Dances with Dirt Gnaw Bone 50k Ultra

   DWD Gnaw Bone was an awesome and extremely challenging trail race!  It was in Nashville, Indiana, a lovely small town in Southeastern Indiana that my mom and I have visited once or twice a year for as long as I can remember.  I knew basically what I was in for because I did the marathon distance of this race a couple years ago.  I also was pretty well prepared for the new-to-me distance of 50 kilometers, thanks to a very helpful book I've been reading called 'Relentless Forward Progress.'  I recommend it to any novice ultrarunners out there.

    I wore my American Triple T tri jersey, which ended up being a great idea because it sparked some great conversations with people I met along the way.  One woman, named Stacey, I met and ran with from around mile 4-11 was especially awesome and we had a lot in common.  She graduated from Ohio University in 2005 and now lives in Cincinnati.  She does triathlons too and has done an ironman (Louisville: which I hope to do next year).  She's getting married on September 20 this year (Ray and I are getting married September 20 of next year). 

    Due to a sizable amount of rain on the days leading up to the race, the course was extremely muddy in several areas (including within the first mile).  The horse trails were especially bad: it was like quicksand!  Luckily there were also several creek crossings to wash our feet off with.  I was glad to be wearing normal, meshy running shoes instead of getting trail running shoes like I would have if I'd had the money.  This helped the water and mud drain right out as I ran.

     There were several lovely uphill crazy parts, including one section (around mile 24) that I had to crawl up and grab onto tree limbs to avoid sliding backwards face first into the mud. There were some fairly smooth sections of trail, but some extremely tricky parts as well.  I managed to take only one tumble, around mile 8.  It didn't cause any injuries, other than cuts and a big ole' bruise (pictured on the right).  I've grown to kind of like bruises though: they make me feel hardcore. 


      Some of the views were amazing!  The best was at around mile 29: a former ski slope we ran down that overlooked some of the park.  I wish that Ray's GoPro I was borrowing had some battery power left at that point!  Videos I took on that will hopefully be uploaded at a later date, by the way. 

     I finished in about 8 and a half hours, not bad considering I had no time goal and considering the crazy challenging terrain.   I felt surprisingly good afterwards, no worse than with some of the marathons I've run.  The only new issue I had was actually a minor case of overhydration (the opposite problem of what I usually have).  I didn't sweat enough because of the pleasantly cool temperature to need all the water I drank and my hands were a bit swollen.  I have yet to master water and electrolyte balance while racing.

      My first ultramarathon will certainly not be my last.  I've now gone from marathon runner to ultrarunner.  And it feels amazing!