Race Report: The Country Mile 48-hr

I'm late writing this (almost 2 weeks post-race) but I absolutely wanted to get this recorded before I forget all the details!

I signed up for The Country Mile after a great success last year, earning my first (and only) 100-mile buckle. I didn't really think about going for another hundo this year due to several factors - lower overall training mileage, some recent health-related things, and just generally not feeling like I wanted to put that kind of stress or expectation on myself. I went into the event with the idea that I would follow a plan/schedule as if I were going to do a hundred and then stop whenever I felt like it wasn't fun anymore.

Spoiler alert: I did not stop even though at times it wasn't fun anymore. 😂

Day 1: Friday 4/4

The race started at noon on Friday. The Sparkle Crew met up at the local BK parking lot in the morning to gather and head over to the race venue to set up our camp in the same location as last year. The spot was about halfway through the 4-mile loop and last year was right next to the only on-loop port-a-potty. Unfortunately that amenity was not there this year, which made some mid-loop stops difficult and involved back-tracking, but I digress...

Pre-race loitering & breakfast

Camp set up, bibs obtained, and next thing you know it... off we went! It was sunny but not as hot as last year (thank goodness). I learned my lesson though and covered up in sunscreen AND my sun shirt. Getting burned the first day last year was awful and I took all the precautions I could.

Day 1 laps

I kept a pretty steady but very easy pace for the first half dozen laps or so. Each lap tried to eat a little something and made sure to drink water. Took a few salt pills throughout the afternoon to make sure I didn't get depleted. Around dinnertime I started looking for food at the start/finish but first time around I only had a credit card and they took cash or Venmo... by the time I made it back, they'd stopped serving. Ugh! Thankfully a friend offered a homemade bear burger (yep, that's right... I ate bear meat 🐻) which was just the protein I was looking for, and felt much better after! 

The plan was to make it halfway (50 miles) before I slept... I had hoped it would be closer to 1-2am, but ended up starting lap 13 at 2:21am and made it back to the tent, cleaned up my feet (gross), and finally got to sleep about 3am. Set the alarm for 6am to get up and out around sunrise. The multiple hours of sleep wasn't exactly deep sleep but it was so nice to get off the legs for a good long block of time. I was hopeful that the next morning I'd feel refreshed like I did at the Godzilla Thrilla back in January (which I did not document in the blog - dang!). 

Unfortunately the grand sunrise revival did not happen like I'd hoped, and it took several laps to get going on Saturday morning.

Day 2 laps

Saturday started off as a slog - slow laps, not much motivation or energy. Then the celebration of 100k milestone started with a beer lap, then another, I took a nap in a chair (like 1.5 hours maybe??) and woke up feeling ready to go! Some more friends had arrived, brought pizza and brownies, and walked some beer/dance party laps together. The afternoon flew by!

Pavel the photographer and selfie-taker extraordinaire documenting the fun

We might have all danced The Wobble mid-lap

Another nap was needed after the party laps, then darkness descended for night #2. The clouds rolled in (thankfully!) but also the threat of rain loomed. Around 10:30 pm we started seeing lightning in the distance and feeling sprinkles of rain, so I decided to take refuge in the car and nap for a bit while the storms passed. There was much checking of radars on the phone but every single app was inconsistent and after an hour napping without any rain falling, I decided it was go-time. I wasn't stopping until the thing was finished, and I had 3 laps left.

Final laps!!

The last few laps were painful on my feet (oh so many aches, but this year no blisters!!), but at least they were consistent. On the final lap, I stopped at camp and picked up a bag with a blanket and change of clothes so I wouldn't have to walk from the finish line back to camp. In the last half mile of the final lap, it started to rain pretty steadily. I did a shuffle-run to the finish to avoid getting my dry clothes wet, and at last - I was done!!

BUCKLE!

Hundo donezo

I finished, changed, and immediately fell asleep for an hour on the wooden produce stand at the start/finish. Glorious nap! 

I could not believe I'd done another hundred mile. Lots of lessons learned this year, and of course the laughs and miles with all the ultra friends made it worthwhile!