Finger Lakes Fifties 50K race recap

The Finger Lakes Fifties course is a 16.5 mile loop that you run 1, 2, or 3 times depending on the race distance. Those running the 50 miler have an additional “baby loop” right before the finish line. The course winds through trails in the Finger Lakes National Forest and includes a few stretches of road and a couple of cow pastures to keep things interesting. Originally I registered for the 50 mile distance, which would be my first 50 mile race. Nagging plantar fasciitis in my left heel has kept my mileage pretty low this year, so I knew quite a few weeks out that the 50 mile distance was almost definitely not going to happen.

The day before the race was filled with an early 3 hour drive to my hometown with Logan, my three-year-old and Digger, my 7 month old lab puppy. It was a busy day and on my way back home I dropped Logan off with my husband at my in-laws’ home. I ended up having to rush home to get something my husband forgot, drive back to my in-laws and then head back home to get everything laid out for the race.

My alarm went off at 4:22 am. I was not feeling it. I wanted to go back to sleep and skip the race. It seemed like such a long distance to run. I wondered what was wrong with me that I had willingly signed up to run this far. What was the point? I was so tired. But when the snooze went off, I managed to drag myself out of bed. I had laid out everything the night before and packed my race fuel in my pack, so all I had to do was fill my hydration pack with water and get dressed. It felt like I was just going through the motions. I didn’t have the excited and nervous anticipation like I have had for all of my big races before. There wasn't anything at home that I wanted to eat. I spent a few minutes debating between oatmeal and a PB&J, but neither seemed at all appetizing. I knew I needed to eat something so I decided to take the time to swing through town and hit Tim Horton's. I ordered two cinnamon raisin bagels with cream cheese and a large diet coke. It was exactly what I wanted and the caffeine was a needed boost to get me going. I spent a large part of the drive thinking of a plausible excuse for not running, but I didn’t come up with much though. Ultimately I knew that once I got out the door I would be starting the race. It is getting out the door that is always the hardest part for me.

After about twenty minutes of driving, I turned onto a dirt road and soon saw cars with bike racks and 26.2 stickers parked along one side of the road and I knew I was in the right place. I parked, grabbed my stuff and started walking toward the campground where race headquarters was set up. I saw bags lined up in a row along one of the camp roads, so I found a spot for mine and headed toward the pavilion to get my bib. I didn’t have much time until the race started, so I pinned on my bib, put my shoes on and covered myself in Body Glide and bug spray. I made my way toward the road where all of the runners were congregating waiting for the start. I went to the very back of the pack, wanting to keep myself from starting too fast.

And then we were off. The race started with about a quarter mile on a dirt road. I passed a couple of people but didn’t worry about where I was in the pack. I knew over time things would spread out. There were two men running next to me and they were talking about, what else, running. One was saying that he might do the same 50k I had done last summer, so I told him about the course. They asked what distance I was doing and I said that I had registered for the 50 miler, but was “only” doing the 50k. We talked about some local trails and races and then we came up on the trail. There was a bottleneck at the start of the trail and runners were walking. This first section was slow and I was only running short stretches and walking in between. We hit another dirt road, Mark Smith Road, and ran downhill for about a mile. This was honestly the worst part of the entire race for me, especially the second time around. At the bottom I hit the first aid station, the Morgue, but I ran past, turning onto Gorge trail and started up the steep incline. This is a gorgeous section of trail, but it is steep and technical. I took a good spill on this section last summer, so I was careful with my footing. I ended up running next to a woman who works for an agency that serves adults with developmental disabilities. We talked shop as we ran (I work with DD teens). We stayed together for most of the first 8 miles, and our conversation really made the miles pass by quickly.

I did not eat or drink much in the first 8 miles. My hands and fingers swelled quite a bit pretty early in the race. This isn’t typical for me, but there wasn’t really anything else going on, so I just ignored it. I think I ate 3 shot bloks and drank some water. I did stop at the 2nd aid station, South Beach, and saw one of the FLRTC runners, Amy, who threw some encouragement my way! I drank some water and grabbed a handful of pringles. The pringles turned out to be salt and vinegar, which I don’t like, so I tossed them and kept going. We looped back to the same aid station after another 2.5 miles or so and this time I drank more water and grabbed a few chips ahoy cookies.

