The run started at the Greenbush city hall/fire station with a short section of road until heading into the woods. It was cold and gonna rain eventually, so wore a tech top over my donkey top with arm warmers. My plan was simply to cover the distance at a casual pace with runaway. Not having seen the course, had no idea what to expect. I had done some runs at Lapham Peak and some trails by my house, but this made those look like a McDonalds playland- fist size rocks in big clusters, tons of tree roots, big azz climbs and descents, all pretty much veiled by leaves. There were a few sections in grass or with no cover, but the majority was pretty technical stuff for a first trail run.

Runaway and I just kinda chipped away at the miles, laughing upon seeing the many ankle twists and near azz over tea kettle falls. Nobody did fall, but the banging would eventually take a toll on runaways knee. I had my fuel belt and a bunch of Powergels, mimicking my MOO run plan of gels on the 00's 30's and salt tabs on the 15's and 45's, though at times it was hard to recall what was when due to not practicing it as much. With the leaves and nature of the course, you were constantly looking just ahead of you and needed to focus or eat major pie. We got a nice pick me up about mile 3 and 6 when we heard some EEEAAAWWing in the woods and it was TriDDS, firstnet911 and mutri.

First aid station was at mile 7 and it was stocked pretty well with goodies. Filled up bottles, had some pickles and pretzels and was off. From there it was just more fun in the woods until the 13.3 station.

Saw Yams on his way back as well as the leaders. I am pretty certain at this age I will never be a strong trail runner to the degree that the top guns were here. It seems to be a combination of fitness and, from my untrained eye, sheer reckless abandon, as these dudes were whipping through the course that would likely see me shatter my ankles of chalk. Big ups to those crazy mofos. That includes Yams!

About 15 in, runaway let me know his knee was hurtin for certain and didnt want to hold me up so I took off. It was gonna be a lonely rest of the way. Just kept churning em out. On the way back, the hills got hillier and some of the descents it felt like your legs couldnt stop the momentum if they wanted to. Much of the last 10 miles seemed like simply not wanting to biff and face plant as dehydration and eventually rain made the course even more treacherous to navigate. I felt the dreaded right arm cramp which means shut down is on the way about mile 27 so drank my fuel belt dry and took another gel and s cap off schedule. Saw the two mile point and just kept chuggin. Thats all you can do I guess. Sooper happy to be back on pavement to finish it up. The crew was at the finish to cheer me in, as well as Yams who finished an hour earlier. Got er done!

Nada. While I could have trained more, I am in a easier mindset these days after a tough summer of IM training. There were other folks that just did MOO who did it too. I am not so sure that a course like this is something I would want to do all the time cuz it was hella tough, but I could see doing this event again. Good challenge fo sho! Overall happy with the time in the context of what I wanted out of this event.

Endurox, ate a bit, chatted with the crew, mosied around and got into some warm clothes.


Tough course and lacking balls to run hard on stuff when I have no idea what is underneath (so trail running inexperience maybe?) as well as limited training since MOO.


On the heels of a production like Ironman, kinda neat to do a smaller event like this. The cap for the 50k and 50 miler total was 200 peeps. This was kind of in the middle of nowhere, so tougher to do hardcore race support and aid stations. It is a beautiful yet tough course and between the limited support and course, you best stay away if you are looking for luxury. Rugged all around and I loved it. They did have a nice spread at the aid stations, very kind volunteers and good eats afterwards. Thumbs up!