The Cowtown Ultramarathon Recap

Here are my race results with split times.

For those of you who follow me on facebook, you know that I ended up with a stress fracture during the Cowtown Ultramarathon. Even with that being said, this was by far the best race I have run. The crowd support was tremendous, the volunteers fantastic, and the cops even were getting into the spirit of The Cowtown by dancing while they directed traffic. It was a very good vibe, and I would completely, without a doubt do this race again. I'm already eyeing the ultra for next year so I can earn the sweet 3 year medal. I love my race bling!

This was my first ultramarathon, and it will forever hold a special place in my heart. If you are not familiar with the term ultramarathon, this is the term for any race over the traditional 26.2 mile length of a marathon. For the Cowtown Ultramarathon, the distance was a 50k or 31.07 miles. I had wanted to do this race after my first marathon, but I ended up with tendinitis in my right foot and could only get up to about 15 miles by mid-February of last year. So it had been on my radar for a while. I signed up for it this fall, right before my second marathon at the Rock N Roll San Antonio. After that race, I felt like I could do anything!

The Cowtown was also pretty special to me because I had quite a few runner friends running in it as well. Three friends were completing the ultra distance, two the marathon (their FIRST marathon too!), and one the half marathon. Since we are all from the North Dallas area, we decided to spend the night in Fort Worth (especially since the race started at 7:00 a.m.). We met around 1pm on Saturday and carpooled over to Fort Worth. We picked up our packets and browsed through the expo. I picked up some flyers for some upcoming triathlons and also got my 50k sticker. I couldn't wait to earn it and put it on my car!!

Packet pick up! 

After that, we went to the hotel, checked in and got all our gear ready for the morning. We had a big Italian supper to carb up and then went back to the hotel to rest and get ready for bed. I took a pre-race sleeping pill and was out by 9pm at the latest. I slept like a baby and when my alarm went off at 4:30am, I was surprised that two of the other girls had already gotten up and had their morning coffee. All four of us in our hotel room were running our first ultramarathon, so we were pretty excited and chatted with lots of nervous energy. The three other girls had a plan to finish in a time goal - or at least PR the marathon for one of the members. I was hoping to eek my way across the finish line in the 7.5 hour time limit. We ate our breakfast, had our cups of coffee, and headed down to the lobby to wait for the shuttle to take us to the race site.

We got on the shuttle with absolutely no problem and chatted with some others race on the way to the start line. After the short shuttle ride, we hopped off and saw a port o potty. We all decided to use the logic, "Never pass up a port o potty with no line on a race day" and took our first pre-race potty break. We happened upon our other running buddies at gear check and were able to take some pictures with them before hitting up the port o potties again. Second time in less than an hour! After that, the "fast" ultra girls went up to their starting corral and I happened upon my other running friends again and jumped into their corral with them. The two friends running the marathon planned to stay together the whole race, and my friend running the half decided to stick with me for the first 10 miles until the half split off from the full/ultra course. I was SO happy to be running with someone and my friend has one of the best attitudes ever. She was high fiving volunteers and spectators, yelling Thank You to people on the sidelines, and smiling at every photographer. It put me in such a happy mood and filled me with such joy. We chatted away the miles and soon enough we were at mile 6 and running through the Fort Worth Stockyards. I've only been to Fort Worth once, and have not visited the Stockyards. Running through this part of Fort Worth, though, really made me want to visit! Cute shops, a Western theme, and cobblestone streets (and trust me, I was making a concerted effort not to fall on my booty at this point - cobblestones really were not made for running on!); it was just very quaint. There were some little hills here, and as we rounded one, we ran into one of the marathon girls. She had been injured prior to the race and had sent the other marathoner up ahead to finish on her own (one of the hardest things as a runner is feeling guilty because you think you are holding someone back. I think she made the right decision to send her on - because no one wants to feel guilty AND in pain for 26.2 miles!); she knew we weren't too far behind her so she waited for us and we ran a few miles together.

