13 Photos for 2013

Since I am a visual person and love photography, I decided to choose 13 photos to summarize the highlights of this year.  After writing up the list of what I accomplished, it's no wonder my body needed to take a month off from hard physical activity (like running)! 

1.) Completed the Chattahoochee Challenge Half Iron Distance Triathlon in the Spring

2.) Joined my first official ladies' group ride to gain confidence riding on city streets.

3.) Completed my first Century ride (that's 100 miles!).

4.) Started trail running--solo and with my dog, Lupa, on shorter distances. 

5.) Completed my first official trail race--Red Top Roaster 9.9 mile run

6.)  Completed (for the 3rd year in a row) and set a new personal record for the Richard B. Russell State Park Olympic Distance Triathlon.

I call this my Prancercising to the finish photo :)

7.) Completed the 6 Hours of Dauset Trails Endurance Run and ran about 24 miles of trails!

8.) Completed my first 50K trail race! FATS 50K

 9.) Registered for my first IRONMAN! Ironman Chattanooga, September 28th 2014!!

10.) Spectated and cheered on friends at Ironman Flordia 2013.

It's always fun to dress up for races :)

11.) Took an amazing vacation to Nepal--Reconnected with old friends, made new friends, and trekked some of the Himalayan foothills.

12.) Helped my rescue dog, Lupa, find her inner wolf. I discovered that Lupa thrives on the trails, and nature therapy is good for us both.   I adopted her in November 2012, so this year has been filled with milestones as she works through various issues with fearfulness. 

Her inner wolf is in the shadow :)

13.) Another photo from Nepal, which I think symbolizes looking at life with a positive attitude and filled with hope.

May the new year bring you a positive spirit and inner strength to reach all that your heart desires!

Trekking in Nepal: Poon Hill

I am the type of person whose soul needs to travel the world, and when I do not heed the calling to venture out, my soul starts to die.  Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but I do feel like I begin to lose my light.  I had been planning my next big trip for several months, and in November I took off and went to Nepal.

A photo of mine from Pokhara, Nepal 

I met up with 7 others (some friends and friends of friends from other parts of the world) between Istanbul and Kathmandu and we traveled Nepal together.  The plan was to get a little taste of different regions.

We spent time in the Kathmandu Valley for 5 days total (upon arrival and departure). The photos below are of one of the famous temples, Swayambhunath, also called the Monkey Temple because monkeys are everywhere.

We spent about 2 1/2 days in Pokhara (before and after the trekking), and 4 days on a trek. 

And we spent about 3 1/2 days in the jungle, Chitwan National Park, where we went on a walking safari, a canoe ride, and I bathed with and rode elephants!  One of the highlights was seeing a baby rhino sleeping soundly while we approached it and its mommy via elephants.  They don't care if we are there when atop an elephant, but if we would have walked up on them we could have been in SERIOUS danger.

Every area we visited had its own list of amazing qualities, and I am so glad we got to experience different regions.  However, I am already making a plan to return to do more trekking at some point in the future.  I fell in love with Nepal, especially the mountains, and we were only in what they call "the Himalayan foothills".  So now I'll try to give some details of the trek we did, to the best of my recollection.  :)

Poon Hill Trek:

We went through a tour agency and hired a guide.  He was wonderful, and it was nice to not have to stress about getting lost or finding lodging, as all was already planned.  We did not hire porters (sherpas) and opted to each carry our own backpack.

That's me in the middle

 According to the guidebook, the trek is considered "moderate" and can be done in 4-6 days.  We chose to do it in 4, which meant some of the days included several hours of walking.

Don't mind me, just taking a quick power nap!

 What is nice about this route, is that it goes through tons of little villages along the way and there are plenty of places to grab snacks, take a rest break, and use the bathroom if you don't want to use mother natures toilet.  

