Following is the race report given by friend Laura Cherchuck. JFK was Laura's first 50 mile ultra. Her mom, Trisch became the "official crew" for our whole group.The week leading up to JFK= a roller coaster of emotions. I was excited, nervous, nauseous, anxious, sick to my stomach, excited, ready to go, not ready to go and hoping there were still a few more weeks, anal about making lists, trying to focus on my classes but failing to do so, carbo-loading, packing my bag, unpacking my bag, re-packing my bag, making more lists, checking the weather, carbo-loading, butterflies in my stomach, easy short runs, multiple phone calls to my mom to make sure she had studied all of the documents and lists I had sent her, studying, lots of coffee, carbo-loading, anxiety, religiously icing anything and everything just in case, checking the JFK website for any changes, phones calls for last minute advice, unpacking my bag, repacking my bag, carbo-loading, nauseous, READY TO GO!
Friday: I tried to focus on my one and only class of the day, but for some reason I found sitting still for 2 hours of Neuro to be almost impossible and not at all interesting. Somehow I was able to color coordinate my notes like usual and engage in discussions on auto-pilot even though my mind was a million miles away. After my classmates wished me luck on my crazy endeavor and threw in the usual comments that they don’t even like driving 50miles, I headed home to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. I took a mental inventory of what I had finally decided to pack and decided I was happy with it. I then sat in my living room to watch a mindless show on ABC family, then it was time to go. By 1:00pm I was on my way to Maryland with my friend Dannielle who was also running her first 50 and her husband Eric. We tried to distract ourselves with trivial conversation, but it always came back to, “I can’t believe it’s here! We’re actually running 50 miles tomorrow! I hope I survive!” and other such comments. Of course I was over-hydrated and only made it to the Somerset rest stop before making Dannielle stop. After picking up my race stuff, sweatshirt, and magnet for my car I met up with the gang to head to dinner. The wait was too long at Rocco’s Italian Restaurant for five hungry runners, so thanks to Andy’s wonderful suggestion we headed to Little Caesar’s and walked out about 5 minutes later with 4 pizzas, 2 orders of breadsticks, and 2 bottles of soda. Back to the Hotel for a pizza party in the lobby then to the rooms to auction off extra stuff we brought that others may have forgotten and then finally sleep.
Race Day:
4:15am wake up. Got everything together and gave my mom some last minute crewing instructions. After I had gotten ready my mom told me that I didn’t match. Apparently my salmon colored Newton shirt clashed with my pink camelback…bad timing considering that was the only short-sleeve shirt I had packed. I told her to make a mental note to keep comments like that to herself in the future. She tried to make up for it by telling me I was very colorful and would be easy to spot. I responded “back at ya!” For those of you that weren’t at the race, my mom wore a ridiculous shirt full of different shapes and colors.
We headed to the high school, then walked to the start with Stacy telling stories about stuffing frozen cookies in her shirt last year to warm them up and then forgetting about them and discovering that it was really Andy who had thrown her peanut butter and jelly sandwich away, not Kim. At the starting area we wished each other good luck and Jeff left me with some last minute advice to run my own race and no one else’s. The gun sounded and we were off! I had never experienced such a slow start before! Jeff was gone and out of sight within the first few minutes. I ran with Stacy and Michelle until the big hill before deciding to hang back a little to take it easy. I ended up jogging the whole thing since my heart rate stayed even and fairly low. At the top of the hill we entered the Appalachian Trail. I felt like I was in a Congo line! Around mile 4 I found Stacy, Michelle, Tom, and Kim, and a little later Andy stumbled across us. We all stayed together for majority of the remaining AT section. Not much to say about that section other than there were a lot of rocks. I thought people were being overly cautious on the dreaded switchbacks so we were all forced to walk them. A good thing about that was we missed the train!
We saw my mom for the second time then headed onto the endless C&O canal. We all separated there to run our own races. Along the canal I was having the time of my life just running along, chatting with people, and looking at the lovely leafless trees and unchanging river. I never thought about the big picture, I just ran from aid station to aid station or counted down until I would see my mom again. Coke and peanut butter and honey sandwiches became my new best friends. Along with some hammer gels thrown in, I was feeling a lot better than I expected. I whispered to my mom at mile 27.1, “I’m feeling really good still and I don’t know why so I’m just going to keep on going and see what happens.” At that aid station I caught my last glimpse of Michelle. By the time mile 30 rolled around I couldn’t even handle the thought of solid food. Luckily that feeling was very short-lived and I was feeling good enough at the mile 34 aid station to stop and get my picture taken with SANTA!!!!!! A little later I came across my friend Dannielle, gave her a quick hug, talked for a little, then continued on my way. The rest of the towpath was uneventful. It seemed like I kept passing and getting passed by the same people, one being Kim. It was good to see a familiar face out there! Finally I saw the light at the end of the tunnel…I was soooo excited to be running into the final aid station on the towpath! My happy feeling was immediately taken away when a man informed me that I had missed the cutoff time and had to wear a reflective vest. I branded an imaginary “L” on my forehead and entered the road. I discovered that not even the stupid reflective vest could bring my spirits down because I only had 8 miles to go and I was still feeling really good! I walked the first two hills because everyone else around me was but discovered that it was harder to walk than to run so I decided to just run the rest in. My mom, sister, and Andy met me at the aid station at mile 46. I was on such a high by that point that I didn’t slow down and just blew kisses to my mom and sister (sorry Andy) as I passed by. I think there was a mix of things that were fueling me in those last few miles: knowing I had less then a lap around the lake to go, the stupid reflective vest even though it was nowhere near dark out, the volunteers’ encouraging words as I got closer, the fact that I only had a few miles to go before completing my first 50 miler and I wasn’t even crawling! I saw the 3 mile marker, then the 2 mile marker. “I’m almost there! All I have left is a cool down!” All the pain disappeared and I felt like I had fresh legs by the time I saw the beautiful sign indicating 1 mile to go. My legs took over and decided to crank out a sub-8 minute mile to get this thing over with. I didn’t even feel my final sprint to the finish. It was incredible that after running for that long, I was able to finish stronger than I do at most marathons. The ultramarathon is an amazing thing that I have a newfound respect for. I started the day not knowing what to expect and just hoping and praying that I would be able to drag myself across the finish line somehow. What I found was that I had the time of my life out there on the trails doing what I love along with others who had similar goals. I don’t think I will ever be able to top this race experience. So I just wanted to thank all of you for your terribly bad influence that through your stories, made a young girl think that she wanted to run an ultramarathon too.
Results:
Jeff: 8:16:57
Michelle: 9:14:37
Stacy: 9:32:39
Laura: 9:33:52
Kim: 9:37:13
Tom: 10:47:17
John: 11:23:54
I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!
~Laura
