Don’t worry, this is not a super personal or revealing post about my comfort zones! If you read this blog, you know I am a big runner and I have been running for ages.
Last year, I saw a posting about the North Country Run which is a 1/2 marathon, marathon and 50 mile run all on trails in Michigan. Stacy and I decided it would be fun, but it was already sold out. When the registration opened, we signed up for the half marathon and recruited Kristin and Emily to join us. Then we saw another race in Michigan that looked cool called the Michigan Wine Trail Half on Sunday of the same weekend. Ironically, this is a road half marathon that is run on the Michigan Wine Trail (route). This would fall squarely in my comfort zone, except it is the day after this trail half that is reputedly very challenging. Although I have run many marathons, I had never run back to back half marathons in a weekend.
We signed up for these races ages ago and promptly ignored the idea of back to back half marathons (something none of us had done) and trail training. Both races are hilly and difficult especially since we live in Chicago which is flat as a pancake. So… I promptly ignored this challenge until a week or 2 before and then got nervous about it. But, it was too late to train trails. We did do some hills. I just decided it was what it was and went with the intention of having fun with the challenge.
Kristin picked us up and we had a relaxing trip up to Cadillac. Oh, I forgot to mention a girl was mauled by a bear while (wait for it) running last week in Cadillac. Truly. Between that, the ticks and hills, we were pretty wound up. We stopped in Holland, MI and were told by a running store employee that the trail run was pretty much impossible. Uh, OK. We went to dinner at a place called Timbers which is filled with bear paraphernalia. It was delish and they were really helpful with my dietary restrictions, too.
We got up bright and early and headed to the park in Wellston which was 40 minutes drive. We arrived as the marathon and 50 miler were starting and thanked our lucky stars that we were doing only a half! We posed for pics, did a shake out jog and peed in the woods. Since only Kristin had done a trail half before, we asked for last minute pointers.
The majority of the race is on single track trails. We all agreed the point was to finish and have fun. The start was a quick flat loop on hard packed trail. Easy. Then we got to the single track. I moved ahead of a large group and settled behind a fit, shirtless guy in green shorts. We learned his name was Jason. He was a good pacer and strong on the hills. We soon caught up to another woman and were running as 3. We passed a marathoner who was standing on the side. She said that the woman in our lead “first woman”. Um, what?!? Then Kristin joined us. And the first woman pulled ahead again. Kristin and I ran patiently behind Jason until mile 6 or 7. I had no GPS watch and no idea of pace or distance. Note to self: bring GPS watch next time! I told Kristin what the runner told us and that she should go for it. She did and was soon out of sight. I passed Jason, too.
I may have struck too soon. I kept woman #2, Nancy, in sight and ran up a large hill. At the top, I caught my foot in a root and fell hard to the right. Not too much damage, but I was worried that I may have broken my pinky finger. I didn’t. I tried to dust off some sand and kept going. I still had no concept of how far we were but I was at about 1:15 in. The second half is rolling and there were some great downhills which are normally my strength. I kept hitting twigs, ruts and roots so I had to reign in the downhill. I fell twice more. I was getting tired. I kept up with Nancy and a few guys caught us. I never passed her except at one point when there was some course confusion.
Finally we were told there was a half mile to go and I did my best. Nancy had me, but I was 3rd woman overall and Kristin was the 1st woman!!! Nancy is my age so I did not win masters, but I did win my age group. Stacy came through right after and won her AG, too!
We cheered for other runners, did a cool down and waited an interminable amount of time for awards. The other runners were so nice. We chatted with Nancy and her husband, Jason and his friend, Dan, and our new friend, Becky. I cheered in Maggie and Sara who were running, too. (See Maggie’s race report here.) There was an award mix up, but we settled it, got our awards, took some pics and hit the road triumphantly.
We took a meandering trip south to Stephensville to prepare for race #2. This involved a pool, hot tub, ice, food and wine and a lot of nervous chatter. My foot was suddenly killing me out of nowhere. I think it was related to the ankle rolling on the trails. I longed for my comfort zone, but was stoic. Well, stoic-ish!
We woke up at 5:23 and got going. My foot seemed OK and I was feeling not too sore. Everyone was a bit stiff! We had no real plan. Just run. Secretly, I was hoping to keep my sub 1:40 streak alive. The course is listed as “challenging” and hilly, but how bad could it be?
The race was about 500 people in the vineyards in southwest Michigan. You didn’t know they made wine there? Me either. The girls did but they did not know about the trail and number of vineyards.
They held the race 15 minutes for the porta potty line and people were impatient. We just wanted to start the madness again! And we were off. Stacy and I ran together through mile 9 or so. The course was rolling hills and it was in fact challenging! It was also beautiful. We thought we saw a stray dog being rounded up, but it was actually a goat! We have never seen that before in a race – our first goat roping!
Stacy and another girl we ran with got ahead and I tried to focus on form and keep my spirits up. The last two miles were supposed to be downhill. Not exactly! I did my best and no one passed me. I looked at my watch and realized I had little chance of breaking 1:40. I kept on and high fived our friend Phlip and his boys and kicked it in for a respectable 1:40.42 finish. Kristin was not far behind.
Since this was a pretty small race and we all ran well, we all got awards! I was 2nd masters female. Stacy and Kristin were second in their age groups. I won a decanter, but it was lost. Oops! The girls won cute decanters and we got wine glasses and some nice wine at the race too. Lots of “hardware”, I mean glassware! They ran out of medals, too, so I gave mine to a first time finisher who nearly cried from gratitude. That made my day, too!
This weekend and these performances far outweighed my expectations. Life outside of my comfort zone turned out to be pretty awesome. The gals and I had the right attitude and had a blast. We tried new things, won a bunch of unexpected awards and met fun people. We took our time getting to places and stopped a bunch to get and do things we wanted to. Â In a word, this weekend was fantastic. I highly recommend stepping out of the comfort zone!
What have you been wanting to try?
And now, a nap, some food and an epsom salt bath – my return to the comfort zone begins!
Oh –  North Country Run opens tomorrow (8/26) at 10 AM EST for 2014 registration – who’s in?