Salem Lake Frosty Fifty 50K 2020 Race Report

My third 50K and a ramp-up race to Uwharrie 40!

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Just four days into the new year and I’ve already completed my first race of 2020 - nay, my first ULTRA of 2020! 50K #3 is officially in the books for me after the Salem Lake Frosty Fifty on January 4.

Side note: I would do fancier photos and a fancier race report blog post, but I’m feeling both lazy and a sense of urgency to get something posted in a timely manner, so CliffsNotes version and cell phone pics are what you get this time!

Pre-Race

I only signed up for Frosty Fifty in mid-December. My training for Uwharrie 40 and Umstead 100 so far has been disappointing - long slogs through cold rain, holiday distractions, stress, lack of motivation in cold dark mornings, and some mental roadblocks have all derailed the quality of my training. So in mid-December as I was lamenting the difficulty of getting through some long runs I thought, “Hey, Frosty Fifty is cheap and is kinda local. I can just sign up for that and have a long supported training run! A 50K race is a good way to force myself to run long and train for those longer races.”

So yeah. That’s how I managed to get myself into that mess.

The good news is the race was in Winston-Salem so my husband and I went up early to visit my father-in-law the day before and do the packet pick-up.

PRO TIP: Make sure you navigate to the Salem Lake marina/boathouse. DON’T just blindly navigate to Salem Lake. (We did the latter and it took us to the closest edge of the lake. We then had to backtrack and take a 15 minute detour around the lake to get to the marina. I’m pretty sure it would have been faster to walk the trail from the industrial center we were at to the marina, but whatever.)

ALSO PRO TIP: There’s a lot of construction going on around Winston-Salem right now, including interstate and highway construction. These are major projects that are supposed to go on for a few years, so if you’re reading this between 2020 and 2022 (actually, knowing DoT construction timelines make that 2025) go ahead and add 20 minutes to any estimated commute time just in case you hit construction traffic. And read your pre-race email because the race director was pretty good about explaining road closures and detours.

The packet pick-up was in the boathouse at the marina and was super chill - a few volunteers hanging out, keeping things organized, checking names, and handing out goodies. And the goodies were simple - bib, shirt, done. The race includes two distances - 25K and 50K - and a 50K relay, so depending on your race option you got a different color long-sleeve tech shirt. The course is a 7.75 mile loop around Salem Lake - 4 loops for the 50K, 2 loops for the 25K, and 1 loop per team member for the relay.

Since we spent the night in Winston-Salem we got to sleep in a little bit on race morning. I enjoyed the extra sleep and some time to putter around for all the pre-race ritual stuff (tea! UCAN! picking out the perfect hat!) but McCrae was less than thrilled to find when we arrived at the marina that all the close parking lots were full and we were directed to the larger lot that was half a mile from the boathouse. Meh. The extra walking just means I had a half mile warm-up ruck carrying the bucket of goodies I’d packed. Since I was treating the race as a training run…well…let’s just say I overpacked. I had my vest since I wanted to make sure I was training with the vest. And I had a big bucket of food items, since I wanted to try out some different foods. Yes, yes, I know, never try something new on race day. Unless you’re treating that race day as a training run. Then try ALL THE THINGS! Goldfish, crackers, trail mix, peanut butter sandwiches, GUs, UCAN, whatever, they all went into the bucket.

And the bucket went with me a half mile up the road to the boathouse. With McCrae. Who would watch the bucket for me for the next six hours.

I have a very good husband, don’t I?

Since we had the unexpected warm-up trek I didn’t have quite as long to prep for the start line as expected. Bathroom break, a few waves to familiar faces in the crowd, fussing over whether or not to wear a rain jacket, and some dynamic movements to get the blood flowing was all I had time for before I needed to be in the starting chute and ready to go.

In previous years this race has been very cold (even snowy!) and I was ready for cold. But 2020? Nope, we got rain before the start line. You could say that “fortunately” the rain stopped within the first mile of the race, but I’m not sure if that was such a fortunate thing after all because race conditions were wet, hot, and humid. I mean…60 degrees in January?! WHAT THE HECK?! North Carolina, it’s bad enough I have to heat train during the summer but in January too?? COME ON! The rain might have been a blessing if it had cooled us down a bit.

Yep. Stupid NC weather means I got heat and humidity in January. Bah! Humbug.

Lap 1 - Miles 1 to 7.75

The first lap was fine enough. I ran with Laurie for the whole time and kept my friend Amy in sight. The trail was compact gravel skirting the edge of Salem Lake with only a couple small hills and a little paved out-and-back section towards the end of the loop to get the appropriate mileage. It was a bit crowded at the start with all the 25K and 50K runners jostling for space on the narrow trail, but I made an effort to keep my pace easy and hold back. Just after the aid station at mile 3.5 I got a huge boost from a fellow Oiselle Volée member Vanessa who had come out to cheer, yay!!

Lap 2 - Miles 7.75 to 15.5

Lap two I managed to keep up with Laurie but I struggled. I wasn’t sure which shoes to wear for this race since it was technically a trail surface but all the compact gravel felt more like road impact to my feet. And halfway through lap two the soles of my feet were BURNING. I was severely undertrained for the race which was part of the problem, but also my feet kept sliding around in my shoes - looking at them now my soles look like two giant hot spots, all tender and milky. (Mmmmm feet, the ultrarunner’s second favorite conversation topic.) I had also picked up a bag of goldfish from McCrae at the marina. I hadn’t eaten much the first lap - I had this idea that maybe I’d try to stay in fat-burning range and transition to simple sugars towards the end of the race - so I avoided GUs for the first lap and went straight for goldfish. But the goldfish were super dry in my mouth and I could barely choke them down (literally choke, Laurie thought I was about to die on mile 9) so I ended up just carrying around a bag of goldfish the whole 8 mile lap. Plus I was chafing EVERYWHERE. I chafed around my bra, I chafed at the sleeves of my shirt, I chafed in places you don’t even want to imagine.

