Monday, May 19, 2014

Cruel Jewel 50 Race Report

The name "Cruel Jewel 50" is two-thirds accurate.  It's 56 miles, not 50.  But cruel is right, and jewel is right.

The jewel part:  This race is on a beautiful course in the north Georgia mountains.  The course has a nice flow to it, starting out with the easiest parts and then getting harder and harder until the big climb up Coosa Bald at mile 47ish.  Then, as long as your quads are still intact from the previous 47 miles, it eases off with a giant descent (2,500 feet I believe?) and an easy-ish last 3 miles.  And, for this year, the weather was one of the pluses.  After hearing the horror stories about last year's heat and torrential rain, I was trying to be mentally prepared for anything, but we ended up with perfect running weather the whole time.  It was even downright cold at the end--ideal for an ex-Minnesotan.

The cruel part:  There is a whopping 17,000 feet of ascent in this race.  The race is run mostly at night so there isn't much enjoying the scenery to do.  From miles 36 to 49 the course is on the Duncan Ridge Trail, and if you don't know what that means, trust me that you probably don't want to ever have to find out.

In theory I had a good race.  I came in second woman, just about made my absolute-best-case-scenario time goal (it was 14 hours, though I had expected to be closer to 15 hours; I think my finish time was around 14:05), and my legs felt strong the whole way.  I enjoyed large parts of it, especially the late evening hours and getting to see the eventual women's winner, Jaclyn, a couple of times as we went back and forth with each other--I was equal parts dismayed and impressed when she flew past me on the way up Coosa and I knew I wouldn't be seeing her again.

But despite all this, I don't feel like I had a good race.  I was so, so sick most of the way, throwing up with high frequency from around mile 25 to the end.  It was worse than Arrowhead; I was sick more often and it was all stomach acid coming up, which made for a very painful 8 hours or so.  I was still able to run okay until the last 7 miles but eventually I couldn't handle the pain and just started walking.  This didn't end the vomiting but it lessened it, and the motion of walking didn't hurt my stomach as much as the motion of running.  

It felt like just a little bit more damage to my body than was justifiable.  I don't know what that much stomach acid coming up in that short of a time span might do to my esophagus (though I'll be looking into it now...) and although my kidneys were okay despite me not keeping any significant amounts of water down in the second half of the race, they might not have been okay if it had been a hotter day.  

The race also left me no closer to figuring out why I get such terrible nausea in races--the weather wasn't hot and I wasn't overdoing the effort, and these are my two top contenders for causes.  I was wearing a heart rate monitor and in fact, if anything, I was pushing the pace too little rather than too much; for about 80 percent of the race my heart rate was actually at closer to 100 mile effort than 50 mile effort.  

I was actually going to drop out at mile 53 but I had forgotten that the aid station there was just an unmanned table with water jugs, so there was nobody around who could have taken me back to the finish line anyway.  I walked the 3 miles in to the finish but it was seriously unpleasant and not something I'd want to go through again any time soon.  If I can't find and fix whatever's causing the nausea, I may consider focusing on shorter (marathon to 50k) races for a while to give my body a break.  Even an easy 50 miler might be okay since I wouldn't be out there so long.  I just can't repeat the Cruel Jewel experience in the near future.

Once I finally started feeling a little recovered a few hours after the finish, it was a fun morning.  The race finishes in a cabin at Vogel State Park and there were lots of nice runners and volunteers hanging out and waiting for everyone to come in.  Divesh was out on the 100 mile course having a great day so I spent the day talking to racers and waiting for Divesh--although in a pathetic failure of support, I actually missed both his stop at the park at mile 85 *and* his finish.  It was clearly his fault for running too fast!   


10 comments:

  1. Great results despite what sounds like a miserable experience stomach wise.

    Hopefully you can figure something out soon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow! Tough times indeed. Great effort but a serious bummer on the stomach issue. I wish i had some advice but, alas, i dont. Seems like youve been working on this for years. At any rate, congratulations on the 2 nd place finish!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great job out there. I ran the 100 and was at the last aid station when you caught up to the first place woman. The aid station workers and I were in awe of how well both of you were doing. I then caught up to you a mile or so later and you looked like you weren't feeling well at all. You still finished strong and in an impressive time! Congratulations and I hope you get your stomach issues worked out!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I remember seeing you again at your mile 85 back at Vogel and being amazed how fast you were in and out! You didn't even look tired when you were walking around the cabin. Hope you are enjoying a nice relaxing recovery time, see you at the next one??

      Delete
  4. Yikes! I hope you can figure out your vomiting issues. Does it happen on long training days or only in races?

    Congrats on toughing it out despite an uncooperative digestive system.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's 90% races but very occasionally in training runs. I always kind of like it when it happens in training runs because I feel like that must give me a big clue as to what's causing it--but I still can't figure it out.

      Delete
  5. A-Hud, have you tried a proton-pump inhibitor (Prilosec, Protonix, Nexium etc)? They not onlt stop acid prdoction but also help close off the lower esophageal sphincter, preventing reflux.

    I know you already take ondansetron in some races. Maybe take it prophylactically?

    I have had one race that was completely ruined by nausea. God, I was miserable.

    I hope you're not pregnant, by the way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely not pregnant:) I've never tried a proton pump inhibitor but isn't that what Tracy was having problems with? Or maybe it was just that she was tired of having to use them.

      Delete
  6. Strong finish girl! Nausea/acid sux. I have similar issues in long races. I take tagamet several days leading into and day of race (some good studies in athletes). Next um or proton ix is a good a idea too, but also need to take at least a week leading into race...takes about a week to optimally turn down acid pumps...I'm a nurse practitioner and have experience working with patients with GI issues. Gels trigger acid with me. Not enough water may be issue as well. Have to have enough water to absorb the sugar/carbs, otherwise will just sit in your stomach and may be causing irritation and increased acid production. Blah blah blah...congrats again! You and jaclyn looked fantastic and strong! I was wishing for your climbing legs! Best wishes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey Lori, thanks for this--I've been on vacation the past week but this is really interesting to read! I'll look into all of that.

      Delete