Resolution Run 2019

Another running year in the books! Here is the link to the 2018 post, which has the link to all my running year in review posts. I will preface my post with the usual explanation of what and why.
What is this and why the heck do I do it? This was a new years resolution that started in 2013. I decided to run at least 1 race each month to keep me accountable to running and in shape. In 2014, Erica joined my team and I began to run 4 Erica! I run 4 is amazing and I love what it has done for my buddy, myself and thousands of others who are members of IRun4! Learn about IRun4 HERE.
This year was INSANE! I have never ran so many miles or accomplished so many goals in a year. I ran TWO 100 mile ultras this year! And I am only about 55 miles away from hitting 2019 miles in 2019. I had no idea that would ever be possible for me. I didn't set out to do that either! I just happened to look at my miles halfway through the year to see where I was. I normally aim to run at least a1000 miles a year. So to hit this goal is just crazy awesome! I can't wait to blog all the amazing races I participated in this year, 24 races total! I have already written 2 posts on my hundreds. You can recap those here: Umstead 100 and Yeti 100. I will break down my year of racing, by month, below. I am again beyond thankful for such amazing running friends, both old and new!
...And next year? Well... I know I have another 100 up my sleeve so I can put in for Western States again (the ultimate 100). As for anything else exciting? I wanna pass nursing school! 😉

January:  This is highest mileage month I have ever had. I hit over 300 miles this January. I was training very intensely for my first 100 mile ultra.

*Red Nose Half
*Fat Ass 50K
*Mt. Mist 50K

I ran the Red Nose by myself this year. It is a free half marathon in Columbus that I usually participate in every year. The river was flooded and they had a course change this year, making it my fastest half marathon ever! 1:54

Next up was the Atlanta Fat Ass 50k. This is another free race I participate in each year at Sweetwater Creek State Park. It is free for GUTS members. This was my PR for a 50K as well.  I finished in 6:49/

Mt. Mist 50k. This was an excellent 50K in Alabama at the beautiful Monte Sano State Park. They have pretty strict time cut off's for this 50K so we were definitely booking it! I got to run this one with Barbra and Dave. It is a beautiful course and I really enjoyed this one! Time was 7:14.

I adore this picture. It was taken by the Mountain Mist photographers. Barb didn't quite make cut off, but she was there waiting for me with a hug and pictures!

This race gets hand painted plaques for finishers, they are just beautiful!

February: 

*Huff and Puff Half Marathon

*Cloudland Canyon 50K

*Cloudand Canyon Half Marathon

*Thrill in the Hills 50K

*Mt. Cheaha 50K

This is the only pic I can find from Huff and Puff this year! I volunteered at the beginning of the race, then ran the half marathon. I was having so much fun I must of forgot to take pics! I love Revolution Running and always enjoy this event!

A pic of me and Jessica from the race photographers at Huff and Puff.

Next up, Run Bum's Cloudland Canyon  Half Marathon and 50k! Yes, I did both, back to back days. Remember? I was training for my 100.. which turns out I over-trained.. but that is another story.

Got to run the first half of the 50K with my friend David Dodd!

This race is just beautiful. Cloudland Canyon is a gorgeous Georgia State Park, and Sean- the RD makes sure you see ALL the beauty there is to see at these races!

I ran the half the next day with my best friend Stacy. It was rainy and the views were foggy, but we still had an excellent time!

Thrill in the Hills 50K! Can't say this was the best race in the world, but I sure can say it was one of the most important races of 2019. I say that because I met a true sole sister on the trail that day. I don't think our paths crossed by chance either. I met my wonderful friend Arabelle at Thrill in the Hills and we just had the best time that day! We clicked and have spent many hours on the trail together since that day. 

I have no idea what we were laughing at, but we ALWAYS smile when we run together!

This was our 7th annual Hot Chocolate 15k! We always do the Hot Chocolate and we always have a great time. Even if it pours or it's cold.. or whatever other crazy weather event happens!

Mt. Cheaha 50K was a blast! I did this one alone. It was at Mt. Cheaha State Park in Alabama and is part of the Pinhoti Trail. I had a great time at this race and really enjoyed the views.

The race finished at the top of Mt. Cheaha. A few days after the race, I got to go on my favorite running podcast and do a recap of the race. (East Coast Trail and Ultra)

 March:
*Yeti 7/11
*Jogging for Jude
*Widowmaker

The Yeti 7/11 is a super fun race! It's more like a friend gathering than a race. There is 7 hour and an 11 hour option. You basically run a 4 mile loop as many times as you can in the 11 hours, and eat all the junk food one can hold over the course of that 11 hours. It was a blast! A day with the Yeti Army is always fun!

Jogging for Jude benefits a local family and their children who have Down Syndrome. This is always a favorite of mine!

