My First Ever Promise Land

 

My First Ever Promise Land 50k

    My dad, Todd Thomas, has run the Cornelius Creek aid station for several years. My whole family had gone with  him for several years. Such was the case with the 2021 Promise Land. I went with my parents, three brothers, and younger sister to camp the night before the race. We woke up at 6 or 6:30 to set up the aid station. The fastest runners normally get to Cornelius Creek for the first time between 7:30 and 8 in the morning. Along with a bunch of other volunteers we set up the aid station and waited for the runners to start coming in. 

    At Cornelius Creek the runners get to the aid station 17 miles into the race, go run a nine mile loop, and then come back to the aid station a second time. Some of the fastest runners can do those nine miles in about an hour. Because of this there is a period of time when the runners are coming in from both sides. It's a very busy aid station, but it's also very enjoyable. My parents know a lot of the local runners, so every few minutes someone they knew would come in. 

    After all the runners had come through Cornelius Creek the second time, about 26 miles into the race, we packed up the aid station and headed to the finish. I decided that I wanted to run Promise Land the following year. Because why not, right?

    In September of 2021 I ran my first ultra. The Iron Mountain 30 miler in Damascus, Virginia. It was hard, but my dad informed me that Promise Land would be a lot harder. 
    In early 2022 I started doing a little bit of training for Promise Land. I ran the Holiday Lake 25k in February.  After that I didn't really run much for three weeks because a week after that we took a two week trip to Disney World. After we returned from that I knew that I definitely needed to start training. 

    My parents took me to both of the Promise Land training runs. On those my mom ran with me. After the training runs I was still really nervous for the actual race. My mom was also running the race, though my dad was running the Cornelius Creek aid station again. My mom and I were going to sleep in our car at the Promise Land camp. 

    My mom and I got to the camp at about 6 the night before the race. Every runner had to bring a dessert, but we just brought a box of cookies. There was also pizza. The race briefing was at 7:30 so before that I just followed my mom around while she talked to all the people she knew. 

    Horton, the race director, started the race briefing at 7:15. I had never been to one of his race briefings before, except for Hellgate 2021 when my mom was running and we didn't get there until the race briefing was practically over. So I wasn't sure what to expect. Whatever I was expecting, it wasn't what happened.

    He started out by making a bunch of people stand up. People like Rachel Spaulding, who was seeded to win for women, or Jordan Chang who was going to run a double Promise Land. After that he talked about the course and the aid stations. He REALLY liked to say "I don't know". He talked about the heat and how the runners should make sure to hydrate, and to cool off in the springs if needed. He started asking my mom about the stuff my dad would have at his aid station, like popsicles and ice cream sandwiches. And then he did the unthinkable.

    He made ME stand up in front of a crowd of people, something I don't really like to do. He made me answer a bunch of questions. He asked me how old I was. I said I was fourteen. He asked me if I'd ever run an ultra before. I told him that I had run the Iron Mountain 30 in September. "Okay." He said. "So this will be your first REAL ultra."

    Because that's not daunting at all. 

    After the race briefing somebody started a HUGE fire. I stayed with my mom a little while, but I ended up going to the car a little before nine. I didn't fall asleep until about 10 though. The next morning we woke up super early, but not bright and early. We woke up at 4:45 and started eating and packing and such. We had to check-in again race morning, so we walked over to do that. 

    The race started at 5:30 and it also started with a three mile hike. My mom and I had already decided to do that section together. So we ran about the first mile and then hiked the next about one and a half miles together. At the top of the climb was the first aid station so I stopped to fill up my water bottle and she kept going. I didn't catch up with her for the whole rest of the race. 

    The next section was about six miles long. It started out with some rolling hills. I was drinking water, but I didn't start eating anything until about a mile left in that section. I ran by myself for the first few miles, but at about mile six a college student named Sophia caught up with me. 

    She told me that she had been running with some of her friends, who had been at the Promise Land training runs and told her about me. She said it was her first ultra, but she was on the track and cross country team at Liberty. She asked if I'd ever done cross country or track. I told her that I'd been on the homeschoolers cross country team, the Pacers, for one season in 2019. To my surprise she had been on the Pacers too, but not at the same time that I had been. 

    So I ran with her for the next couple miles. After a mile or two her friends from the training run caught up with us. They were two college students that I recognized from the training runs. One of them introduced himself as Ryan and I never got the other ones name. They said that I had been ahead of them at both of the training runs. Well that stressed me out a little bit, because if I had been ahead of them at the training runs, why wasn't I ahead of them now?