I lost my running companion at the third aid station and kept going on my own. The trails are all really beautiful and I tried to just enjoy the scenery and watch my footing. The trails in the first half of the race weren’t as muddy as I had expected them to be with the storms on Wednesday and Thursday. My first attempt to run a whole loop of the course was three weeks prior to the race and I started by the Morgue aid station and headed up gorge trail along the course. The trails were so wet and muddy that I was barely moving and I aborted and finished my run on the road. The following week I did a whole loop, and the conditions were much better.

The stretch of trails after the third aid station were familiar and I just did my best to churn out the miles. There were three or four of us who were running close together and once in a while someone would pass me or I’d pass someone, but mostly there wasn’t much going on. I really tried to drink more water, ate some more shot bloks and took 2 clif shot gels. I can’t begin to remember what I was thinking about, except that at one point I wondered if I would remember what I was thinking about after the race. I crossed Mathews Road and came up on the second cow pasture. Growing up on a cow farm, I know that cow pastures can be deceiving, so I took my time and was careful with my footing. It’s so easy to miss a hole and roll your ankle, and I really don’t need any help falling or getting injured.

I hadn’t run on Ravine Trail before my run through of the course three weeks prior, and was again amazed by how beautiful this section is. The trail drops down steeply, and then you start climbing back up. It’s a little deceiving, because after some steep climbing, you hit a short stretch of road, but you have only just begun a long, gradual climb that lasts over three miles with only a short, quarter mile downhill stretch to break it up. Backbone trail is mostly a wider shared-use trail. There were some really muddy sections broken up by stretches of dry trail. The mud was thick, the kind of mud that will suck your shoe right off, so it was always a toss-up on whether to edge around or just plow through. You hit a stretch nicknamed “the oven”. It was a sunny day, so there wasn’t a need to guess where the nickname came from. It’s a mile long gradual climb with no shade cover. At the end of that stretch is the Outback aid station. I was so happy to see this aid station and there was watermelon!!! I took a couple of enduralyte caps because I was having trouble figuring out how I was doing with electrolytes. I had been taking in water and some gels, but my hands and fingers were still a bit swollen. I grabbed some chips ahoy cookies and started through another frustrating uphill section of cow pasture. Which was followed by a frustrating uphill stretch of trail that had a really muddy section every couple hundred feet or so. Finally I turned back onto Interloken trail toward the start/finish area. This is where the leaders from the 25k race passed me. (1 loop of the same course, starting 1.5 hours after the 50k/50m started.) I could hear each one coming and jumped off the trail to let them pass.

This section was frustrating for me because I knew I was almost at the start/finish line area, but I hadn’t run all of this section during my training run, and it felt like it took forever. 

Finally I could hear the commotion of the race headquarters and broke through the woods onto a camp road and crossed the mat at 3:41:44 marking the end of my first loop. I stopped and two wonderful aid station volunteers filled my hydration pack with water. I grabbed some cookies and asked for a Band-Aid and then headed for my drop bag. It took some effort to get my sneakers off because they were caked with mud and it was hard to get the laces loose. But I managed to get them off and peel off my socks. Such relief! I put the Band-Aid on my right heel, which had been rubbing, put on fresh socks and laced up my second pair of clean and dry sneakers. This was one of the best feelings during the race. I was tired and sweaty and dirty, but putting clean and dry socks and sneakers on went a long way to giving me my second wind. I headed out for loop number 2 about four or five minutes after I crossed the mat.

It wasn’t more than a few minutes into the second loop that I knew I was in trouble. My right knee was feeling “twingy”. It wasn’t exactly painful, but I knew that I was likely going to be in pain soon. And then I hit Mark Smith road and I was in pain. I couldn’t run. I tried, but I was in so much pain going downhill that I just couldn’t. That stretch of road felt like it was four or five times longer than it did on the first loop. I started doubting if I could finish the race. I was trying to be somewhat objective about the situation, knowing that I was stubborn enough to keep going to the point of getting seriously injured. I wasn’t sure what to do. I was angry and frustrated with my heel and now with my knee. I was sad about potentially not finishing the race. I was scared about what this might mean for the rest of the season. I was in tears a few times while all of this played through my head. I didn’t know how I’d get back to the start/finish line if I did drop out, since I didn’t have anyone there at the race with me. And I was really bummed about not feeling right about wearing the shirt if I ended up with a DNF, because it was a really cool shirt. I hit the Morgue aid station and this time I stopped. I was really depressed and the wonderful volunteers tried to cheer my up and encourage me, while I grabbed some water and a few more cookies.

