Picking up from last time –
Let’s talk about cutoffs.
You had to pick up your bib for the Super by 3pm, and cross the start at 3:15pm. You had to pick up your bib for the Sprint by 6:30pm, and cross the start by 6:45pm.
I knew I’d be fine to be finished with the Beast by 3pm – that part I wasn’t worried about. But finishing another (originally thought to be 8 but actually) 11 miles in 3 1/2 hours – that worried me.
If it were a straight running event, sure, no worries. Even with the miles from the morning, that still should be great and totally doable. But with obstacles, in *dramatic voice* the woods, with the mud and all that jazz – I don’t know! At my level of fitness (and trail capability), I think it sounds tough.
So, the tentative goal I set in my head was to be finished with my Beast around 1:15 or 1:20. I’d love to start my Super by 1:30. (That totally didn’t happen.) That was the reaching goal, but I also had a “uh, I better freaking do this” goal of starting the Super course at 2:30 – which is pretty much exactly when I started.
1:30 came and went. 1:45 came and went. Finally, I rocked out my finish a little before 2. I was hoping I’d get on the course in 10 minutes. That also totally didn’t happen, as I spent way more time changing and warming up than I expected. I kept thinking I’d be warm enough, leaving the fire, and then turning right back around to that fire to warm myself some more.
Once two thirty was rolling around, I had no choice. I ran to the start.
Part of the reason I was so cold was a lack of gloves and socks. As I mentioned, I thought I’d brought more than enough clothing. …And I was incorrect.
What I hadn’t thought about was that my gloves were going to be totally done for after the first race. I had to take them off to change, and I so could not get them back on. Toweling them off, warming them by the fire – none of that helped. It was all over for the gloves.
I’d also brought 4 pairs of socks – thinking one for each race, plus an extra pair if anything happened. So, I’d be golden. Not so much, because I totally layered on 3 pairs before I even started, since I was cold in the morning. (And I lost some socks in the whole shoes falling off in the woods thing.) So, so much for all that.
But I was getting through. And it was time to start the Super, which is where I’ll start next time.