This post is the summation of three events that took place this summer: Beaverhead 100k in Idaho, a 30-mile runventure with the Bee Team, and finally, my third running of the Georgia Jewel 50 miler. One ripped me apart, one boosted me up, and the other makes me want to grab a glass of wine and scroll through Ultrasignup until I sign up for something that I will later regret (and then not regret 24 hours after it’s over).
BEAVERHEAD 100k, Salmon, ID
Beaverhead 100k in Salmon, Idaho is known for its rugged beauty and its insanely technical scree and wobbly boulder fields. But also for a super cool license plate that I could not wait to put on my new Subaru (sorry minivan, but you’re cramping my newly single vibe!). To each their own goal! I’m writing this over two months after the event, and I’ve blacked out much of the horror that unfolded, so what remains are just a few takeaways.
Initially Lauren and Rebecca and I planned to race this together, but ultimately Lauren couldn’t make it, but Rebecca and I borrowed Lauren’s lucky white long sleeve shirts she donned for Cocodona 250 when she scored second lady – so she was kind of with us – in an old smelly shirt kind of way. I had been at 5,000-9,000 feet for the week leading up to the race that would go as high as 12,000, and I’d been training in the sweltering heat and humidity of the South – so I thought I’d be okay with the altitude. As soon as the race started, I felt like I was running straight up hill – which I was not. It took me about eight miles to get my breathing under control and during that time, I totally lost Rebecca – because she’s super fast.
When the sun came up, I saw that this was the most beautiful course I’d ever run. The long-range views, the 500,000 (or close enough) different wildflowers, the fields of green – it was all so breathtaking. And then it got really, really hot. I was still beautiful, but now we got to the burnt forest that was exposed to the scorching sun that seemed to go on forever and the horse flies and mosquitoes that were relentless in their chase. This race was a typical Holly ultra until…until the scree. So I’ve heard about the scree and seen pictures of the scree over the years. It was not as advertised. First of all, right before I got to that section, the weather started to get dicey and then dicey-er. Rain, wind, cold, thunder and lightning. As I approached the scree, I bolt of lightning had struck an adjacent mountain and fire rescue was going back and forth trying to extinguish it. Then we get to snowy patches. Snowy patches that are on the edge of a 1,000+ foot drop into a glacial cirque. Then it was never ending, as in it almost went on FOREVER. You would reach one peak and expect to cut left to go straight down the mountain, but no. Up, up you went. The already treacherous wobbly boulders were now slick.
Little Holly Adams was beyond freaked out at this point. I hunkered down in between some slippery rocks while I completely lost my mind. A female runner was moving quickly by (weirdo) and I yelled out to her (true story): Hey, are you a mom?? No, she replied. So I say: I can’t believe they let moms run this!! (now who’s the weirdo). Total freak show. Some nice 20-somethings saved me from myself and got me to the start of the downhill where I start to vomitomitvomit. Finally I felt good enough to go down a deer trail that would be unfit for any other pedestrian except for ultra-denizen. More vomit happens and I want to quit, forsaking the aforementioned license plate but I begrudgingly soldier on.
Towards the end of the race I thought I would title the blog entry “The Top Ten Reasons to NEVER Run Beaverhead,” but like most ultras, once I crossed the finish line, I didn’t feel like the race deserved that admonishment. Rebecca rocked it, of course. It was fun to do a play by play the next day. And fun to think about going back and not being a total loser. I just read the quote: Sports do not build character, they reveal it. Thanks a lot, Heywood Hale Braun.
August, Clayton, GA
I did not run much at all for the next couple of months, but a Bee runventure was planned back on the Bartram Trail in August. I figured if my Achilles and my piriformis weren’t bothering me too much, I’d try to keep up with the girls for at least half of the planned 30 miles. As luck would have it, that Saturday would be a rainy, but cool day. We had SO MUCH fun! Splashing through the puddles, laughing, and not sweating. It was perfect, and I was able to keep with the Hotsy Tots. I came home from that trip feeling hopeful that I could actually race the Georgia Jewel 50 in two weeks and not just suffer through it. Our runventure on the Benton Makaye Trail in June (followed by thrilling white rafting on the Ocoee) also left me similarly pumped for Beaverhead – so maybe I shouldn’t count on good vibes alone.
GEORGIA JEWEL 50 Miler, Dalton, GA
Georgia Jewel. How have I let myself sign up for this race again and again. I wish Ultrasignup would have some kind of block that would prevent you from signing up for a certain race. And maybe your partner or best friend would be the keeper of the code to reverse the block.
I didn’t know too many people running the Jewel this year, but I knew enough to make a little party out of Friday night. Jenny and Franklin Baker did a stellar job with all race details, but I thought packet pickup was especially well thought out. One intention they have with the race is to bring business to Dalton, GA by having us meet at Burr Performing Arts Park where they got to pick the band that would play while we got all of our race stuff. Everyone hung out for an hour or two before groups started to head to different restaurants. My friends had me in stitches, and if I had any pre-race jitters, they were extinguished by the time I got to my hotel. Race morning would find me on one of several buses that take the 35 milers and the 50 milers from the convention center to Dry Creek. It’s fun to be on a school bus with a bunch of friends when you’re sleepy at 5:45AM. They deposited us at Dry Creek where I got see Lauren and get some good-time vibes. By 7:30AM we were off into the woods. A lot of folks passed me in the first 10-15 miles, and I just kept my head down and kept to my own pace. I started feeling nauseous early on – around mile 18 – so I took a tums and powered on. By the time I got to Pocket Road (mile 25) I was ready for some Coke which I guzzled. I chatted with some aid station friends and headed back out. A hundred feet out of the aid station – vomitvomitvomit. I chanted to myself – It never always get worse – and kept moving forward. And by golly, it didn’t get worse. I picked up my pace as I got close to Snake Creek Gap (mile 32) and from then on started passing people and I wasn’t passed again. My main goal for this race was to beat my 2018 time of 11:06 – because it’s fun to get faster while getting older!
Similar to the Holly and Molly show at the 2018 Pinhoti – I just barely squeaked under my goal at 11:04. Hot damn! I was 3rd Lady and 14th Overall. I picked many pieces of my soul that I have left out on that course over the past four years, and then left a few more. Congrats to my new friend Abigail who crushed the previous course record by a whopping 19 minutes – so incredible – and her first 50!!! And congrats to my sweet friend Collette who underwent back surgery in January and was worried she wouldn’t get her groove back – she came in 3rd Lady on the 35-mile course. If you are reading this as a real race-report, I’ll leave you with this pearl. Most people say the section from Stover to the Powerlines is never-ending – which is true, but I had totally forgotten how long that second Dry Creek loop felt and that climb up John’s Mountain, especially the road section. Just zone out and keep moving forward.
So the point? Not sure. But I think it has something to do with, chin up and don’t give up. If you did a hard thing once, you can do a hard thing again. And again. And probably again. Also, I’ve only puked on the Beaverhead and Georgia Jewel courses – so I’m thinking hot weather races and I don’t mesh. Can Ultrasignup please set up a block on races from May – September for me please?!
Next up – an epic runventure through the mountains of Western North Carolina – if I don’t chicken out!
TrailCats 