Gnaw Bone 50k Race Report

I decided the night I finished the Mohican 50k that I was in need of a longer Race in preparation for Mohican coming up in June. In reality, I am only planning to run half the race, but again, that Euphoric High came over me, and the next thing I knew, I was online Registering for Dances with Dirt - Gnaw Bone 50 miler. I woke up the next day wondering WTF (What the Flip) did I do? Am I crazy? Don't answer that yet!
I figured that since they had a 50k option I could resort to that if things went south.
I was so worried about my ankle leading up to this race. I did my best to not let it get in my head. The Blister I got at Cap City didn't help any either. That flippin blister hurt worse than my ankle.
I knew I needed to just stay home in my Bubble and just Chill all week. I also was trying not to let anyone or anything in my head, because these Ultras are simply a game. It's all mental with a little pain thrown in to make you feel alive.
I decided to not tell anyone (Actually a couple of people knew) about the race I was planning. This was to motivate me even more to tell everyone what I had accomplished.
Could I do it? Would I do it? Who knew.
I really had no business running this kind of distance, but who am I or anyone else to tell me what to do?
I really didn't care about my time, and in fact, I was planning on coming in dead last. Simply put: I needed the experience, and the time on my feet.

I had a long list of Do's and Don't for this race. From that night I signed up, I had gone over a game plan daily until I had everything rehearsed to a "T".
Take the early start, Don't eat the AS food. No stomach issues were allowed, Nothing with Simple Sugar in it allowed, Drink/Eat this, not that...etc....
My drop bag had endless compartments to stash labeled bags of "stuff".


It’s all about the experience.

I really had no idea what to expect out of this. My only goal was to finish and gain the experience. Time did not matter to me at all.
Later on in my Ultra quests, I will try and attempt to make something more out of it. The challenges will evolve. The one I am faced with now is to finish the races I have entered.
I know my time was really slow, but it was all about experiencing the kind of mileage and the pain involved.
I think the reason I wanted to finish this race was because of Mohican coming up.
The plan for Mohican realistically was to finish at least half of the race. If I feel like I can make it to the next AS then the next, I will go as far as I can.
It’s all about the experience, remember?

I played it smart the week leading up to the race. I did my last CrossFit WOD on my own in my garage and simply took it easy the rest of the week.

The Race:
I don't have pictures as I didn't want to risk my camera getting damaged by water. I showed up at Mikes Dance Barn early for the 5:30 Start. It had stormed the night before and everything was soaking wet. I knew we would all be in for some mud.
About 8-10 of us started at 5:30 with our head lamps blaring.
The first mile is all flat on a gravel road that lead to someone house. We ran through the yard and up a double track trail full of water and mud. All in all it was about a 2 mile climb.
I chatted with Donna and Karen for a little while as we meandered our way through the woods with absolutely no sign of a trail anywhere. We knew we were on track because of all the white ribbons. We saw a group of leaders who had gotten lost already. Not sure why really, this course was well marked. You would have to be totally somewhere else in order to miss the markings.

After a mile or so, they went on and I was totally by myself for quite a while.
The forest was a nice treat to run through and I highly recommend running this race because of that reason. Backtrack to about mile 2. I was starting to feel really sick to my stomach. I didn't worry much as I didn't want it to get to me. I figured I would get to the first Aid Station and get my Drop Bag meds. Turns out, the food I ate the night before is what did it. Never eating Noble Romans again.
At the first Aid Station, I was really ready to pack it up and head back. By about mile 7, I was done.
Remember, it's all about the experience. "Suck it up and just walk until you feel better".
I simply walked to the next Aid Station feeling worse and worse every mile.
It was nice to be able to cross the many stream crossings in this race. The cool water really helped along the way.
There was a 4 mile loop that we had to run before heading to the next AS. To me, this was the best section of trail the entire race.

The rest of the race was not bad at all. This is a runnable course but, it is hilly. By far, much more difficult than Mohican trails, but Mohican does have some nasty hills to climb -depending on which way you run the course.
I didn't have any difficulty walking the hills.
I was still experiencing the roller coaster sickness and ran when I felt better. By the time I reached North Gate AS, I felt good enough and ran the rest of the way to Ogle Lake AS. This was the cutoff for the 50 mile......and I missed the cutoff by 8 minutes. I was finally feeling good at this point and was kinda bummed. I decided a 50k was good enough for me. Good thing this happened because about a mile out of the AS, my stomach started again.
All I could do was walk the rest of the way back to the finish. I guess this would go down as a nice 50k walk.
At the end of the race, there were these giant abandoned ski hills that almost made be pray I didn't have to climb up or run down them. We didn't which was a relief.

At the finish, I ate so much BBQ Pork Shoulder and Carolina style slaw, but to my amazement, I didn't get sick. Go figure. Can't forget the couple of Beers and a Mojito too.
I will definitely be back next year to run this race. It was a great event.

Oh, by the way, I signed up for Dances with Dirt Hell 50 miler in September.

UPDATE:
I saw the Race Results. Posted very quickly. (Thank you! How hard was that? Didn't think it was).
My very sad 50k time: 10:35:41. Try walking/running for 31 miles with severe stomach issues.
What gets me is that at the last Aid station I had 8 miles to go with a time on my Garmin being 7:30. How is it possible to take 3 hours to walk 8 miles? Even being sick as hell should not have held me back that long.