Sweetest guy ever, I *may* have teared up when Cesar gave me a copy of the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne with this inscription. He also gave me a beautiful black walking stick which, after conspiring with the streets of New Orleans, has already claimed my blood. That is a different story.
Cesar Torres is the race director of Q50 Races. These are ultramarathons that he puts on around the globe. I met Cesar (pronounced Si-Zar), well, I didn't really meet him for a while. He friended me out of nowhere on Facebook a while back, then we went through this thing where he thought he needed a resume (the guy doesn't need a resume, he's quite self-explanatory) and I don't know, we became friends after that. He's a lot like me except a guy, tall, and even more hyper if that's possible. I don't know, it might not be possible to have more energy than me. ANYWAY,
I saw him for the first time at mile 10 when he was running a water station for the NOLA R'n'R Marathon and demanded he gave me a hug. It was the mile that I was becoming tired and "zombified", and he had on this crazy wig...anyway, again, fast friends as far as I was concerned. He then asked me to be the Guest of Honor for his 50 mile trail race coming up (3 distances to choose from - half marathon, full, and ultra) along with Arturo Barrios, Olympian and world record holder in several distances for multiple years. Needless to say I was incredibly honored and a little starstruck. On top of that I knew I was going to be surrounded by dedicated runners that worked as hard as I did to accomplish feats of their own, which is always the best inspiration for me.
None of this prepared me for what was to come.
This was my first experience with trail racing. I've raced road races, and I know that crowd. I got to Bogue Chitto the day before to see the trails, find my cabin, etc. I brought a book to read and was set up for a quiet evening. Somehow I lost my freaking cane before I went, and Cesar and his crew were busy with some last minute trail adjustments (heavy rains had changed some things) so first thing I did after checking in with the fabulous Jeff Delaune was practice walking up and down hills, over and over and over.
Walkin 'round without a cane
Then I met Danny Burke from Covington and of Life Somatics. He was there to volunteer, and also to teach people about Somatics, which is a form of therapy that retrains your muscles to perform correctly after repetitive use (such as running). He worked with me and it was amazing. This is useful for anyone, and with me, where my brain is trying to re-learn how to move my muscles correctly with the different signals it's getting from my spinal cord, it was really helpful. Better than a massage. I encourage you to check it out.
I also met Charles Dye, Cat Thompson, Paige Johnson, Nicole Latour, and so many other awesome people. Volunteering for this race is a ridiculous amount of fun. Everyone is focused and gets their job done, but is also silly and nice to each other. This type of work environment is so incredibly suited for me that I felt very comfortable right away, even though Cesar was the only person I had ever met there and that was only once before.
SO, that night I was hopeful to meet the legendary Arturo Barrios, read a good book, and get some good sleep in. This is not necessarily what everyone else had in mind. I accomplished one of these things. First thing I noticed walking into the cabin with these guys was Charles's Black Flag shirt, which I commented on right away, and which was followed up by immediate teasing from Arturo. It didn't take 2 minutes for tequila to come out and the night continued from there. Incredible. Felt like I knew these guys all my life.
I was not expecting to have a world champion, a well-respected race director, and the amazing Nicole to go for my trademark "everybody stick their tongues out" picture. At least not right away!
Charles Dye's pic of my most awesome selfie
My most awesome selfie
The next morning, "Paige" came in the cabin at 5-something am ringing a cowbell to wake us up and get started. Woohoo, race day! I was stoked to see what this was all about. We made it out to the course and got ready for the ultramarathoners to get started. What an awesome group of people!
They're about to take off!
From there I was way busier than I thought. I rode around with Cesar checking everyone on the course, and hung out with Arturo a lot. Arturo was incredibly awesome to talk to, and he had a lot of advice for this broken-necked single mother veterinarian. Having 5 children of his own, the advice that stuck with me the most was to let my kid have all the confidence in the world. I was telling him how Snakebyte was perhaps a little over-confident because he did so well in his first few races and triathlon, and his undefeated soccer team. I said I think he needs his ass kicked a little at this point because he doesn't feel the need to practice or train anymore. Arturo says to let him be and have that confidence, he'll get his ass kicked soon enough and self confidence is so important to a successful life that I wouldn't be doing him any favors by squashing it.
Atrturo and me. Tri-Cajuns, he agreed to give a clinic when he's back in town!
Photo credit Nicole Decker. Check her out here: ndeckerrunner
Taking pics of all the runners, shouting encouragement until he can't speak anymore, constantly making sure trail markings were okay...Cesar is fantastic. He also doesn't allow paper or plastic on the trails, and gives away hand-made pottery from local artists, and walking sticks, and other awesomeness as prizes instead of typical medals and buckles. There is no one out there better suited to run trail races.
Kid's race - chase that donkey!
The runner's themselves - well this is the biggest difference I found in road vs. trail racing. These guys were incredibly supportive of each other. Everyone was cheering everyone in. I saw people helping each other on the trails, striking up conversations and running together, all smiles and encouragement. I met so many people that knew my story, or that I knew virtually but never had met in real life. They approached me and just started sharing. Funny story, one of these ladies stopped by at check-in just to say she admired me. We got to talking and I told her I was a vet, and come to find out she's one too! She said her husband and her (both vets) own a clinic in Baton Rouge - Perkins Road Veterinary Hospital. Ya'll. This is where I worked right before I took off for vet school. She and her husband had bought it out about 2 months before I left. We didn't remember each other because it was for such a short period of time so long ago, but I used to work for these people! Awesome!
All in all, trail runners are a great group of people that I'm stoked to be more involved with in the future.
*Q50 Racers - here are the pics I took! I'm also linking them to the Facebook event site and giving them to Cesar! Here: Q50 Race Photos
Arturo Barrios and I have made a pact to run the half marathon part of this race next year. If the rest of this blog post hasn't convinced you to try Q50 out, you totally should could come out just to do it with us. Ya'll have a great one!
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