It was a warm day; not crazy hot, but still warmer than the winter temps we had been having in Dallas lately. We had spent all winter training in 20's - 30's, with gusty winds, and now we were all wearing tank tops and shorts/skirts and sweating up a storm. I guzzled water and Powerade to prevent dehydration. By the time we encountered the Hill to End All Hills at mile 8 (we very rarely have hills in North Texas so this was a MAJOR hill to us and we were all a little scared about it; it was the part that we all thought we would crash and burn on), I had to pee. Kind badly. But I didn't want to stop this early on. I decided to keep trucking and make it to at least the half split before I stopped at the port o potty. My injured friend decided to walk after the big hill, so we lost her. My other friend high-fived me at the split and continued on to her last 3.1 miles.

I was making pretty decent time, and was feeling good during this time. I was pretty pumped up and the crowd was being so amazing. I was actually laughing at some of the signs. The people doing the ultra had an "ultramarathon" bib on their backs to differentiate them on the course (so that the marathoners wouldn't follow us as we had an out and back five mile section at mile 25), and I ran with a few different people and chatted with them about the race and what an absolutely gorgeous day it was. The spring-like weather was making everyone a little giddy I think. After the half marathon point (13.1 miles), I stopped and used the port o potty. I was still making decent time and was hitting all my marks (I aim to do 5 miles in under 1 hour, 10 miles in 2 hours or less, 15 miles in 3 hours or less, and 20 miles in right around 4 hours). I had been taking a gel every 45 minutes or so, alternating between the Cliff Shot Chocolate Cherry Turbo and the GU Salted Caramel. By about mile 15 though, I was HUNGRY! Or rungry :) Luckily, the fantastic crowd support and neighborhood associations that we ran by had orange slices, peanut M&M's, beer shots, gatorade, and goldfish crackers put out to refuel. I stopped at 3 more port o potties along the next few miles; clearly I was well hydrated! Thankfully I wasn't visiting them from gastric distress!!

Thanks Run Junkers for this gem

Things went along rather swimmingly until mile 22. And then I started to be in pain. Tremendous amounts of pain. My left leg had a sudden burst of shin splints. I stopped, stretched and jumped back into the run. I stretched again. I kept running. I walked. I ran. After I got up a decent pace, running didn't feel awful, but I was at the point where I knew I would have to walk again soon, and I knew I couldn't run 9 more miles. Every time I stopped to walk, I would have to psych myself back up to run since I knew it would be painful at first. I started to get hungry again too. I had a gel, but that wasn't cutting it any longer. I made it to mile 25 where I was met with shouts of, "Go Leyna! Go! GO! GOOO!" I had never been so happy to see my cheering squad in all my life. Or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich! I stopped for a brief moment to say hi to my friends and get the PBJ they had made for me and then I was off. That was probably the best feeling ever. If they had not been there, I don't know if I would've made it to the finish; quite the opposite from the San Antonio Rock N Roll Marathon where I was happy that I didn't see my family at mile 22 because I would have probably just walked off the course. At this race, I was determined to finish and seeing my friends there gave me the mental boost I needed.

So excited to see my girls... and that peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

I had a few bites of my sandwich and soldiered on. My leg was really hurting at this point and the sun was beating down too. So much for enjoying running on the beautiful day! It had suddenly gotten quite hot!! Shortly after I saw my friends, the ultramarathon split from the marathon course. At this point, I was elated. After my first son was born, I had a natural high that last for about 24-48 hours (even through a minor medical crisis that landed him in the NICU). It was at about mile 25.5 that I started to feel this same way. I had broken through "The Wall" and was now having a runner's high. It was almost like an out of body experience, though, because even though mentally I was feeling great, physically I was falling apart. Around mile 26, I felt something plop onto my foot and looked down to find strawberry jelly on my left shoe. I discovered that both of my hands were completely clenched and I had squeezed my PBJ sandwich into a messy pulp that was now leaking through a hole I had squeezed in the plastic baggie that held it. I remember frowning at the jelly mess on my shoe and then, not wanting to waste my pulverized sandwich, squeezed the remaining mushed up sandwich into my mouth. It was almost the consistency of baby food.

