I made it! 50 miles in 11:38. I have lots of highlights. I recently got a new Canon digital camera that also takes little video clips. Here is a tour of the whole event:
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| preface | the night before | the start | mile 6 |
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| mile 15 | marathon to go | re-fueled | shade?! |
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| 4 to go | the finish |
I am discovering an ability to rapidly create a revisionist interpretation of physical pain. It is only two days since this ultra and my memory of the 8 hours of massive discomfort is already waning to the point that I am now pondering (good grief!) a 100 miler.
For the record, this was much much more painful than the Ironman. Maybe less physically taxing after the fact, but there was a grimace on almost every step of 30 plus miles.
I think my training was good (perhaps a bit abbreviated) but in hindsight I should have tried to simulate the course and conditions. This seemingly benign elevation profile proved somewhat problematic for me. That is a 35 mile incline and after several hours my hamstrings just shut down. The exposure was also severe, weather in the eighties with direct sun the entire way. It was billed as an "easy" 100 but the consensus was it wasn’t a walk in the park 50. I wore a GPS so you can also look at the MotionBased breakdown.
The experience was very inspiring. These events are entirely non-glam (watch my finish video) — start at the side of the road, finish in the woods. Your speed means nothing, only your will to get from A to B. Fortunately, the aid station folks were fantastic and my crew of Dad and Mahir were phenomenal, couldn’t have made it without them.
Watching the 100 milers turn around where I finished and head back down the trail was awe inspiring. Waking up the next morning and realizing that I would have been just finishing had I done another 50 gave me further pause. And yet, here I am contemplating it…
No Soap, Radio! 