Hell's Hills 2022 race report.
Second year of doing Hell's Hills, aka what has become A Race To Get Me Off the Damn Greenbelt.
I wanted to do a supported trail run, and Coach Nicolas said to go do 30-40k at HH. I figured I'd sign up for the 25k like last year, then run extra at the end. Then Trista was jealous that I was going to do a fun event, so she went and signed up for a 12 hour race, where Nicolas told her to do 40-50k. And she ended up doing 50k, so then *I* was jealous, so I changed my registration to the 50k.
Meanwhile I'd done one very, very slow, very, very hilly 18 miler on the Appalachian trail 2 months ago, and another 30k at the Maze a month ago. I was a little undertrained. But also have been training my ass off for a long time now, so I hoped I could fake it.
I headed out solo for this one, ready for a long slow day where my only goals were to finish 50k if it was smart, not fall down, not otherwise hurt myself, and try to have fun.
They introduced some new trails to this venue, which was exciting. What was less exciting was the temps starting at 60 degrees and ending at 85 degrees, full sun all day, about half of each loop fully exposed.
I was already warm starting out on loop 1. But loop 1 was good. A great course, lots of wildflowers in the field sections, lots of windy forest trails, lots of seeing other people on other parts of the trail ahead or behind you. I made sure to take it super easy, because I wanted to minimize my positive splits as much as I could. I didn't end up stopping at either of the 2 aid stations on the first 10 mile loop, and only finished one of my bottles.
The main negative of loop 1 was that I was not at ALL in the "run all day" mindset. I was in the "just want to get this over with" mindset, which is an unfortunate place to be in the first 10 miles of a 30 mile run.
But I got through the first loop, refilled my one bottle, grabbed 3 more gels (I was eating a gel every 40 minutes, taking 1 salt pill every hour), grabbed a chunk of pickle from the aid station, and headed back out before I could think about it.
Loop 2! The mentally tough one.
Things went well at first, other than it being very warm at this point. I started drinking a LOT more water. After not stopping at all in the first loop, I stopped and refilled one bottle at every aid station for the second and third loops.
After the first aid station on the second loop, I was running along and suddenly caught my toe on a something. No idea what. Pitched forward, it felt like I was stumbling for 30 seconds, then ultimately caught myself. Which is good news for my face, hands, etc, but bad news for my hamstring, which I stretched out way too much in my attempted fall. This was my "good" hamstring. Not the left one, that has been a sporadic problem for years, but my right one, which briefly decided it was problematic a couple years ago, but has largely been behaving itself. I'm not sure whether that's good news or bad news.
It sucked, but it was mostly just briefly painful and scary. But THEN about 2 minutes later, during the weird muddy section, I tripped again. Again didn't fall, but again stretched the shit out of my right hamstring.
THIS time it really hurt. So much that I started walking, assessing whether this was going to be a problem and a potential race-breaker. I could walk, and so I knew I could make it back to the start/finish line, but should I do a third loop if it kept feeling like this, or was that just being dumb to consider it?
Fortunately after about 2 minutes of easy walking to test it, I felt okay to try running, and after about 30 seconds of very lopsided running, I was able to settle back into a rhythm that didn't feel like I was jacking everything in my body up by compensating.
But I knew then that if I was going to finish out the next 1.5 loops, I could NOT do that again. So I decided to be super, super, super careful for the rest of the race. I slowed WAY down. I was still running, but barely leaning forward at all. Tiny short steps (even for me), staring at the ground constantly, so cautious.
And, spoiler, I never had a bad trip again. I stumbled a few times, and berated myself, but nothing that hurt my hamstring or any other body part other than one time I bashed some of my right toes. It's fine.
So I finished the second loop with extreme caution and no other badness, refilled my one water bottle again, restocked gu, and headed back out for One More Loop.
Garmin called the loop a little shorter than advertised, but even at the 19ish miles it claimed, I was well over my longest run since.. Mirage 50k self-supported run during the beginning of covid? Maybe so.
But still feeling okay to keep running, even if it was stupidly, stupidly hot and sunny at this point.
