Two days later I am still not sure where to begin. I have run exactly three trail races in my life. One 4 miler, a 50k (three years ago) and now the Seamus O'Possum 30k. Past trails have taught me that they are rough and much different from road running.
I started to have a panic attack on Friday night wondering why I decided that this was a good idea. I had to kindly remind myself that if I was going to attempt a solo 100 miler in the summer then I needed to keep putting on foot in front of the other.
This race was just, I don't know what- a pain in the ass, a hell of a good time, mud pit....many other adjectives that I still can't come up with????
It was held up at Delaware State Park in the Dam Area. The race directors, Chad Heald and Mark Carroll are some really awesome guys. I thought it was a sweet event. And they clearly care about ensuring that folks have a good time because the vibe on race day was really chill!
I mean, no gun to start the race, just Mark yelling "Ok Go!"
Since I am training and raising money for the bunnies, I wore my ears and tail to the race. It got a lot of compliments and cheers from folks as they passed by me. And oddly, I think my cotton tail is blessed...my shoes and legs were caked in mud, but somehow my little white fluffy tail did not get ANY mud on it...hmm.....
Here are some photos from race day:
This is me coming into the first aid station around mile 4. I was still feeling pretty good at this point! Happy, glad to be out there...but then I hadn't seen the worst of the mud yet...
A little pepsi to add some pep into my hop:
The second, or 2/3's of the course was nothing but a horrible sloppy mess. And I was NOT prepared. It got to the point where I wasn't sure which was harder, walking or running. I tried everything, going around the mud pits, running right through them...I got to a point where I LIKED the mud puddles because I figured out how to manage those, but that horrible sloppy stuff- I never figured it out and my ankles are still paying the price.
In the end, the last 7 miles were all just me in my head ANGRY. I knew my body was going to hurt and I'd accepted that, but I was mentally tired and I could not get myself out of the angry zone. Karen at the first AS was such a welcome sight and I am sure I might have growled at her a little...
Either way when I got back to the dam wall, all I could think about was the tv show Game of Thrones and how everyone dies some scary death and how badly I wanted to throw something down the side of the dam wall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At the end of the day, I finished!! I finished in 4:38:26, I made the cutoffs, I completed a race that I felt so unsure of the whole time.
Thanks for a great race and pictures Chad and Mark!!
