Race Recap: Forest Freak 50k

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Obvious disclaimers:
1 - Long post alert
2 - I know I haven't blogged in a very very long time. Sorry 😁
3 - It will be split into at least 2 parts because I wanted to tell the backstory as well.

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I am an ultrarunner.

Those words still don't seem real.  But yet on May 13th, 2017 I made the surprising dream of being an ultrarunner a reality.

I've witnessed the incredible ultrarunning community in action now for a couple years through my husband's many races and through my crewing and volunteering.  It is heartbreaking and heart-changing and the most amazing thing to watch. And I wanted to be a part of that.

Plus if you know me pretty well, you know I'm not into trendy or what everyone else is doing.  I've been known to go the opposite way of trendy.  If everyone else is doing a certain thing, it turns me off to that thing. There's nothing wrong with that popular thing, I just have become a person who bucks the status quo for unique experiences and who doesn't want to do what everyone else is doing. So ultrarunning is on the rise but still quite an enigma, especially among women.  Watch the mini-movie "Life in a Day" highlighting several women from the Western States 100 Endurance Run (including my favorite, Kaci Lickteig a.k.a. "Pixie Ninja") and you'll want to run an ultra too. 😊

I personally only know a handful of ladies who've finished an ultra in eastern NC.  They are a rare, tough, bad*** group.  And I wanted in.  I wanted to be one of the only chicks I knew crazy enough to accomplish it.

Knowing my schedule (working full time, wife, mama, family, friends, church, etc) I began to look for one that I could do within a reasonable time frame for training while it was still cooler outside.  I set my sights for May. Knowing my complete hatred for hills but my obsession for nature, I wanted a flat trail race.  Hahahaha.  If you're not a runner, let me tell you - flat trail races are hard to come by.  I picked the Gamelands 50k.  And 2 weeks later, they made the announcement that they wouldn't be holding the race in 2017.  Bummer.

I researched some more and picked the Forest Freak 50k, which is associated with the Knock on Wood Race Series put on my Upstate Ultra in Greenville, SC.  If you can run an ultra coordinated by these guys, I'd highly recommend it ...the RD sends out witty emails to keep it fun, the race has a small town feel (I believe only 35 signed up for the 100 miler & maybe 100 signed up for the 50k?), it's held at a nice park with awesome facilities to hold such an event.  And the course - the course was absolutely gorgeous.  There are no words to describe the breathtaking beauty of this 5.02 mile loop.  Little did I know that that beauty would also be a beast that would chew me up and spit me out with a vengeance...

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