This was my 4th year of running the Great Scorpion Trail 50k in Meridian Mississippi, and the conditions were just about perfect for it. My stomach was not.
January in Mississippi can be pretty fickle. We get rain, thunderstorms, tornados, highs in the 80s, lows in the teens: it's all over the map. This year, the Scorpion Trail 50k was to be my first race of 2023 since January 1st fell on a Sunday and the local Hattiesburg Steamwhistle 12k was moved from January 1st to December 31st. This was a benefit to me because like last year, I would have a full week between races. What happened back in 2020 was a bit tricky. Since the 1st fell on a Wednesday, I ran with my buddy Joy in the 12k, where she won 1st overall female, and I ended up with an age group award. But that meant there were only 2 days of rest between a hard 12.5 mile race and a 50k. That year I kinda bonked on the 50k (and Joy bonked the 25k). This year, a full week should have helped.
Looking at race conditions the week of, we were getting a cold front and so it looks like the temps at the start were likely to be in the upper 30s to the low 40s. It had rained on Tuesday of that week (in fact, more tornado warnings in the area), but it had been pretty dry since.
My training leading up to the race was less than ideal. Since this is a local(ish) 50k, I don't really have this race circled as an "A" race (I know, I know, it's still an ultra) I treat a lot of 50ks as "training races." My idea is that it's kind of boring and involves a lot of prep to say "I'm going to go run 30 miles and try to mentally get ready for a 50 miler, 100k, 100m, etc." Instead, the idea is to just sign up for a race and work on your race day plan for the "big" race in the practice race. Unfortunately, the end of semester was crazy with my illness around my 60 miler at Loup Garou (I still need to post that race report), and then the holidays are always tricky with diet (mine got completely out of control), the stress of the travel (we go to Texas), and then all the events and getting ready to start the work and academic year. Needless to say, my running has not be tip top as of late. I have been in the gym a decent amount, but I haven't been trail running and I haven't been doing any speed work.
So, with little training, I returned from our Christmas break in Texas. We usually get in town in time to do the Steamswhistle, which was held on December 31st and so I had a few days of local running before the Great Scorpion Trail on the 7th. Since I ran that race on Saturday the 31st, and I was feeling a bit tight in my hamstring, I took Sunday off and then decided to run 13 on Monday the 2nd since that was the last day of our holiday. A 7.5 mile race (which I ran pretty hard and got a PR by 3 minutes in) and a 13 just 5 days before the 50k isn't ideal, but my plan was that the 50k would just be part of my training, so my goal was to not taper. I had a three more regular weekday runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so I was going into the race having already run 28 miles that week.
The Night Before
One thing that was different this year was that I decided not to drive up the morning of the race. While I am frugal, I know that getting a bad night's sleep is sometimes the worst thing I can do before a race. I had a hotel e-giftcard from Marriott, so I decided to get a free (though not without an opportunity cost) room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites there in Meridian, less than 5 minutes from the park.
As I drove in Friday night I picked up a to-go meal from Chili's, got to my room and did some yoga before settling down for the night. Some good things and some not so great things I did before the race. I did not have a great fueling plan for the morning. I had my clif bar, honey stingers, and banana, but I didn't have a lot of forthought the night before about making sure I got plenty of food, coffee and (especially important) hydration. I didn't pay specific attention to my hydration. Even with the disaster that was Loup Garou this year, I specifically was downing water the night before. This time, it just kind of slipped my mind.
Race Day
So, the morning of, I wake up and get moving. I had a decent night's sleep and with the park being only 5 minutes away and the start time of 6:30, I was able to wake up just a bit earlier than my normal routine time (4:45 instead of 5) and get out. I didn't have any extra coffee, so I tried to down some extra from the hotel, but I just didn't get enough. And because I was focused on coffee, I wasn't also downing enough water.
At the start, I changed out of my jacket and warm up pants deciding to go with just short sleeve shirt, beanie and gloves at the start. It was starting off near 40 degrees but was supposed to be nearly 50 by the time I finished the first lap, so I wouldn't want any extra layers.
On the first lap, I decided to try to go out fast. The laps were 7.8 each, so I knew I would be back to refuel quickly. I decided to only take a handheld with water, no vest, no electrolytes (another mistake). The first part of the race can turn into a bit of a conga line since after an initial climb on a jeep road, you start running on some pretty twisty single track within the first .2 miles. I get behind a couple folks keeping a good pace and churn through the initial single track before being spit out on another jeep road along the lake. The sun was rising, and it was a super clear day. I already wanted to stop to take pictures, but I was hustling and new I that with the sun rising, so was the temperature, so I kept moving.
The Course
I think of this race in thirds. There's the first third that takes you up to the trail, onto the single track for a couple miles, up until you reach the second jeep road. The second third takes you into another single track where you climb a decent amount, hit the only aid station, come back to the same jeep road you left a few minutes ago and then hit that aid station again. From there, there is the a drop down to a creek that can be pretty slick and then a climb with a bunch of false summits before you get back to the original jeep road.
After that is my favorite part of the course--the final third where you can really run. You run on that jeep road for quite a bit of it, and though there are some long uphills, you lose the roots and rocks of the mountain bike trails and the constant ups and down that just beat up your legs. In the last half a mile or so, you get back on a trail, but it's a smooth curvy up and down that feels like a race track in comparison to the earlier part of the course.