So at the end of lap two I dropped the goldfish, swapped into my road shoes, and stripped off my yellow shirt and put on my Oiselle singlet. Ah! Sweet relief! My friends Brenda and Mary Lee who had done the 25K were there and cheered me as I came through the marina and seeing their excited faces was a huge boost!

Lap 3 - Miles 15.5 to 23.25

But oh my. Lap three was a strugglefest. Laurie started to pull ahead and I lagged quite a bit. This was where I really felt the lack of training on my legs, so I forgave myself for not being as prepared as I should have been and embraced the training run mentality. I listened to my audiobook for a bit (The Paris Wife* by Paula McLain, all about Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway ::swoon::) and puttered on around the lake. By now I was starting to recognize some of the turns and nuances of the trail. The Salem Lake trail is not exactly scenic but it beats a poke in the eye. In January (even a hot 60 degree January) it’s all grey and brown. Grey-brown gravel. Grey-brown water. Grey-brown sky. Grey-brown fingers and coves of the lake stretching into the land, creating twists and turns along the trail as it skirts the water’s edge. Grey-brown Great Blue Heron huddled in a cove around mile 6. Grey-brown sticky rotting leaves piled at the edge of the trail. Grey-brown mud splatters on the calves of all the runners around me. Grey-brown parking lots and greenway pavement leading back to aid stations and the start line.

At some point I had to take a salt tab. The goldfish hadn’t given me much of a boost with salt or carbs and my quads and calves were doing the “I’m-about-to-cramp” twinges in the January heat, so I sucked on a salt tab for a mile and was happy it didn’t upset my stomach.

But it wasn’t not all bad. It was January and it was a relatively easy course with friendly runners and it was better than sitting around indoors. The water lapped gently and occasionally there was a cardinal or other songbird streaking through the woods. It’s a natural area, but it’s not wild. It’s an ultramarathon but it’s not crazy hard. Friendly. Accessible. Cheerful, despite the grey. Just past the aid station (where Vanessa was cheering for the first lap) a woman noticed my Oiselle singlet and asked me about it. She said she was thinking of joining up, hooray! Hooray for ultrarunners and January races and camaraderie! Hooray for Oreos and Bugles and PB&Js!

Still, my legs were killing me, my feet were killing me, and I just wanted the whole thing to be over.

Lap 4 - Miles 23.25 to 31

When I came through the marina area to start lap four McCrae must have known my legs, stamina, and mentality were flagging. He asked, “Do you want me to run with you?” and I responded, “I would love that!” And so he stashed the bucket quickly into the car (which he’d apparently moved close to the marina after all the 25K runners had cleared out) and dashed out to accompany me on the trail.

His company was a huge boost to my performance. He cajoled me to keep running when I wanted to walk, to trot and then run any flats and downhills. He pepped me up and made me laugh and it was suddenly such a nice day to be outside running despite the grey-brown world and the heat and my burning legs and feet. I went from mostly walking to mostly running and started overtaking runners who had been as much as 30 minutes ahead of me. The earworm that had been plaguing me for most of the race transitioned from Third Eye Blind’s Jumper to some indie folk tunes.

And suddenly the miles were slipping away, I was at the aid station to the out-and-back and I ran forward, smiling, knowing McCrae would go straight up the hill to meet me at the finish line.

And that’s exactly how it all played out, plus several Fleet Feet running friends cheering me at the finish and three adorable T-Rexes with posters like “You’ll be Dino-Sore Tomorrow” who were cheering for their mom who finished right around me.

Besides a finisher’s medal (a handmade imprinted clay medallion for the 50K and a sparkly frosty medal for the 25K) there was Foothills beer and snacks and soda inside the boathouse for finishers. Don’t ask me what snacks exactly, all I remember was McCrae bringing me a GIANT chocolate chip cookie we’d bought the night before and I only had eyes for that. Plus I couldn’t really sit/stand/walk afterwards so my world consisted of just that cookie for a little while.

Results

I ended up with a time of 6:04:10.3 (11:43 pace). Lap 3 was by far my worst, but laps 2 and 4 were surprisingly comparable (thanks to McCrae!)

Split 1: 1:21:45 (10:31 pace)
Split 2: 1:29:40 (11:33 pace)
Split 3: 1:41:51 (13:07 pace)
Split 4: 1:30:55 (11:42 pace)

It’s certainly not a huge or glamorous race, but it’s well organized, full of friendly familiar faces, and is a pretty easy course (all things considering - it was just 1,000 feet of vertical gain over the whole 50K). There were really only two or three decent-sized hills along the course - one of them leading away from the trail to the finish line aid station before the out-and-back and a decent hill up from the aid station to the actual finish line, plus another hill or two along the trail. Though I will note that by lap 4 you’ll notice every bit of rolling incline along the trail, trust me. All in all it was a good training run and I certainly recommend it to anyone who wants to tackle a 50K but is at all anxious about the distance or nervous about trails.