Third loop started out behind a guy who I caught up to, then he started walking up a hill. He asked if I wanted to pass, but I thought walking up that hill was a darn fine idea, so I stayed behind him, and we chatted for a few minutes while running and walking together. Then that was just too much social interaction for me given how I felt at that time, and he was going a liiiittle bit faster than I wanted to go, so I fell back and spent the next few miles basically just right behind him, but out of chatting range. He kept me motivated, but I just couldn't hold up a conversation at that point.
Had another social interaction when a guy came up behind me and slowed to my pace to talk to me. He had clearly just fallen recently, because he had blood dripping down his leg into his shoe, and on his forearm. I think he was still pretty freaked out, and just needed someone to commiserate, which I did, because I completely understood that need. Eventually he calmed down enough to take off and run his own, much faster, race. He was the third person I KNEW of that had fallen, though, having seen two other people just ahead of me earlier fall. And then I saw another guy at an aid station with his arm in a sling. Rough day out on the trail. And that's on TOP of the weather, which was clearly also taking its toll on a lot of people.
So I just stayed cautious, walked more hills as the sun and the temperatures got higher, and told myself to BE SMART. And that got me through the rest of the race. That and basically talking out loud to myself about how I was going to make it, the last 3 or so miles of the loop, which seemed interminable. Those damn mountain bike climbs and descents with the boards and the chicken wire. Ugh.
Finished in just over 7 hours, definitely not my fastest 50k, but also not my slowest, and other than the heat, feeling pretty okay. My garmin also purported that it was only just over 29 miles, which is not 50k, but also I did not care. Maybe it's the garmin not able to find satellites in the trees, maybe it really was only 29 miles, that's still as many miles as I needed for training, and I'm very happy with my race and my performance.
And I'm VERY VERY happy with the day after, where in the past I've been unable to run the day after a 50k, and stairs are difficult. Sunday I woke up and swam 5000 yards and it felt fine, and I never had any real DOMS or appreciable soreness. So maybe my most successful 50k, as far as post-race feeling goes.
And then straight back into training for Otillo Swimrun World Championships!
I wanted to do a supported trail run, and Coach Nicolas said to go do 30-40k at HH. I figured I'd sign up for the 25k like last year, then run extra at the end. Then Trista was jealous that I was going to do a fun event, so she went and signed up for a 12 hour race, where Nicolas told her to do 40-50k. And she ended up doing 50k, so then *I* was jealous, so I changed my registration to the 50k.
Meanwhile I'd done one very, very slow, very, very hilly 18 miler on the Appalachian trail 2 months ago, and another 30k at the Maze a month ago. I was a little undertrained. But also have been training my ass off for a long time now, so I hoped I could fake it.
I headed out solo for this one, ready for a long slow day where my only goals were to finish 50k if it was smart, not fall down, not otherwise hurt myself, and try to have fun.
They introduced some new trails to this venue, which was exciting. What was less exciting was the temps starting at 60 degrees and ending at 85 degrees, full sun all day, about half of each loop fully exposed.
I was already warm starting out on loop 1. But loop 1 was good. A great course, lots of wildflowers in the field sections, lots of windy forest trails, lots of seeing other people on other parts of the trail ahead or behind you. I made sure to take it super easy, because I wanted to minimize my positive splits as much as I could. I didn't end up stopping at either of the 2 aid stations on the first 10 mile loop, and only finished one of my bottles.
The main negative of loop 1 was that I was not at ALL in the "run all day" mindset. I was in the "just want to get this over with" mindset, which is an unfortunate place to be in the first 10 miles of a 30 mile run.
But I got through the first loop, refilled my one bottle, grabbed 3 more gels (I was eating a gel every 40 minutes, taking 1 salt pill every hour), grabbed a chunk of pickle from the aid station, and headed back out before I could think about it.
Loop 2! The mentally tough one.
Things went well at first, other than it being very warm at this point. I started drinking a LOT more water. After not stopping at all in the first loop, I stopped and refilled one bottle at every aid station for the second and third loops.
