Last month I was thinking about some new goals for running. I’d been grappling with motivation and focus, and really thought about why I do this. My issues were pretty fundamental – road vs trails, speed vs volume, stuff like that. It’s normal to ponder this from time to time – the intended result being to attach purpose to what we do each day.
One of my goals is to run marathon or longer in all fifty states. Not a phrenetic checklisting exercise, but rather visiting every state, experiencing what it’s about, and while I’m there, doing a race that’s something I’ll enjoy.
I’ve completed 22 states in the past 15 1/2 years. This means I’ll click off state #50 when I’m a little over 90. But it’s very much a “journey is the reward” thing for me, so that’s okay.
February’s a great time to race in the South. Not too hot yet, and there are some good options. Also, it’s usually a chance to escape the Seattle gloom. This is what brought me to the woods of northern Alabama this weekend for the Black Warrior Trail 50k. All indications were that this was a great choice. Trails, smaller event, good history, and irreverent humor evident in their communications.
Wanting to gauge the time to the start, I went out there before dinner on Friday, and got to meet the race directors. Really nice people – they let me pick up my bib and shirt, and invited me for some food too. Their positivity really made me feel like I’d made the right choice – a large road marathon’s got nothing on the great vibe we get in our trail running community.
at the start, before the mud
Race morning brought some significant rain. We’re not afraid of weather in the Pacific Northwest, but this not the gentle mist we’re used to at home. This was going to be different.
We 130 lined up and hit the trail just after 8 am. We started with about 500 feet of climbing during the first three miles. This foreshadowed more significant climbing than I’d planned on. After climbing on a fire road, we veered off into some nice single track trails, and people spread out a bit. I held to running the hills and walking 30 seconds/mile for the first 12 or so miles. After that terrain won, as did the mud.
Oh that mud. Thing about hard rain on clay is that the water doesn’t get absorbed as quickly at the rain falls. Very slippery. Also ankle deep at times. I felt a bit like a Looney Toons character running on air. And I’m amazed I didn’t fall.
I felt pretty tired by the time I hit about mile 13. This is when the walking became much more frequent, and my pace and cadence really declined. This is when my inner voice got more doubtful, and I had to push myself to keep moving. It’s not unusual for this to happen, but it felt worse because of the sketchy footing. Miles 17 through 24 really crawled by. The 50k runners had split off onto a separate loop around mile 8, rejoining the 25k route at 24, and this is when things picked up for me again. By then I was feeling concerned about going over 7 hours. Given my pacing for those middle miles, it was looking bad. Then is leveled off a bit, and I felt more consistent.
Around mile 27, a young woman passed me, looking pretty strong. I used this as a motivator to try to keep up with her. After trailing her for about a mile, I assured her that I wasn’t stalking her, and thanked her for helping me pick my pace up. Emily and I ran most of those last four miles together. We talked about our kids a bit. She told me how she has to get creative with her training, as her husband travels a bunch. Her boy saved up for a nice bike, and now joins her for her runs on a greenway near her home in Huntsville. She’s run 6 100-milers, so she’s making it work. Wow!
We crossed the finish in about 6:41 – which she shared was a 40-minute PR for her on this course. I felt really good about being able to pick things up during the last miles. In fact, my last two miles were my fastest two of the day. It helped that we spent most of that on fire road rather than single track, but being able to muster that finish felt really good. It’s also testament to how running really can be a team sport – it’s doubtful I could have done that without having good company and conversation.
Clicking off another state is always fun, but experiencing an event like this one definitely makes it feel like that journey’s the reward. Bonus is that my first two events of 2018 were ultras, and that I’ve completed #96 lifetime “long ones” (marathon or better).