What was not so nice about this route is that it includes THOUSANDS of steps and at least one full day of going up those steps. Of course what goes up must come down, and going down the steps on the route back may actually have been more painful.  I heard someone throw out the number 5,000 when talking about how many steps there were...I really am curious about the exact number and my google searches haven't turned up the answer for me yet :P

Going up and up and up...

...and still going up, up, up...

Going down, down, down...

 It is an absolutely beautiful route and very doable, and we saw people of all ages who were doing this trek.  Even though I trained for a 50K trail run and considered myself in excellent shape, I still found it challenging at times.  Part of that is because myself and another friend were both recovering from injuries which made going down steps especially painful.  However, the scenery and other wonderful experiences helped me ignore the pain for the most part. :)

View from Poon Hill

Poon Hill View

Village children would come out to greet us
and ask for "sweets" and chocolate

Me on the left with the beautiful
farm terraces in the back

We encountered a lot of pack mules
and gave them the right of way

The all too familiar sound of a mule train telling us to move out of the way.  I actually was almost knocked off the edge of a drop-off when a mule stumbled towards me and hit my pack! 

Lodging:

We stayed in what they call "tea-houses".  Basically they are family-operated room and board in villages along the way.  Most of them are basic thin-walled private bedrooms with 2 twin beds.  You sleep in your sleeping bag and they provide a thick blanket or two to put on top since it gets really cold at night and there is no heat in the rooms.  There is a shared toilet, sink, and shower which may or may not have hot water. 

They also have a little restaurant which provides meals from the menu.  The menus in the mountains are pretty much all the same, offering a variety of Nepali food and western foods.  I usually stuck with eggs and potatoes for breakfast and Dal Bhat (Lentils and Rice) for the other meals.  For dinner I would have the local alcohol, Raksi (kind of like Saki). 

So good! Although, some made it spicier than others :P 

Route Details:

Day 1
From Pokhara to Nayapul = 1 hr car/bus ride
Nayapul to Tikhedhunga =  about a 4 hr hike (beginning elevation 1000 meters, end elevation 1500 meters)

Day 2
Tikhedhunga to Ghorepani = 7-8 hrs of hiking all uphill (beginning elev. 1500m, end elev. 2800m)

Day 3
Ghorepani to Poon Hill = 40 min climb from 2800m to 3210m elevation. Woke up at 4:30 for sunrise.
Poon Hill to Ghorepani = 20 min descent, ate breakfast and packed
Ghorepani to Ghandruk (?)= 7-8 hrs, mix of ups and downs

Day 4
Ghandruk to Nayapul = 6 hrs? mostly downhill/steps
Nayapul to Pokhara = 1 hr private bus

I've been trying to find out exactly how far the loop is that we trekked and have come across varying answers online.  When I asked our guide he said 80k, but that seemed like too much.  As much as I would like to believe we hiked 80k, I think it may have been closer to 50k total. 

So there you have it... I have provided a very condensed version of my Nepal trip and shared only a small fraction of photos taken.  Mostly, I wanted to write this up so I can remember the basics of what we did, kind of similar to a race report :)  If you find yourself reading this and having questions, feel free to leave me a comment below, and I'd be happy to respond!

Race Report: FATS 50K

Date: Sunday, October 6th 2013
Location: Aiken, South Carolina

Start time: 8:00 AM
End Time: no time limit!
Temp at start: About 65 degrees
Temp High: About 87 degrees
Course: A 4 mile lap done 8 times 

After my last race, 6 Hours of Dauset Trails Endurance Run, I recovered much quicker than I was expecting and did not feel ready to accept that as my last big race of the season.  I waited a week to make sure I really was recovering well, consulted with my chiropractor and a few ultra friends, and then decided to sign up for my first 50K!  I had been bitten with the trail running bug early in the summer and had a newfound joy for long distance running--something I never thought I'd be doing if you asked me a few years ago--and I was itching to become an official Ultrarunner.  

