back to the start. We walked and talked and cheered other runners on as they whizzed by. While it wasn't how neither of us planned how our day would go, we both felt grateful for the company as threw ourselves a little pity party. We noticed a few things along the trail we hadn't before, like a HUGE barn atop a hill! 

When we got back to the first aid station, we told the volunteers that we were tapping out. "DNF, baby!" 

We still had quite a ways to get back to the start/finish area. When all was said and done, we got to just under 21 miles, which isn't bad considering our injuries were pretty serious. 

Kerrie and I cleaned up, put some warm clothes on, grabbed a blanket to sit on, some tasty food, and got to cheer and watch the runners cross the finish line. That included the winners! Some looked fresh, while others looked like they had a rough day. It was getting warm. 

Arielle texted that she was at mile 25 and she was done. That's impossible, I responded. She was already out on the loop and the only way to get back was to complete the last 6 miles. After a while, Kerrie and I got up and walked around. We used the bathroom, a little worried we were going to miss Kim and Arielle coming in so we took turns. 

The volunteers from the aid stations were now at the finish line and I asked the aid station captain if he remembered seeing our friend with glasses, and he said, "you mean Pop-Tart Bacon?" I knew immediately he was referring to Arielle. He said that he told her she had time and to keep going, don't stop too long at that aid station or the final one. His wife was the aid station captain at the last aid station before going back out into the woods for another 1 1/2 miles.

Kim came in at about 7:48 and we cheered her on. I rushed to the finish line, wrapped in my blanket and hobbling in my Oofos to give her a hug. 

We all stood staring at the opening from the woods. With each runner that appeared and began to run across the field, we cheered and screamed. I was getting a little worried as the clock got to 7:58. 

Then suddenly, I saw our friend. She exited the woods and stopped. I saw her look at her watch and she hesitated. I hobbled as fast as I could to her, as the volunteers, aid station crews all cheered her on, "Come on, you got this!" "Keep moving!" 

When I reached her, she kept saying, "I'm not going to make it!" She was so worried about making it under 8 hours, that she had completely forgotten that she had run a 50k... it had NOTHING to do with the time on the clock. I grabbed her hand and we began to run towards the finish line. 

"FUCK THE CLOCK!" I chanted. 

As we approached the finish line, I let go and cheered, "YOU'RE AN ULTRAMARATHONER!!!!"

Then met her on the other side of the finish line with open arms and we hugged!! 

SHE DID IT!!!! And my heart was, is full! 

Post-race Reflections:

What a day?! Rosaryville is still one of my favorite races of all time. It's deceptively challenging, more so mentally then physically, I think. I don't mind the DNF. In fact, I welcomed it. I know I can run this course, I've done it 3x before. The Marine Corps Marathon took way more out of me than I thought it would and duh! This year was a doozy. I should have known better. I have run this race after the Baltimore Marathon but that allowed an extra week of recovery. Two weeks was not enough, not enough for me, not enough for me this year, anyways. 

I'll be back, probably next year, after the Baltimore Half Marathon or Full. Who knows? I'm so proud of Arielle for accomplishing TWO major goals over TWO short weeks, after an AWESOME training cycle. She ran her first marathon and her first 50k. Can't wait to see what's next for her!!