The mile splits, and cadence really tell the story. It’s interesting that my heart rate remained pretty steady throughout, even as my pace and cadence slowed significantly. I pulled this table from my Suunto movescount data, because it includes cadence per mile. My Strava data is below too.
| m | Heart rate | Pace | Ascent | Descent | Cadence |
| 1 | 148 (75-166) | 11’14 (89’24-9’56) | 256 | 0 | 80 (39-90) |
| 2 | 145 (136-162) | 10’14 (14’54-8’39) | 98 | 89 | 81 (31-92) |
| 3 | 147 (131-162) | 10’26 (14’07-8’39) | 151 | 230 | 82 (60-96) |
| 4 | 154 (145-163) | 11’33 (14’54-9’56) | 308 | 285 | 79 (40-91) |
| 5 | 153 (145-162) | 11’25 (26’49-9’34) | 269 | 213 | 78 (32-94) |
| 6 | 147 (121-163) | 12’52 (0’00-8’22) | 266 | 253 | 75 (34-95) |
| 7 | 151 (138-163) | 11’33 (14’54-9’34) | 72 | 141 | 79 (52-92) |
| 8 | 148 (139-159) | 13’26 (29’48-10’43) | 98 | 210 | 76 (39-91) |
| 9 | 155 (140-166) | 13’08 (0’00-9’34) | 279 | 105 | 76 (45-232) |
| 10 | 150 (138-167) | 11’40 (16’45-9’34) | 167 | 161 | 79 (67-94) |
| 11 | 152 (137-167) | 12’02 (20’38-8’56) | 121 | 154 | 77 (52-91) |
| 12 | 155 (138-165) | 12’18 (19’09-10’19) | 157 | 138 | 77 (52-89) |
| 13 | 144 (119-167) | 14’15 (0’00-8’22) | 49 | 171 | 69 (31-90) |
| 14 | 151 (134-173) | 14’18 (20’38-11’10) | 262 | 161 | 62 (37-99) |
| 15 | 153 (143-169) | 12’10 (17’52-10’19) | 121 | 138 | 58 (34-86) |
| 16 | 156 (145-166) | 12’50 (26’49-8’56) | 177 | 148 | 57 (35-89) |
| 17 | 146 (124-164) | 16’39 (0’00-9’34) | 207 | 167 | 61 (34-90) |
| 18 | 140 (127-154) | 14’31 (0’00-9’14) | 98 | 112 | 68 (43-93) |
| 19 | 144 (123-164) | 12’44 (19’09-10’43) | 72 | 249 | 75 (32-89) |
| 20 | 136 (117-158) | 17’21 (22’21-9’56) | 197 | 69 | 60 (42-86) |
| 21 | 139 (115-164) | 15’01 (22’21-9’34) | 230 | 240 | 68 (48-91) |
| 22 | 139 (117-162) | 17’32 (0’00-7’53) | 289 | 249 | 64 (47-87) |
| 23 | 150 (120-167) | 13’13 (33’31-9’56) | 240 | 387 | 74 (48-91) |
| 24 | 146 (121-170) | 15’42 (0’00-9’56) | 302 | 299 | 66 (32-89) |
| 25 | 150 (127-170) | 15’30 (24’23-9’56) | 331 | 322 | 66 (38-92) |
| 26 | 146 (121-167) | 14’44 (53’38-9’34) | 335 | 354 | 68 (41-91) |
| 27 | 156 (141-171) | 13’23 (20’38-8’56) | 390 | 318 | 72 (34-95) |
| 28 | 155 (130-177) | 14’25 (0’00-7’27) | 331 | 272 | 71 (37-98) |
| 29 | 166 (153-174) | 9’37 (12’11-7’53) | 85 | 62 | 82 (74-93) |
| 30 | 165 (153-174) | 9’54 (10’43-8’56) | 125 | 335 | 82 (71-93) |
| 31 | 164 (157-172) | 9’47 (11’39-8’07) | 52 | 79 | 79 (28-93) |
https://www.strava.com/activities/1401412658/embed/27f81e7a560ca5fef01329f85d61c7f657bda62f
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