 

The FATS 50K seemed like the perfect race for me and is marketed as being great for the first time ultrarunner since there is no time limit.    FATS stands for Forks Area Trail System, which is on National Forest land.  Due to the lovely government shutdown and the course being closed, the race director had a decision to make: Cancel the race or find another course nearby we could run.  Through a few connections, he was able to change the course to someone's private property.  The course consisted of a 4 mile loop that we did 8 times.  The terrain was a mix of sand, a trail with some overgrowth, pine straw and debris, open pasture with no path/trail, and a few steep hills.  It was definitely different than what I was used to running on and presented it's own set of fun challenges :)  

A more compacted part of the sandy trail section.  Other areas had thick loose sand

 I decided to drive up the morning of the race, which meant I woke up when the party-goers in Atlanta were just leaving the bars for the night. I was on the road by 4:15 and hopped on I-20 East where I remained for over 2 hrs.  It was pretty much a straight shot and only a few turns off the exit onto some country roads and farmland.  This was the part where I started thinking that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to watch the entire season 3 of The Walking Dead last week.  It was dark and foggy when I arrived ...very eery feeling and the perfect setting for a "walker" to surprise me ;) 

It actually looked really similar to this!

This is the actual race course during our first loop with runners in the distance!

I arrived early enough to take my time making my way to check-in and setting up my little area near the aid station.  One of the benefits of this new course was that we would be passing by the start/finish aid station every 4 miles, so I could have all my special needs food items (gluten free) waiting on me there.  There was also a water drop at about mile 2 on the course, and I decided to just carry my 10 oz handheld and a spibelt with a few GUs and salt tabs.  My back and shoulder had been bothering me for the past week, so not having to carry a hydration pack was a huge relief! 

There were about 60 runners that lined up at the starting line, ranging in age and ability.  I placed myself in the back, per my usual routine and overheard someone else mention just wanting to finish in under 8 hrs.  That 8 hr time was in the back of my mind as well, and I was glad to hear I was not alone. Little did I know that one of the girls next to me, Sally, would end up being my running buddy for the entire 32 miles--a true blessing! 

We started at exactly 8:00 and headed into the foggy unknown.  It felt like an exciting little adventure, really not knowing where I was or where each step was taking me.  We were told to follow the orange flags/markers and keep them on our right.  It was SO foggy out and hard to see, that we almost missed a few turns.

Photo by Cindy Davidson Buck

Photo by Cindy Davidson Buck

Photo by Cindy Davidson Buck

The loop started off with us running on a white sand path, through some grass, then back onto thick white sand for a little incline followed by a relatively flat stretch of...MORE thick sand.  I pretty much had to just embrace the idea of having sand in my shoes and socks and not dwell on that feeling :)  The course then took us through a little tree covered trail with some overgrowth and, as I discovered within the first 2 miles, some vines which I affectionately call "nature's tripwire".  I am pretty sure I was the first one to fall, and maybe even the only one to fall that day, and I did it Scarlett Johannson style. Keepin it classy!

no, seriously, this is pretty much exactly how I fell, minus the fur coat and jeans ;)

Sally was behind me when I took the tumble, and asked if I was alright.  I told her someone had to take one for the team and to learn from my mistake.   

The first 2 miles of the course were relatively flat, which made me think that something worse was about to come.  Sure enough, we take a right out of the woods and are greeted by a big sand hill.  It looked like thick sand with a layer of straw and some kind of netting, which my trail shoes got caught in if I wasn't careful.  There was no running up this hill, just hiking.  After that, there was a short downhill section into a trail that led to yet another big hill which we walked up every time.