Thankfully the next part of the trail was steep and I had walked almost all of it during the first loop. It didn’t do anything to help my mood or outlook, but at least I didn’t feel quite so awful about walking. The trail evened out and I tried to run when I could, but it really wasn’t going well and I was still walking a lot. I was pretty convinced that I was going to have to drop out. I came into the South Beach aid station feeling awful. Amy was there again, offering encouragement, but I could barely talk through my emotions and exhaustion. I accidentally took off the wrong way and it took two people almost yelling at me to get my attention so I got back on track. I tentatively started to run more sections and my knee felt alright. I was walking the tiniest of declines, but for the most part this section was flat or uphill, so I was doing okay and running more than half of the time. This was a great feeling after having walked more than half of the previous 8 or so miles. I came back into the South Beach aid station in much better spirits, feeling pretty sure at this point that I could finish the race. Again I grabbed some water, a few electrolyte caps and some more cookies.

I just kept running. I worked my ass off on the flats and climbs to compensate for walking all of the downhill sections. I ran a lot more of the hills than I had during the first loop, but it just felt great to feel the burn in my legs. It meant that I was running toward the finish line instead of having to drop out because of my knee. My knee actually seemed to get better the longer I ran, as long as I walked the downhill sections. Going downhill on the Ravine Trail just plain sucked because I was walking all of the runnable parts, but once I started climbing again I was happier. I was actually pretty surprised because my Garmin was spitting out splits that were significantly faster than what I was expecting given my heel and knee pain and the amount of walking I was doing compared with the first loop. They were still slow, but just not as slow as I was imagining.

Hitting the pavement again really sucked. I walked about half and then ran the rest of it, finally turning onto Backbone trail. This section just sucked. I was able to run almost the entire section, but I just wanted to hit the Outback aid station and then the finish line. I just put my head down and ran. I spent the last 6 miles trying to figure out my splits and whether I would be hitting the finish line just under or just over the 7:30:00 mark. This is usually how I get through the last miles of any long race. I am pretty good at doing math in my head generally speaking, but once I start running, my ability to do math is pretty much gone. I couldn’t even remember for sure if our race had started at 6 or 6:30.

It seemed to take forever to get to the Outback aid station. I thought I was almost there at one point because I had seen something red or orange a ways up ahead, but it must have been another runner, because it still took a good 5 minutes to get there. I scarfed down three or four slices of watermelon, stuff two more cookies in my pocket, and grabbed two more slices of watermelon to eat while I made my way through the last section of cow pasture. From that last gate until the finish line, it was on. I was determined to finish strong. There is a half mile gradual climb until I turned onto the Interloken trail and I only slowed to walk when I had to in order to get through the worst of the mud. The stretch of Interloken trail is really technical, with a lot of roots and quite a few stretches of boardwalk that had lose boards. Some of the muddy sections of trail had improved from my first loop with so many people packing it down. But the boardwalks were really slick with mud. I was completely present in the moment and focused on the trail, carefully placing each foot. I was so exhausted and I really, really did not want to trip on a root in this last stretch before the finish. Just after I turned onto the Interloken trail I passed one of the guys that I ran with at the very beginning of the race. He asked if I was going to keep going for a third loop and I said “hell no!” I just powered on focused only on running across the finish line. I wound around the ponds and through some more twisty, technical trail before finally hearing, and then seeing, the finish line.

I crossed in 7:46:05, which put my second loop at 4:04:21.

I was so happy and relieved to cross the finish line. It was an amazing feeling, especially because I had spent so much of the second loop in pain and wondering if I would even be able to finish. I was exhausted and the moment I stopped running my entire body went stiff. I wasn’t very with it and just kind of stumbled over to my drop bag. I just knew that I needed to get my hydration pack and my sneakers off immediately. My shoulders were sore and my feet were sick of being wet and muddy.

When I changed sneakers between loops, I just tossed my shoes and socks on the ground next to my bag. In the four hours it took me to get back, about a dozen slugs had made their way onto and into my shoes and socks. It was kind of gross and I hadn’t really anticipated having to flick slugs off my shoes when I finished. Once I got my flip flops on, I stiffly stumbled back toward the finish line and got a root beer and a cheeseburger. They both tasted amazing. I hung around for a while and then started gathering my energy to make it back to my car and head home.