Got to spend a great (if windy and cold) day with some of my best running buddies today! Krista, Rochelle, and I ran our first official ultramarathon (Tracey G. ran her second, she's an old pro at this stuff). And, we were cheered on by some great people as well. I feel like we saw Amy K. and Annie 20 or 30 times, not to mention Anthony M Van H. and the rest of Rochelle's family! I feel like I say this all the time, but it's true... so I'll continue to say it. These are some of the greatest people in the world. I am so lucky just to know them... the fact that they let me run with them absolutely blows my mind. Thank you guys! From the bottom of my heart.

As for the course, it was 3 loops of 10.35 miles on Chicago's lakefront. Since I don't know the best way to break this down, I think I'll just describe each loop as I remember them now... 5+ hours after the finish.

Loop 1
We joked about the "hills" on the course, since the entire route seemed incredibly flat except for an occasional "bump" here and there. As we settled into our goal pace of a little over 10:00/mile, occasionally we'd have a "pace check" where one of us realized we were getting a little faster than planned. And since we were going to be out there for a while, we wanted to hold ourselves back early on and reserve our energy for the later, tougher miles. Almost immediately, my left ankle started bothering me. This ankle hasn't been 100% in a while, but has never given me trouble so early in a run. I took note of it, and hoped it would go away. A short time later, it hadn't gone away, but some right knee pain decided to join the party. Great. Just they way I want to start my first official ultramarathon. Neither issue was enough to cause me to stop, but both were irritating. Other than that, the wind in our faces on the way back, and probably lingering a little too long at the turnaround aid station and at the start/finish aid station, this loop went fairly well.

Loop 2
I laced up both of my shoes a little tighter and the added support seemed to limit the ankle pain a bit. Just after the start of this loop, I realized it was feeling harder than I wished it would. I wasn't questioning my ability to hold the pace or finish the race, but I just didn't feel as strong as I should at mile 11-12 of a normal long run. For the most part, the "out" part of this run (which happened to be with the wind) wasn't too bad. At mile 3 we picked up a hitchhiker... Meg D. joined us for the rest of the loop! She was out for her longest training run to date (7 miles) as she trains for the WI half marathon (her first half). When we hit the turnaround aid station, I had a cupful of chocolate covered raisins (a new food test... they were good, and seemed to settle well). The wind on the return trip wasn't quite as bad as the first time through, but was still very much present.

Loop 3
Annie joined us for our last loop of the day! Before this loop started, I ditched my windbreaker and swapped out my soaking wet balaclava for my backup dry one. Rather than make everyone wait for me, I waved them ahead and told them I'd catch up... which I did. Little did I know, this loop was going to be all about catching up.

Nothing about this loop felt good. My ankle was still bothering me (despite retightening the laces) and my knee was getting worse. A few times on the way out, I stopped to squat down and try to stretch the knee a bit. Each time, I didn't let the group get too far away before catching back up (a few times, I'm not even sure they knew I stopped). This time, we all decided to stop at the midpoint aid station. I took a few salt pills, drank some Gatorade (not a good idea) and away we went once again. From that point to the turnaround, all I could think about was how badly my knee hurt. It felt serious. It was altering my gait, and I knew that wasn't going to last long. Finally, we got to the turnaround aid station and I let the group know they'd have to run ahead again. I needed to either fix the situation or seriously consider walking the last 5 miles (there was NO way I was dropping at that point). They ran off, leaving Annie behind to make sure I was OK... I spent a minute or two stretching my hamstrings and quads (and drinking some flat Coke) and then we were running once again.

Amazingly, the stretching seemed to work... no knee pain! Annie and I picked up the pace a bit and caught back up to the group about a half mile later. As a bonus, running that faster pace to catch the group and then getting to slow down to the "real" pace felt relieving. For a little while. By the time we hit the midpoint aid station again (2.5 miles from the finish!), I wasn't feeling well. I was getting dizzy. Once again, I sent the group ahead and once again Annie stayed back with me to make sure I was OK. I bent over to stretch my hamstrings and when standing back up, almost fell over... I was so lightheaded. Thankfully, Annie suggested I drink some more Coke and try eating something... that something turned out to be the most delicious potato chips I've ever tasted (clearly, I was low on salt).