The Sand Hill- view from the top

The last stretch of the course was running through an open pasture--the first part was mostly flat and downhill, followed by an uphill section which led back up to the start/finish.  There was no tree cover for this part, and as the day progressed, the temps rose to the mid-high 80's and the sun blazed down on us.  Sally and I began calling this section "The Desert".  We made sure to "save some water for the desert!" and to "Think of the ice cold water and sponges at the aid station after we cross the desert!".  It's the little things that get you through these tough moments :)

The first lap of the race went by fast...probably too fast (42 minutes!?)...but the weather was cool and it was overcast, and that made a huge difference.  The first 3 laps actually went by pretty fast and we completed 12 miles in 2 hrs 30 mins (that includes the aid station stops of course).  Once it began heating up, Sally and I agreed we needed to slow down.  Something she said really stood out to me "We just did 12 miles in good time, now it is gonna suck.  We just need to realize and accept that these laps in between the final 2 laps are going to be the toughest and we should walk more if we need to to save energy for a strong finish."  She was SO right about that.  We pushed each other, but stayed smart about it as well. 

It also helped that we tried not to focus so much on how far we still had to go in the beginning, but we broke it up into the 4 mile laps.  After the first lap, Sally said "You know what I feel like doing now? Running another 4 miles! It's just 4 miles!".  It was good to break it up and laugh about it as well.  After lap 5 (mile 20) my body was a little harder to trick with these antics...my feet were aching, I was burning up in the heat, and my run was becoming more of a shuffle/sloppy swish. 

Mokiki does the Sloppy Swish--see SNL skit if you're confused :)

The Sand Hill was so bright with the glare from the sun, and the climb time was slower and slower with each passing.  I kept saying to myself and to Sally "We just need to keep moving...running, walking, shuffling, whatever...we need to keep going and we will get it done.  We will finish this!"  Sally was also determined and encouraging.  We knew we would get it done! 

On lap 7 we hit the marathon mark and raised our hands in the air to give a little cheer.  The furthest I had run prior to this race was 24 miles, so that was a huge milestone for me.  Sally had done a marathon before, but each step after that 26.2 mark was the furthest she had ever gone.  And so we marked milestone after milestone with each step forward!

"The Desert"

Despite "the desert" sun, it was absolutely beautiful land

For the final lap I filled my water bottle with ice cold water, squeezed an ice cold sponge all over my head, and filled my sports bra with wonderful, glorious ICE!  Then we headed out for our victory lap.  We ran what we could, but also continued to walk a good portion of the hills and thick sandy areas.  Whenever we reached a relatively flat or downhill section we would say "Better run while we can!".  I knew the primary goal of the day was to cross the finish line...but I also knew that if we kept our pace, we would finish in under 8 hours, and that was even more exciting to me!  And so we moved along, enjoying this last lap...enjoying the LAST time we would sloppy swish through the thick sand, the LAST time we would climb up those 2 big hills, and the LAST time we would face "the desert" sun...and we did it all with smiles on our faces.  We knew we were ultrarunners and could not wait to cross the finish line and earn our finisher's award! 

We ran up that last hill together and gave all we had on the final stretch to the finish, crossing the line at 7:51:36! 

This occasion calls for the classic Jazz Hands pose

Sally and I--can you tell we are happy? :)

The Race Director, David, put the handmade medals over our heads and gave us hugs. He really did an awesome job at organizing this race and making sure we had everything we needed.  I want to send out a huge THANK YOU to all of the volunteers and the people who let us use their land as well.  It was a GREAT and CHALLENGING day, which ended with smiles all around!

And of course I am thankful for my new friend and run buddy, Sally.  She definitely made the whole experience much more enjoyable.  It could have been a very lonely 32 miles otherwise, and I am sure I would have had at least one mental breakdown somewhere on Sand Hill had she not been with me :) 

Dreams DO come true!

It feels GOOD to be an ultrarunner! :)

*****Nutrition Notes*****

Only water to drink
1 Salt tab each lap (8 total)
1 salted caramel GU each lap except the last lap (7 total)
1 pack GU Chomps
3 orange wedges
1 banana
1/2 serving Gluten Free Pretzels
1/2 roasted sweet potato with sea salt and a little olive oil
14 oz coconut water

I added in more REAL food for this race and omitted GU brew since it messed up my stomach at the last race.  This time I had no GI issues and felt great nutrition-wise!