Frosty 50K

Several months ago I decided that I would run the Frosty 50K in Winston-Salem as my first ultra marathon, but with my injury and time off from running, that was not in the cards this year.  Fortunately I was able to switch to the relay option and Allie, Ellen, and Jen agreed to join me, so I would still be able to race.  Plus they are all really fast, so that was an added bonus :)

Arrived at Salem Lake before sunrise - it was freezing outside, but very pretty!

Last year I was training for the Miami marathon and ran the 25K as a training run, so I knew the course and what to expect.  In 2012, I took it relatively easy and ran the 15.5 mile course at 7:37 pace, so I figured I should at least be able to run that speed for half the distance.  It felt a lot harder than I would have liked, and pretty much confirmed that I am out of shape and rebuilding my fitness is not going to be quick or easy.  I managed to stay near 7:30 for the first few miles, but pace slowed to 7:40s and 50s. Had I been running solo, I would have slowed down even more, but thinking about Jen waiting for me and not wanting to give up even more time for our team kept me going.  I felt terrible about running so slowly and feeling like I was letting my team down, but fortunately they were not feeling terribly competitive about it and as always were very supportive and reassuring.  

After the final exchange, I headed back to the start/finish area to see Jen finish.  She was running too fast for me to get a photo, but our team finished in 3:31:17 as the 3rd women's relay.

It is going to take a lot of work to get my fitness back and may be a while until I can run fast-ish again, but I managed 40 miles this week and other than the head cold that I've come down with, am feeling pretty good and have not had any knee pain at all.   I'm now transitioning into triathlon training mode and will be working on building endurance.  Thankfully I have 5 months, but I have a feeling that time is going to fly by and the 70.3 will be here before I know it...