I did it! I officially completed my very first ultra race! The Green Jewel 50K is a spectacular and beginner friendly course. I say it's beginner friendly for many reasons: 1) its a low key race with lots of support and aid stations every 5 miles! 2) the entire course is on all purpose trails (so it's really a paved trail) 3) great markers, just follow the green lines! no worries about getting lost
Mr. TLRBM and I met up on friday night in Brecksville, Ohio. It's about 20-30mins away from Cleveland, abt a 3 min drive from our hotel (Holiday Inn Express)
The course started in Scenic Park in Rocky River, OH and ended at Oak Grove in Brecksville, OH. The weather couldn't even be more perfect!
0- 4.9 miles--> 40mins. I felt good, wanted to run faster but didn't want to go out too fast. Saw some guy running barefoot. I had hat, gloves, wind breaker jacket plus 2 layers of long sleeves with tights. Didn't stop at aid station. water? checked. gu? i had 2 packets in my pocket. checked.
5-10miles--> 1:23. It went by fast. I just sipped on water the whole way. Didn't see that many Honey Buckets, so I laid low on the agua. No stops at aid station. gu? checked. water? checked. By now, I have removed my gloves and hat. Ate one gu, had one more left in pocket. **note to self: frozen gu hard to squeeze out with frozen fingers.
10-15 miles--> no official time. i think it was like 2 hrs. I got hungry and ate Justin's Almond butter. Totally thought i bought peanut butter but was happy with the taste of almond butter. I think i just nibbled at it for a good 3-5 miles.
15-20---> found park bathroom and relieved myself. ate another gu. praying that I dont get hungry before the next aid stations. ** note to self, bring 2 packets of nut butter instead of just 1
20-25--> so this was the aid station i was going to stop. according to hal higdon's training schedule, i'm really suppose to run just 9 miles on sat and 12 miles on sun. I felt good so I decided to keep running. I picked up Hammer Head rasberry gel. Met Athena, young chic who had a ton of energy! we ran together for a bit and she was just chatting away! great positive energy and i knew she wanted to go faster, so i told her to go ahead. I didn't see her until the end of the race. legs were tired and hip flexors were tight. Stopped a few times to stretch.
25-31--> oh man..... took me a lot longer to finish this last section. Thank goodness for that hammer gel. I was hungry and tired, but still moving along quite well. this part of the course was all on roads, not my favorite, but glad that it was the last part. I was so excited to see the sign "Brecksville Reservation", because I knew I was about a mile away from the finish. All downhill, killed my quads.Crossed finish line at 4:51:04!!
Jason gave me a big hug and kept apologizing bc he thought it was take me a lot longer. woohoo! i'm proud of myself!
Race goal: to finish with no injuries; or DNF at 3 aid station
race goal accomplished with great time!!
After race, I was sore and tight and sleepy!! I managed to stay awake and checked out 2 places: 1) Vertical Runner, a running store. Awesome service and great selection. anyone in the Hudson, Cleveland, OH area must visit! I"ve been to many many running stores and was very surprised by their expertise! 2) Great Lakes Brewing Co-- awesome eatery and beer! I got the Eliot Ness Amber Lager, which was good. It was a bit light for Jason, but just perfect for me with perfect hopiness. Jason got the IPA and Stout. We loved the beer so much we brought back a case of different Great lakes beer selection.
This was a great weekend! Any questions about Green Jewel please send them my way!
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