The Widowmaker was a new race this year for Revolution Running. It was also an hourly race with a 5k option. I was only able to run a couple of loops because this was right before my 100. I hope to run the whole 12 hour race next year!

April:
*Umstead 100

Umstead 100, it has its very own blog post you can find HERE. But, here a few of my favorite pics from the weekend!

May:
*Peach Jam Half
*Monastery 8k (turned 5k)

After a month long recovery from Umstead, I slowly got the use of my foot back. My first race back was the Dirty Spokes Peach Jam half. We have done this race before and really enjoy it. It is ran entirely on boardwalks through the Big Creek Greenway. 

Every year, there is always that one race. The one that brings monsoons, and lighting and all sorts of other crazy weather...  and this would be it! It started out just fine, notice in the pic all the smiling happy faces...

But notice in the background what happens as soon as the race began! Me and Arabelle decide to say f!@# it and we dropped down to the 5K and ran our assess off back to the Monastery for shelter!!

July:
*Peachtree Road Race
*Merrill's Mile

My 7th Peachtree Road Race!

Merrill's Mile is a 1 mile loop ran for time- they offer a 6 hour, 12 hour, 24 hour or 48 hour. I chose to run the 24 in hopes of hitting 100k in prep for Yeti 100. 

Me and Barbra running circles all day in the heat. At least the view was nice!

August: 
H9 50 Mile

Oh the infamous H9. This race was freaking killer. Literally. It took over 19 hours to finish on some of the most difficult trails in the state of Georgia. I had no idea what I was in for when I signed up for this race. Thank God I hooked up this wonderful group of people and we toughed it out together! This is what it is all about. I pushed mt body hard and when it didn't want to continue, my group pushed it on along. So as much as I hated this race, I loved it just the same. 

We finally finished, about 1:45 am

September:
Yeti Snakebite 50K
Yeti 100

Such a fun day on the trail at Snakebite that day. Arabelle and I had a wonderful time and ended up with good times!

Southside repping at the Snakebite

My awesome goodies from the Yeti 100

You can find all the details from the Yeti 100 in the blog post I wrote HERE

October:

Cammo Catfish Crawl 12 hour

Jack-O-Lantern Jog 5k

Me and my long lost trail sister!

Somehow, I ended up doing a 50K at this. It was the weekend after Yeti and I was spent! The race had an excellent cause and benefited my friend Arabelle's trans con run she is attempting next year! Even though I was exhausted, I still had a good time and even talked Dave into a 200... maybe. 

A little pit stop every few miles.. lol

Annual Jack Jog... this benefits my sisters school and the kids love to participate in it every year.

The kids came in DFL.. on purpose. HA!

November:

*Tough Turkey Half

Each year my sister and I add a piece to our costume! This is the only race I dress up for.

This race benefits the Griffin Run Club that our church is a part of. 

December:

*Pine Mountain 46 Mile

Oh how sweet revenge is. I attempted the 46 last year, but the weather was just horrible and I dropped down to the 19 mile. This year the weather was just perfect! The course was hard as hell, but I finished!

I got to watch the sun rise and sun set on the trail! It was a beautiful day!

Finished 3rd place female, this is a tough race so not many finishers here. 