After the first aid station on the second loop, I was running along and suddenly caught my toe on a something. No idea what. Pitched forward, it felt like I was stumbling for 30 seconds, then ultimately caught myself. Which is good news for my face, hands, etc, but bad news for my hamstring, which I stretched out way too much in my attempted fall. This was my "good" hamstring. Not the left one, that has been a sporadic problem for years, but my right one, which briefly decided it was problematic a couple years ago, but has largely been behaving itself. I'm not sure whether that's good news or bad news.
It sucked, but it was mostly just briefly painful and scary. But THEN about 2 minutes later, during the weird muddy section, I tripped again. Again didn't fall, but again stretched the shit out of my right hamstring.
THIS time it really hurt. So much that I started walking, assessing whether this was going to be a problem and a potential race-breaker. I could walk, and so I knew I could make it back to the start/finish line, but should I do a third loop if it kept feeling like this, or was that just being dumb to consider it?
Fortunately after about 2 minutes of easy walking to test it, I felt okay to try running, and after about 30 seconds of very lopsided running, I was able to settle back into a rhythm that didn't feel like I was jacking everything in my body up by compensating.
But I knew then that if I was going to finish out the next 1.5 loops, I could NOT do that again. So I decided to be super, super, super careful for the rest of the race. I slowed WAY down. I was still running, but barely leaning forward at all. Tiny short steps (even for me), staring at the ground constantly, so cautious.
And, spoiler, I never had a bad trip again. I stumbled a few times, and berated myself, but nothing that hurt my hamstring or any other body part other than one time I bashed some of my right toes. It's fine.
So I finished the second loop with extreme caution and no other badness, refilled my one water bottle again, restocked gu, and headed back out for One More Loop.
Garmin called the loop a little shorter than advertised, but even at the 19ish miles it claimed, I was well over my longest run since.. Mirage 50k self-supported run during the beginning of covid? Maybe so.
But still feeling okay to keep running, even if it was stupidly, stupidly hot and sunny at this point.
Third loop started out behind a guy who I caught up to, then he started walking up a hill. He asked if I wanted to pass, but I thought walking up that hill was a darn fine idea, so I stayed behind him, and we chatted for a few minutes while running and walking together. Then that was just too much social interaction for me given how I felt at that time, and he was going a liiiittle bit faster than I wanted to go, so I fell back and spent the next few miles basically just right behind him, but out of chatting range. He kept me motivated, but I just couldn't hold up a conversation at that point.
Had another social interaction when a guy came up behind me and slowed to my pace to talk to me. He had clearly just fallen recently, because he had blood dripping down his leg into his shoe, and on his forearm. I think he was still pretty freaked out, and just needed someone to commiserate, which I did, because I completely understood that need. Eventually he calmed down enough to take off and run his own, much faster, race. He was the third person I KNEW of that had fallen, though, having seen two other people just ahead of me earlier fall. And then I saw another guy at an aid station with his arm in a sling. Rough day out on the trail. And that's on TOP of the weather, which was clearly also taking its toll on a lot of people.
So I just stayed cautious, walked more hills as the sun and the temperatures got higher, and told myself to BE SMART. And that got me through the rest of the race. That and basically talking out loud to myself about how I was going to make it, the last 3 or so miles of the loop, which seemed interminable. Those damn mountain bike climbs and descents with the boards and the chicken wire. Ugh.
Finished in just over 7 hours, definitely not my fastest 50k, but also not my slowest, and other than the heat, feeling pretty okay. My garmin also purported that it was only just over 29 miles, which is not 50k, but also I did not care. Maybe it's the garmin not able to find satellites in the trees, maybe it really was only 29 miles, that's still as many miles as I needed for training, and I'm very happy with my race and my performance.
And I'm VERY VERY happy with the day after, where in the past I've been unable to run the day after a 50k, and stairs are difficult. Sunday I woke up and swam 5000 yards and it felt fine, and I never had any real DOMS or appreciable soreness. So maybe my most successful 50k, as far as post-race feeling goes.
And then straight back into training for Otillo Swimrun World Championships!