    At about mile nine or nine and a half was the second aid station, run by Jordan Cooter. Everyone at that aid station was very friendly. I just refilled my water bottle and then I headed back out. I was still running with Sophia. 

    We had to run about two miles up and then two miles down before the next aid station, Sunset Fields. During the uphill section Sophia got in front of me, and was in front of me for the rest of the day. I was still running with her two friends. While we were running/hiking up that section Helen MacDermott caught up with us. She was really nice. She said that she designed the shirts for Promise Land, which is really cool. 

    When we got to the top of that hill it was mile eleven and we were at the highest point in the race. The next section was two miles downhill, and Helen, Ryan and the other college student all passed me. Running downhill is not exactly my strong suit. At the end of that downhill we got to the Sunset Fields aid station. The people there were very nice but I didn't stay at the aid station very long. I just refilled my water bottle and kept going. 

    The next section was about four and a half miles mostly downhill to Cornelius Creek. I ran that section okay but not great. I passed the guy named Ryan that I met earlier. He was sitting on the side of the trail, having some sort of foot pain.

    I got my feet wet passing through one of the creeks. It felt really good but then my feet bothered me for the rest of the day. 

    After the creeks we were practically to the aid station. I'm not sure what time I got to Cornelius Creek, but it was over three and a half hours. When I got to the aid station my dad gave me some Cherry Coke and some Oreos. I stayed at that aid station for a minute or two, refilled my bottle and stuff and then set out for the nine mile loop. 

    I was given two Oreos but I'm pretty sure that one of them got thrown at the road. The next two miles were on a gravel road, a little bit downhill. Ryan passed me like a half a mile out of the aid station. I had to stop and loosen one of my shoes because my right foot was starting to hurt. 

    After those two miles it was about a mile, maybe a little more, to Blake's aid station, Colon's Hollow. His aid station was so quiet you didn't notice it until you were right up on it.

    Once I got there I refilled my water bottle and took some pickles. Mike Mitchell offered me a popsicle but I didn't take it. At that point I was about twenty miles in. The next section was six miles long and it was rolling hills until we got back to Cornelius Creek for the second time. I didn't really like that section.

    Before the race started a couple different people had told me that the race really gets hard after you go through Colon's Hollow. I didn't really know what they meant until I got to that point in the race. I tried to run some of the hills, but I ended up walking like eighty percent of the uphill. I just hiked mostly. When I got to the swampy section right before the creek crossing I was super excited. 

    When I got to the actual creek crossing itself my dad and Cooper were there. My dad went with me back to the aid station. I got my water bottle filled and got a bag of gummy bears and Swedish fish for the hike up the falls. My dad offered to run with me for the last eight miles, and I took him up on his offer. 

    We started up the falls. My Dad wanted me to pass ten people on the climb, but I wasn't sure about that. Right off the bat we got passed by a college student named Kevin Kreh. My dad told me to eat, and I did. 

    But only the Swedish fish. 

    It felt like we hiked almost a mile before we passed anyone. But after we passed one person we started passing people far more frequently. About a mile from the top things got a lot harder for me, which was mainly because of those stupid stairs.

    Which by the way I'm pretty sure there are 187 of, but I forgot to ask Horton so I don't know. 

    But the last mile up the falls was the worst. I just trudged up the hill until we got to Sunset Fields. And I actually ended up passing nine people on the climb, including one of the college students I had been running with earlier.

    Close enough. 

    After that it was a five mile downhill to the finish. It wasn't exactly fun. the first two and a half are on trails, with one little hill. Except for it felt like a huge hill so I walked it. I did pretty good on that  downhill section. Well I feel like I did, and that's what counts. I passed Helen MacDermott on that section. 

    When we got to the end of the trail part we had to do the two and a half mile uphill we started on, but this time downhill. I started running really fast down that hill, letting gravity do most of the work. I ended up passing Ryan not far into that section. 

    I ran as fast I could for the first mile and a half of that section, but then I slowed down, for two reasons. 

    #1 being that I had been telling myself since the top of the hill that I was almost to the one mile to go, almost to one mile to go. It didn't hit me until I got there that that meant I still had an entire MILE left. 

    #2 being that the road started to flatten out around that point.

    So while I felt like I was pushing harder, I definitely slowed down on that mile. After I trudged through that last mile I finally got to the Promise Land Camp. I started running faster, pushing down that last one hundred feet until I crossed the finish line. 

    My time was 7:37:43. I was happy with that, and you know happy to be done. I was officially the youngest finisher of Promise Land 50k. And also really tired. 

-Bailey