My Cocodona 2(1)50 experience.
Well, I DNF'd at 150. I think a lot of things probably compounded my experience, but what eventually took me out was that all of the ligaments in my right leg seized up and I couldn't move my foot anymore. My knee swelled up too, which has never happened to me.
The beginning of the race was fine. It was a little cooler and cloudy, but nothing crazy yet. A girl got bitten by a rattlesnake 1.1 miles in. She was ahead of me and was laying on the trail waiting for the medic when I ran by. They eventually determined it was a dry bite and let her continue after holding her an hour.
The first couple of aid stations/water drops were kind of hectic but most people were still in good spirits. Then, we hit the mud. It was awful. It was sticky and pretty deep in some spots. Up through camp W into Whiskey Row, I was probably back of the middle of the pack. I was alone for a lot of the time, but I also spent a lot of time running with a few other people. When we rolled into the aid stations, there were friendly and knowledgable volunteers. Everyone was covered in mud. We were doing some very steep climbs that were all mud. I took a nap at whiskey row because our airbnb was right there.
I feel like I started to slow down a little here and at each aid station, my cushion lessened as my knee and foot slowly stopped working. Everything is kind of a jumble.
The aid stations got less impressive as I went on. It almost felt like some of them were starting to close up before I even got there, even though I was still a little ahead. Iron King was just a tent on the sidewalk by a neighborhood. I was really looking forward to Fain Ranch, but there was no energy when I got there. Someone had said that their tent collapsed earlier in the day from the rain. I guess from watching the live feed, everything seemed more impressive and grand than it actually was.
The fields that we ran through before and after Fain were all mud. I took a couple steps and ended up knee deep in it. I also went through the fields in the dark, so navigating was a little more tough. There was also a lot of trash scattered around.
I knew there would be some road running to get from trail to trail but I think I just didn't realize how much of the course would just be boring. I'm not sure if knowing less or more would have benefitted me. I also took a fall running down into Jerome. AggieOO was with me and thought it was a rough fall, but it was pretty normal for me. I don't know how I hadn't fallen before that.
So I ended up making 150 miles with 23,000 feet of gain. I thought my quads were going to be destroyed, but I really wasn't sore at all except for my foot and knee. I probably could have made it one more section, but I don't know if I would have made the cutoff.
I'm still kind of in a blur about the race because I was expecting some incredible existential experience, and I didn't get it.
Tomorrow, I'm going to sign up for the Sedona 125, and will plan to go back to Cocodona in 2027. In the meantime, I'm going to work on my speed and my climbing legs. I don't want to be so close to cutoffs. I learned the hard way that in a 200, if you are too close to cutoffs, you have no time to troubleshoot, and you're going to need that time to troubleshoot and sleep.
I am still disappointed because I thought I could do it, but I'll be back. If it had been a 200 instead of 250, I probably would have tried to gut it out, but 100 more miles just seemed impossible at the time.