To keep my mind off of the pain, I decided to cheer on the other runners. The 5 miles added on for the ultra folks was an out and back course. Everyone that ran in the opposite direction, I cheered on by name (names were printed on bibs), gave high fives to, and told them only a few more miles. I stopped to stretch a few more times along the way, but I finally (FINALLY!!!!) made it to the turn-around point. There was a mini-celebration with an RV set up with a big banner for all the ultramarathoners to sign, a port o potty, food, beer shots, chips, and coca cola. I took a dixie cup of chips and it was the BEST thing ever. Like ever. I wanted to eat nothing but Ruffles chips for the rest of my life. Oh salty goodness. And I had heard that coca cola could calm a runner's stomach, so I took two dixie cups of that and almost immediately felt a pep in my step. I'm sure it was just imagined, but I really felt like I benefitted from the extra calories and the caffeine. As for the beer shots, I had often heard of ultrarunners using beer to carb up during a race. I wasn't sure if it was for me. Wouldn't that taste weird after running for 28 miles? Would it upset my stomach to run 3 more? At that point, I was feeling pretty punch-drunk anyway, so I decided to try it out. I took a dixie cup of Miller Light and one of Coors Light. The only thing that popped into my head was "You Only Live Once." How many chances in your life to drink beer during a 31 mile race?!? I loaded up on food/drinks and then headed back out. I was very slowly jogging by this point since walking hurt WAY more than running. I made it to mile 30 by continuing to cheer on the other ultra runners. There is something to be said about turning your negativity into positivity for other runners. I was definitely running through the pain at this point, which I would normally NOT recommend doing. And if I hadn't been so far into my race, or in a clearer mind-set, I probably would have just given up. Instead I carried on and kept at it. When no one else was around, I talked myself through each painful step by saying out loud, "Just. Keep. Moving. Forward." I repeated this with each word being a new footfall. It set my rhythm and reminded me that stopping wasn't an option. All I had to do was move forward and I would get there. I have to thank Swim Bike Mom for that quote - it really, really, really got me through those last painful miles.

Once the ultra course met back up with the marathon course, I knew I didn't have far to run. My watch chose to completely die at this point, so I didn't know my distance or how far I had run; just that my watch would only last 7 hours :) I was in pace with two other marathoners and we struck up a conversation about running skirts (my fave piece of running clothes!) and how they compared to shorts or capris. We were on a stretch of road that didn't offer anything very pretty to look at, so when I heard my name being shouted again and cheering, I almost cried it was so beautiful. Once again, my friends were there to cheer me on. It was the most glorious thing in the world because I knew I was almost finished. I could *almost* stop. I could *almost* be done with the pain of running. I saw them, and continued running. I could see the finisher's shoot now and I knew that I had done it. I had run a freaking ultramarathon! I heard my runner friends next - cheering me on too! They had finished their ultra and were standing by the finish line cheering me on. I raised my arms in exultation and almost cried. It was the most amazing feeling in the world.

I crossed the finish line and was handed my medal. My friends came over to me and high fived me on finishing - and my time! I finished my first 50k in 7 hours and 8 minutes. I was so ecstatic to be done and incredibly tired as well. My friends helped me get my free beer that came with the race and ushered me to where the finishers shirts were. We stood around and chatted and relived our races for a few minutes and then we decided to head out and back to Dallas.

The Cowtown Shirt, Ultramarathon Finisher's and my hard-earned medal

Our race was over and I was an ultramarathoner. It seemed unreal. We made it back to Dallas and I picked up my car and drove back home. My leg was still hurting, but I was convinced it was just shin splints. I was also assuming that my body was breaking down after running 31 miles. It wasn't until the next day that I learned I had a stress fracture in my left leg. Had I known then that I had a fractured leg, I would not have finished the race. And I would most assuredly not advice anyone to run with the pain I felt. Again, I will definitely be running this race again next year. This was by far the best race I have ever run in.