After the gun sounded I took off and was on the heels of the leader. The first 1/2 mi is on the road, so it was pretty easy holding a 6:30 pace then for that time. We hopped on the trail and my HR rose in the lower 160s. After a few miles and some of those rocky climbs, the HR was above LT and only raising. I dialed it back a bit and let that guy go.

I took it easy for the next 2-3 miles on the uphills and held low 7s on the "flats". Even then the HR was still a bit around LT and still too high. Another guy that was following me passed and took off. I was kinda glad to see him go by. About a mile after he passed I started to walk the uphills and take it a little easier to corral the HR into a more reasonable zone - though, it basically stayed about 160-165 the whole race.

After that last guy passed me I was running all alone in 3rd place. I kept chugging along and passed some solos, saw Amy and other Donkais out there a couple of times. This whole trail is pretty deep in the woods with a few road crossing which are good for spectating. Running alone was really nice as I didn't have to worry about anything. Just running, watching my HR, going forward, and watching the trail so I don't wipe out.

Overall I felt pretty good though I was slowly deteriorating from the course. Around mile 24 I tripped on a root but caught myself. As I caught myself the inside my right leg cramped up pretty hard. I stopped to stretch it out, popped a couple of S-Caps and continued on. It bothered me for most of the remainder of the race and I could feel the same area getting tight on the other leg. Must be the rocks. Those rocks were also really getting to my right foot also. The downhills were really getting painful. I had to ease up on those as well to keep the pounding to a minimum.

Around mile 27 the 4th place guy finally caught up to me. With walking the hills, my legs near cramping and taking my last Gu at 3 hrs (I think I dropped 1-2 on the course) I was just waiting for him. I was running off of guts here and nothing more. He came and went and I kept on. But, after 1-1.5 miles I caught up to him and he was within 50 ft of me. I saw the "2 miles to go" mark and started to kick what I could to catch him. Well, that kick, even though it wasnt much, lasted about 1/2 mi and stripped me of everything that was left in me. I let him go and ran in at a steady pace to finish the race up. As I was running in to finish Chris's little boy, Will, was yelling "Run faster, run faster". Ok, Will! So I gave it short last kick for the last .01 to the finish. Awesome! My first 50k complete! And a tough 50k course at that too!

Not go out so fast. Control my HR better. Bring more Gu.

Walked around a bit. Stretched and tried to work out some cramping and lactate acid. After about 30' I started to dip into the post race chili.


The course, lack of trail running and overall lack from training since IMWI. I felt really undertrained coming into this race.


I'd hate to mark the "Overall course based on my ability" as "Too Hard" for me sounding like a puss, so I'll mark "Just Right" even though the course was tough as hell. Too Hard = no finish, so Just Right seems about the correct rating for this race for me.

Given the course I'm happy with how the race went. I totally underestimated the trail and some of my running stats reflects that. This was by far the toughest run that I've ever done. Not so much the distance, but the course - 100%. I ended up with 4th Overall and 3rd male. The guy that took 3rd overall was also in the Master's Division, so he took the win there instead of 3rd OA.