The Yeti 100

    I had not intended to run TWO 100 milers this year... although that is exactly what happened. I had entered the lottery for the Yeti 100 just in case I wasn't successful at Umstead. I needed a backup plan of redemption. So I registered for the lottery and just like that my card was charge and I was in! Oh crap. So now I am registered for TWO hundo's. What the heck was I thinking? I guess I wasn't. So in January I began training and didn't stop. You can follow all that happened leading up to the Umstead 100 here: Umstead
    After Umstead I was busted for over a month. The tendon injury I sustained from that race had me riding the bench for over 4 weeks. It sucked. After time I was able to get back out there though and start running again. I had worried about the Yeti 100. I did NOT want what happened to my foot at Umstead to happen at Yeti. I had already decided that if it got that bad during the race I would just drop.
A major difference between the two races was the training. I trained so hard for Umstead. I did everything just right because I wanted so badly to be successful. And I was, sort of. I mean, I finished the damn thing! But for Yeti I just didn't really train. I had 2 long runs- a 50 mile mountain run and a timed track 100K. I threw in a few 50k's and called it a day! My weekly mileage was 25 miles, on a good week. So basically I went in under-trained.
    As time ticked closer I got more and more nervous about the race. I am right in the middle of nursing school, and at the time of registration I THOUGHT I would not be in school AT ALL in September, but as God would have it... I am. Which is really a great thing how it all worked out, but it was definitely not a good thing for this race. The race always starts on a Friday at 7 am. I knew I had lab all day, until 4 pm on Thursday and that Damascus is about a 7 hour drive. So I decided to cash in a few sky-miles and just fly. I had reserved a rental and my sweet friends let me sleep on the couch of their Air bnb rental. Things looked like they may work out. Then, the weekend before the race I got a call that my brother-in-law was killed in a car accident. Now don't get me wrong, I love all my brother-in-laws (and I have way more than most people because of my husband being a foster kid), but this particular brother-in-law had my heart. He was my favorite. It was very difficult for me to grieve the loss of my wonderful Ryan. I had so much going on.. I never sleep, never get a free moment to breath, much less a free moment to think of anything other than being a mom/wife and nursing student. I was even more unsure about attending the race. The funeral services were up in the air and I didn't want to leave my family.
    When memorial service plans were finalized, I made the decision to carry on with the race. I had already spent the money and skymiles and had things arranged so... I left school in scrubs and drove straight to the airport to catch a 7 pm flight. I made it to Damascus about 9:30 pm and managed to get in bed by 10:30 pm. We had to be up at 4:30 am so I didn't get a whole of sleep, but I did rest some.
    Morning of, we drove to the finish line to board shuttles to the start, over 30 miles away. 30 curvy, twisty, car sick miles away. By the time we got to Whitetop to the top of the Creeper Trail I wanted to puke. I started the race with my fellow southside peeps. Barbra, CJ and I ran the first 10 to 15 miles together. I had a terrible start to the race. I felt awful. Everything on my body hurt from mile 10 on. I had diarrhea for the first 60 miles of the race. I had to take Advil 25 miles in. I sat down on a rock at mile 20 and wanted to quit. I text my pacer and told her she probably shouldn't come. My foot hurt, my body hurt, I had pooped 50 times, I was tired, I was in a terrible mood... I just wanted to quit. I knew I was in a bad mental space before I even started the race. These physical ailments are no worse than the ailments I had dealt with a million times before running, but when your head game is off.. it is damn near impossible to run an ultra. Ultra running is 50% training and 50% mental.. maybe even 25% training and 75% mental. I had messaged my oh so wise running buddy David the night before and asked him for some prayers because I knew my head wasn't right.
    I felt those prayers about 25 miles in. I was forced to move from the rock I had sat down and had my mental breakdown on... mainly because it was in the middle of no where and I had to at least get back to a road. I met a trail buddy about this time who had attempted Yeti the year before and DNF'd at mile 50. He was back for revenge. He helped take my mind off of the task at hand and pulled me out of the funk I was in. I cleared my head and refocused my mental game and by the time I came back through Damascus at mile 50... it was game on. I knew I had my Arabelle waiting for me at mile 56, with a big ole' cheeseburger too 😀
    When I picked up my pacer, Arabelle things just got better and better. We had some 12 and 13 min miles through the night, ran UP most of the way to Whitetop and of course had some awesome conversations. Luckily we happened to catch up with my friend Elaine who saved my stomach and had some Imodium to END the poop nightmare I was in. I had a crazy attack of hives at some point around 2 am and had to fight through, without benadryl. I knew if I took my benadryl I would be curled up in a ball on the side of the trail. So I resisted the urge to scratch and just kept running.
    I usually don't have any issues running at night, but this race just continued to break the mold... I was so sleepy. I had a very hard time fighting the sleepy feeling. Multiple times I would close my eyes mid stride. I just had to keep fighting the urge. At 6:30 am we had also decided the sun had disappeared forever and was never coming up. I didn't realize that sunrise in Damascus in September is at 7:20. Longest. Night. Of. My. Life.
    But.. the sun did come up, and my legs continued to move and things were good. We stayed on a steady run 2 walk 1 all the way to the finish. Had I not had my pacer and favorite running chick with me those last 44 miles I would of been toast.
    So.. the aftermath? Well, I feel really good. My toes are pretty banged up, but other than that.. not much to complain about. I had such a horrible time last 100 with the aftermath I was concerned about it this time. But, when my foot starting hurting 20 miles in, I realized that the gators and compression sleeves were the culprit. I fully believe that this would of made a big difference in Umstead. I ripped those suckers off and didn't have another issue the rest of the race! I am very thankful I was able to push through this time and get the finish. There is nothing any better than a big Jason Green hug at the finish line and a huge shiny buckle!
    I don't know when I will attempt another 100, with schooling and life right now, I may have to wait a couple of years... but then again, if I get the itch.. I may just jump on in.

The best Yeti swag! Including an awesome skateboard!

Bright and early at the start in Whitetop with Barbra and CJ

A pumpkin patch we ran by

Grilled ham and cheese for the win!

My MOST favorite person to run with in the WHOLE WORLD

Almost to the finish

My hug!

Checking out that buckle

My girl and me with that awesome finish! I have the best pacer in the world :)

Had to wear all my swag to school Monday