Lap One
So, back to race day. After running along with some pretty fast runners at the beginning, we were all getting spread apart. The fastest of the 25k folks hadn't quite caught up, so it was a relatively quiet run and it was cool enough and early enough that there weren't a whole lot of folks at the park yet. Coming into the start/finish, there was one younger guy just in front of me, who happened to be partked two cars down. I grabbed a honey stinger, dropped off my gloves and beanie and switch to a running cap and I was off again just a minute behind him. My first lap was in 1:16:46, which was my fastest lap on the course ever by a whopping 7 minutes. My mindset at the beginning of the race was to treat it as a hard training race. I have a big winter/early spring race season and I needed a hard run. I ran all the uphills on that first lap and my first split showed it.
Lap Two
The second lap was much of the same. This time, I did stop for a picture on the lake and I grabbed some food from the aid station, but my goal of running it as hard as I could continued. I wasn't focused on time or place, though I wanted to finish sub 6 hours which I had only done once on that course. I wasn't really feeling fatigued and I was keeping up with the runner just ahead of me and finished the second lap in 1:23:10, which amazingly was my 2nd fastest split ever on the course. Out of 12 previous laps, my fastest had been 1:24 something and now my first and second lap had beat that time.
Meridian
Meridian Mississippi is about an hour and a half from Hattiesburg, where I've lived for about 15 years now (not counting my year away in Minnesota in 2021-22). It's a town that I've crossed through many more times than I've stopped at and visited. The trails for the Great Scorpion Trail 50k is at Bonita Lakes, which is just behind the main big box strip mall at the first major exit when going from East to West on I20/I59. Since we moved to Hattiesburg from the Atlanta area, this was a well worn path for me and my family. We would still visit friends in the Atlanta area for a number of years, I was involved with an Atlanta based non-profit, I would take students on an experiential learning trip in Atlanta from Hattiesburg, and my kids would go to summer camp in NC/SC area to the northeast of Atlanta. We would pass through Meridian without really giving it a second thought. On the way to and from, if I were to stop, I would wait until closer to the Alabama state line. When my older son went off to a math/science boarding school (Mississippi School for Math and Science in Columbus), I would take even more frequent trips, but rarely stop in Meridian. He eventually went to school in the Atlanta area, so yet again, more trips.
However, despite the number of times I passed through, I rarely thought to wonder what there was in Meridian to do. So, when in late 2018, I heard about a trail race that they had recently started in Meridian, I was like, "wait, what?" I had seen the exit to Bonita lakes off of MS 19 south, but I'd never stopped to check on the trails. Mississippi state parks are often "lake based" where there's a big lake for boating and a few other things but they don't have any hiking trails--very different from the Texas State Parks and Georgia State Parks that I was familiar with. Thus, a place called "Bonita Lakes" didn't seem that interesting. Regardless, they had a trail race there, so in 2020, I ran it for the first time and ran poorly due to the 12k just 3 days before, but ever since then I've been back every year.
Laps Three and Four
So, I get to lap 3, and usually this is when I start to seriously tire. I took a bit more time getting up the first hill and with the 25k traffic thinning out, it was getting quieter on the trail. I was now ahead of my buddy that finished around me on the first loop and the woman who was near us was now long gone. I stopped at the mid course aid station briefly to get some crackers and then kep moving. My split on this lap was 1:30:56 and my cumulative time was just over 4:10, so with a last lap of less than 1:48, I would make my goal time. By now the temps were getting to approach 70 degrees, and I realized I had made some mistakes. In my attempt to try to push my speed, I didn't take on enough water and electrolytes early. Food was only a minor issue in a 50k, but I was starting to feel my stomach really go and hurt and these GI issues usually wait until at least hour 5.
As I started lap 4, my legs felt much tighter and weaker. Now, I had only run one double digit run in the past 5 weeks and that was 5 days ago, so this could be a fitness issue. I continued to run as many uphills as I could but I found myself walking more and more. By the time I got to the aid station, I needed some calories and hydration, so I downed 3/4s of a cold can of coke and kept going. As I was drinking the coke, my buddy that I had been leap frogging with me the whole day passed me for the last time. The last stretch was still enjoyable, and the day was beautiful, but my running was not. As I came close to the finish, I made one last push and finished in 5:54:49, which was course best for me and good enough for a first place grandmaster's finish, 8th overall (a top 10 finish was a goal, too) and 7th male. The 1:43:56 final lap was ugly, but I was still able to get my sub 6 hour time.
In the post-mortem, I had a great day of racing, but more than anything else, I learned some valuable lessons. I've been struggling with my stomach during ultras for the last few years, but I still have yet to fully figure out what tweaks I need to do with my fueling and hydration to do to keep it from happening. I've had more success in the last few years in terms of PRs and age group trophies but I've also suffered more during my races. I know heat can effect things, but part of this blogging project is also to home in on what I still need to do to avoid my stomach from being so wretched that I can barely take fuel after a certain time.
As I got in my car that day, I had no appetite and my hands and face were tingling. I drove for an hour before I was able to stop and try to eat something. I got home and showered but it took another couple of hours before I really got my appetite back. I'd never felt so bad after a 50k, but I'd learned an important lesson about hydration and especially getting in enough electrolytes.
These were important lessons to learn since I had another ultra--a 108k coming up in just 3 weeks.
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