Goblin Valley Ultra Marathon 2010

About a week and a half ago I ran the Goblin Valley 50k in Utah with some of my favorite people. It was loads of fun! Travis and I met Dad and Janie in Salt Lake, then hung out while we waited for everyone else to trickle in (Adam and Jen, Scott and Annie, Melanie and Megan). Once Megan finally made it (smiley face) we made the trek to Green River, Utah about 3 1/2 hours away. We got our race packets and joined the other runners for a potato bar the night before the race. Very yummy! Then we headed to our hotel (cringe). Travis, Megan, Melanie, and I all shared a room. Travis asked how in the world he got stuck with the three sisters. Yeah, I felt kind of sorry for him. But we didn't party too hard-y because we had a long day ahead of us. Megan hit the sack as soon as we got there while Mel, Trav, and I watched the bit in Galaxy Quest that takes place at Goblin Valley. *A little history--Melanie, Jen, and I have been training for the Goblin Valley race "together" through dailymile.com for several months. Melanie or Jen (not sure who started it) started leaving little "Nnnever give up! Nnnever surrender!" posts (from the movie Galaxy Quest) on dailymile and it became a thing. Whenever any of us had a bad run, we'd motivate with the mantra. It actually worked. Then one day Travis and I were watching Galaxy Quest and could not believe our eyes when we got to the scene where they go to the planet to look for a beryllium sphere. The scene was actually filmed at Goblin Valley! Seriously, I laughed for about 5 minutes straight at the coincidence. Anyway, we brought the movie and watched the goblin part the night before our race with the goblins. Pretty cool. Pretty funny. Well, at least to us. :)

Moving on. We woke up early to make the hour long drive to the start. It was cold and dark when we drove up, but the sun came out shortly and started warming things up a little. Here are some pictures of us waiting around nervously for the start.

Dad, Lisa, Melanie, Travis

Jen and Adam

Janie and Dad

Travis, Scott, Annie

My goal for this race was to have fun and not hurt myself so I would be able to run the Greenville Marathon the next week. Travis and Annie ran the 10k (and rocked it!) and Megan and Janie waited patiently and took lots of photos. They got to enjoy the goblins more than we did because they were surrounded by them all day. We saw them at the start and finish.

Travis and Annie at the start

50K runners: Dad, Scott, Sadie, Melanie, Adam, Jen, and Lisa. The last four were all first-timers. We started off nice and easy and tried to find our groove. Dad wasn't feeling 100% ready for the 50k, but he wanted to make it at least half way with us. He had it in his mind that he might be dropping out half way and he was okay with that. So we ran and ran and walked and ran and walked for a LONG time. Take a quick peek at Scott's blog to see pictures of the course (he and Adam were the only ones who brought cameras along for the ride). He got some really amazing pictures.

I was feeling pretty good for a while. I was nervous because my legs were really sore the week before the race. I didn't know if they would hold up for 31 miles, then be able to do 26.2 more the next week. But they were doing pretty good. We took lots of walk breaks and that really helped. But around mile 12 or so my left knee started having issues. I took a LOT of ibuprofen and prayed that the pain would go away. In my experience, when the knee starts to go, that's the end of it. So I was pretty nervous. I even told Melanie and Jen that I might not be able to make it. But after about 5 painful miles, then pain started dulling and I was able to continue pretty much pain free (well, other than the usual long run pains). Phew!

At the turn around point, about halfway, Dad was in a lot of pain and thought he might not make it. So he told us four first-timers to go on so we wouldn't miss the cut-off time, and Scott and Sadie stayed with him. Scott was planning on running with Dad until he had to stop, then catch back up with us (yes, he's that fast). For the rest of the race, it was just Adam, Jen, Melanie, and me. There was no cell phone service, so we had no idea of knowing where Dad and Scott were or if they were even still running. At every aid station we asked if they had heard anything about a runner dropping out and we asked the sheriff when he drove by, but nobody had heard anything. That was good news. It meant Dad and Scott were still running.

The last half of the race was really long and enjoyable. We pretty much talked the whole time inserting the occasional, "Can you believe we're actually running an ultra marathon?!" It was pretty cool. We trudged on and everyone was in really good spirits. With only a few miles to go, Jen's foot started hurting and we had finally gotten to the point where we were thinking, "Okay, let's just finish." With about a mile to go, Melanie and I saw Travis running toward us. They had seen us coming around the bend, so he decided to come out and meet us. It was great seeing him because it meant we were almost done!! We made our way to the parking lot, then we were ushered to the valley of the goblins--finally!! They had jack-o-lanterns set out that marked the 1 kilometer course back to the finish line. It was fun finally seeing the goblins up close and personal. We made our way up the hill to the finish, then in unison, the four of us chanted "Nnnever give up! Nnnever surrender!" as we alien-walked throught the finish line together. There really wasn't a better way to finish, right?

This is where Travis met us (Adam and Jen were right behind us).

We are running through goblins here even though they didn't make it in the shot. :)

Man, it felt good to be done!
We finished in 7:31.

As we were coming up to the finish, Melanie noticed her watch saying that we had only run 28 miles (only, right??). A 50k is 31 miles. After we went through the finish we asked the race director about the other 3 miles, and she said we could just run those extra miles on our own if we really wanted to, but it wouldn't be timed (part of the course had been damaged during a storm the day before). So Melanie and I ran the extra. We started running back down the course and after about half a mile, we ran right into Dad, Scott, and Sadie!!!! They had been only a couple miles behind us the whole time! So we ran in with them to get in our extra miles. It was really cool. Dad was all smiles.

Lots of happy people!

We hung out at the finish just long enough for the rain to start (about 5 minutes), then hopped into the cars to make the trip back to the hotel. I enjoyed my first ultra marathon and I'm ready for more!! Stayed tuned to see what happened going into the Greenville Marathon only 6 days later...

Extras:

We weren't sure where this energy came from after running 50k.

Megan and Travis hiked over to this cool goblin formation (that we named The Three Sisters).

Travis

Megan

We went to the Copper Mine while hanging out in Salt Lake. The mine is HUGE and so are the machines!

Travis and I got to Salt Lake first, so we got to run with Dad along one of his favorite trails--Corner Canyon. It was really beautiful with the fall leaves and the view of the valley wasn't half bad either!

Utah Here We Come!

We're leaving bright and early tomorrow morning for Utah. We'll spend a few days chillin' with family in Salt Lake, then on Saturday we'll spend a few hours chasing goblins, then back to Salt Lake, then back home. Hopefully I will have some very exciting stories to bring back and post on my blog. Hopefully they will have something to do with me and several other family members completing our first ultra marathon together :)--along with a couple veterans. Anyway, I'm excited. See you all on the other side!!!