I finished my first 50 miler this past weekend! 12 hrs and 52 minutes at the Lighthouse 50 in Petoskey Michigan.
It wasn’t pretty, but it got done!
60k went well! 8.5 hours into the race I was feeling good. I got into a groove at 50k rocking out to Meatloaf! After 60k things started to go South.
Prior to the race I was concerned I was at the wrong place to catch the shuttle to the start line. Chalk it up to nerves. After the 50 minute ride with the other 7 uncrewed runners we arrived at the start line.
When we were given the go ahead to run literally everyone passed me – it took everything in me to check my ego and run at my planned heart rate.
I was able to keep my heart rate somewhat where I wanted but every time I ran it jumped to 155bpm or higher so i was a bit bummed about this. But the amount of hills gave me time to walk and bring down my heart rate.
The first half of the race was very enjoyable, the scenery was beautiful, my nutrition and hydration went exactly as planned and I really enjoyed myself. It was daylight and 15 degrees – only a bit of rain showered on us for a short period of time.
At the 60k mark I developed pretty good feet issues – blisters and it seems like a water logged bunch of skin on the balls of my feet and heels. Every step became painful and running was out of the question. And then the sun went down.
The darkness swallowed all remnants of heat and it got cold. I had luckily changed what was in my backpack and brought a thicker coat (which I cursed until that point because it was bulkier to carry).
I am the most happy with the 60k but I am the most proud of the final 20k in which I had blisters, had to walk, was cold, and basically didn’t see anyone for hours at a time – I wanted to stop. I learned a valuable lesson about the difference between ‘I don’t want to’ and ‘I can’t’.