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Dirty German Endurance Fest - 50K - RunUltra Marathon


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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States
Uber Endurance Sports
75F / 24C
Sunny
Total Time = 8h 00m
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = f50-59
Age Group Rank = 2/
Pre-race routine:

Craig drove up to my house on Friday night and then we drove to Philly on Saturday morning. Sunday we were up very early and arrived at the race site over an hour and a half before start time. Craig was pretty nervous with this being his first ultra and first major trail event.

Event warmup:

None. The crowd at the beginning of a trail 50K ensures that you go out slow and give yourself a warmup.
Run
  • 5h 59m 40s
  • 31.07 miles
  • 11m 35s  min/mile
Comments:

This was special getting to run this with Craig. We have done so many of our key races together and to share his first ultra was great.
The plan was to do a 3:1 interval. I had warned him that we would not be able to start the intervals for probably a couple of miles until the crowd thinned out on the trail. It actually thinned out pretty good and before the two mile mark we were on our race plan, we did cut some walks short or push the run interval to stay ahead of other groups at times just to alleviate some of the leap frogging. Second lap was much better since the 25K runners were no longer on the course.

We had an excellent first lap and were enjoying the day tremendously. Finished the first lap, porta john break and we both changed socks and shoes and were back out on the course to start the second lap right at 3 hours. This was a good 15 minutes faster then I had expected. Craig was developing a blister so wanted to change socks. Decided since he was changing that I would change out of the Sportiva's and into the Hokas. Some of the gravel sections were rocky enough that the Hokas were the better option.

Into the second lap Craig's knee started to bother him and when we got to the pavement it became serious pain. He had a tear repaired in this knee a couple of years ago and his pain today had very bad symptoms. With about 3 miles to go he insisted that I just go ahead. He had stopped several times just to stand and let the pain subside, it hurt every step whether he walked or ran. I didn't want to leave him but I knew that if I didn't he would continue to try to run on it as hard as he could in order to not totally destroy my race so I sadly continued without him.

Started doing the calculations and knew that I was going to be very close to the six hour mark. I knew my Garmin was tracking the mileage short but didn't know exactly how short. Craig had the interval watch so I no longer had my 3:1 timer. Decided that I was close enough that I would just run whatever was runnable and see what happened. As I got closer I was sure that if I really pushed I could sneak in under six. Passed two women in the final half mile and neither even tried to counter. I was very excited to cross the line and see that 5:59 time.

The really bad news on this race is Craig's knee. He is supposed to be doing the 50 miler with me next month and is signed up for two half ironmen later in the fall. His goal is the Umstead 100 with me next year.

The really good news on this race is that I had NO back pain and NO searing pain down my left leg!!! The spinal injection worked. I really didn't think it had cuz my weekly runs were still hurting me. Guess maybe I have to just stay off pavement completely. Even the pavement section of the race didn't send me into pain. To actually run pain free was absolutely incredible. But how I hate that now Craig is injured.
Post race
Warm down:

Waited for Craig to finish then we sat in the creek and cooled our legs.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Back issues and being forced to do so much pool running lately.




Last updated: 2012-05-13 12:00 AM
Running
05:59:40 | 31.07 miles | 11m 35s  min/mile
Age Group: 2/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Good
Course: Dirty German 50K, Philadelphia, PA Two loop course. Very runnable, mostly a bridle trail which was rockier and narrower than the Umstead bridle trail with some actual single track and about 2 miles on each loop of an asphalt trail which was no fun on the first lap and turned into a disaster on the second lap.
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized?
Events on-time?
Lots of volunteers?
Plenty of drinks?
Post race activities:
Race evaluation [1-5]

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2012-05-22 7:22 PM

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Extreme Veteran
357
1001001002525
Ft. Myers, Florida
Subject: Dirty German Endurance Fest - 50K


2012-05-23 12:13 PM
in reply to: #4223926

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Champion
5312
5000100100100
Calgary
Subject: RE: Dirty German Endurance Fest - 50K
hey nice race. Nice thing about your injections, whatever they are. Running without pain is key. congrats.
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