A short time later, we were running once again. With the group nowhere in sight, I gave up on trying to catch them again before the finish. But, I still REALLY wanted to get last mile fastest. I told Annie that I was hurting and she seemed to know the PERFECT way to react... she asked "Oh yeah? What are you going to do about it?" Just enough tough love to piss me off... and motivate me at the same time (seriously, I owe the entire back half of this loop to Annie... THANK YOU SO MUCH!). I told her that I planned to get last mile fastest (did she really say "Duh" or did I imagine that?), and we picked up the pace right after the beep signalling the end of mile 30. I did my best to try to settle into a pace I thought I could hold for a full mile at this point, and while it was obviously tougher than the slower running... somehow it felt better (Rochelle would later mention that running a little faster toward the end felt better as well, and theorized that the quicker pace used different leg muscles). Whatever it was, the pace actually felt pretty good. About a quarter mile into the last mile, I checked the Garmin and it said... wait... what?! That can't be right. 7:57?! For the next minute or so, I tried to pick up the pace a bit more, hoping to make this last mile a sub-8... before realizing that a) I couldn't hold that pace and b) What difference did it make? All I needed was 9:15 or so to guarantee last mile fastest. Almost exactly at the same time as the alert that the 31st mile was done (in 8:11!), I saw the group was ahead. Reachable before the finish line? No idea. But, I had to at least TRY. I kept telling myself that if I held the current pace, I would catch them... and once I caught them, I'd get to slow down to a "sane" pace again (assuming they were running 9:00-9:30). But, as I caught them (probably less than a quarter mile from the finish)... they sped up! Not because I caught them, but because everyone was just ready to be DONE. Before I knew it, the 4 of us were crossing the finish line together... the way I had always hoped we would.

This run is a new distance PR for me, but 24 minutes shorter than my longest run ever by time. Also, from a TRIMP perspective, this was my fourth toughest run ever (behind my trail 28, the WI marathon and my trail 26.2). This also makes my first ever 50 mile running week. Also, these are not excuses but facts about this run. I am sick. I have tried to ignore this fact, but it's not working. Because of this, I didn't sleep well Thursday night ("the night before the night before"). Then, as it seems to happen for me of runs over 20-25 miles, I slept for less hours last night than I ran today. And, in what can only be described as the most genius thing I've ever done, I failed to replace my shoes (which are SHOT) with a new pair until Thursday... making today's run the first in my new shoes. Nothing new on race day? I guess that only applies to people with at least half a brain. Finally, this was a training run for me. I didn't taper at all and could definitely tell based on how early into the run my legs started to feel tired.

Also, I got to meet a few new ultrarunning people today. Juli Aistars ran with us for a bit during the second loop, which was cool because she was planning on walking that loop before calling it a day (she was using this as a training run for her 100 miler next weekend, where she'll try to break 23 hours... Good luck Juli!). Ian Stevens was volunteering at the turnaround aid station and, despite the fact that we were meeting for the first time, made it seem like we have been friends for years. Thanks for the encouragement today Ian! And thanks for volunteering! I also "met" (in passing) both Mary Gorski and Ken Norwood... thanks to Juli for the introductions, even if they were done on the run.

Thank you to everyone for running with me, cheering for me and sending well wishes via dailymile and twitter. I can't get over how much support I've gotten over the past few days.

Splits:
10:04, 10:05, 10:04, 10:06, 11:48, 10:28, 10:07, 10:02, 10:15, 14:04, 10:19, 10:01, 10:21, 10:10, 13:57, 10:13, 10:09, 10:01, 10:06, 11:14, 15:31, 10:13, 11:56, 10:00, 10:02, 12:27, 9:52, 9:46, 11:22, 8:11, 0.55 @ 8:22 pace