The race went really well...except that I DNFed and ran only 13 of the 21 miles I had signed up for.
I ended up wearing my Merrell without socks since the socks hurt my morton toe last week and it was too muddy for my Lunas. My feet got wet and frozen before the start while I was listening to pre-race instructions in a field saturated with water and covered with a crunchy layer of ice. Most of the first 4 miles were in mud anyway so the feet would have been wet no matter what. The 50M and 50 k started 2 hours earlier and we started at the same time as the 10M. We started with a 1 mile loop and then joined the others on the 10M loop (a figure 8 with 4M on one side and 6M on the other).
The first 4 miles where crowded, I was flying by people on the downhills and they would pass me back while power walking uphill. I don't know how to powerwalk. These NYC chicks were walking like if they were rushing up the subway stairs to have time to get to Starbuck before work. The first aid station was at the start area and then we started the 6mile loop. The scenery was beautiful. The trail was very rocky, with a lot of stream crossings. There was another aid station 3miles into that loop with super friendly volunteers and yummy treats. I grabbed some cookies and PB&J sandwiches and ran the last 3 miles of the first 10-mile loop. It was the best part. I was full of energy, I ran past a beautiful little waterfall and I was very confident as I finished my first 11 miles.
But as I started my second 10M loop it started to snow and at some point my feet got numb. With numb feet I couldn't zoom down the hills and I was running those downhills slowly, leaning back and my knee started to hurt. I paused for a moment to weight my options: If i keep going my knee will hurt and maybe get worse. I had 3 more miles of ups and downs before the aid station. If I wanted to make it there I would have to run the downhills fast, but in order to do that I need to unfreeze my feet. And I had no idea how to do that. If I turned back, the aid station was only 1 mil away. I decided that running downhill slowly (and in pain) was not fun so I was better off turning back and calling it a day.
I'm a little disappointed I couldn't finish but I had a lot of fun for the first 11 miles so it was worth it. I met nice people, including *real* ultra runners, I ran several miles with a lady who is training for another 100M and was doing the 50M today. And considering my lack of training there is not much to complain about. I need to decide what distance to do next: 10-13 miles seems doable at anytime without specific training, and it's fun, but part of me wants to push my limits and run longer distances on trails.