Last weekend, I treked down to Winston-Salem with the rest of the fartlekers for the Salem Lake 30K. Together, we ran 18.6 miles, the furthest I have ever run. Our previous long run was 17 miles with many long, lingering water breaks.
The race went much better than I expected. I focused on small mileage goals and tried to avoid thinking about the entire distance. My first goal was to get to 6.2 miles, a 10K. Next, I focused on getting to 12.4 miles, a 20K. I kept telling myself that at 20K I would be two thirds of the way to the finish line. My next big goal was 15 miles. After 15 miles, the last 3.6 miles were difficult but mentally a lot easier than the first 10. At this point, I knew that I could finish and that it was just a matter of not tripping over anything.
Avoiding tripping was no small task - the trail portion of the race included some very rooty passages. During the run, I saw three separate bloody runners. I tripped three times over the 18.6 miles but managed not to ever fall. I think that running may be improving my balance.
For two days after the 30K, going down stairs was crazy painful. But, after running slowly on Monday afternoon, my legs felt miraculously better. I would have never thought that the cure to soreness from running is more running.
Although I really enjoyed the race, I don't know if I would recommend that Salem Lake 30K to other runners. With the exception of at the start/finish line, the race had no toilets. Even worse, there really weren't any places to easily go and hide to pee. The situation was so bad that one of my running buddies saw another female runner peeing on the trail.
Another problem was that there did not appear to be any first aid tents or clearly marked ways to exit the race. Given the rough terrain of the course, it was very suprising to not see one first aid tent. If I had fallen and broken my leg, I don't know how I would have gotten off the course. One of my running friends had trouble breathing during the race and there was no one around to help her. Luckily, her breathing problems went away after a few minutes.
When the other runners and I weren't tripping over roots or searching for first-aid tents, we had to contend with crazy Winston-Salem bikers. It seemed like at least once a mile, Hadley or I screamed to one another, "BIKE!" and had to jump off the trail to avoid being hit. Most of the bikers did not let us know that they were approaching. Instead, I felt like I was an obstacle in some elaborate bike trick for them.
Despite these issues, I would run the Salem Lake 30K again. The course is beautiful and I really enjoyed the diversity of the running surfaces. Plus, I now know that the course is not "flat" as advertised on the race website. I kept waiting for the course to flatten out and it never did. In fact, I am pretty sure that the last 3 miles were mostly uphill.
With a 30K under my belt, the Memphis Marathon feels like an achievable goal for the first time. I registered for the marathon the day after our 30K and I am looking forward to December 1st. I can't wait to run with Elvis!