Two weeks after Nationals I was back on the trails.  I ran one of the toughest 50 milers in the country.  This was also my first 50 miler.  I also hadn’t ran an ultra in over 3 years.  I was shooting for a time under 9 hours which I new was doable but it wouldn’t be easy. I was able to get in a few long (2 hour) training runs and did as much elevation as possible.  Think over one 3-day stretch I did over 5000ft of elevation gain.  With over 9000 feet of elevation gain this was a big help.

We arrived Friday night to a huge pasta dinner.  Baker was crewing for us and arrived as well.  I actually also ran into Ronny from Odyssey at the prerace meeting.  This is definitely his stomping ground near Lynshcburg, VA.

We woke up Saturday morning at 3am to drive to the race start.  It was COLD!!! The first 8 miles or so were along the road and I ran in the front pack at a good pace.  This was the plan as I knew I would die eventually.  I wanted to have a good time on this fast section.  After that we went into the woods for good and began our climbing.  Felt real good for the first 20 miles and then got a bad stitch which slowed me down considerable.  At that point I dropped out of the Top 10.  I pushed through the stitch but started hitting a wall about halfway in, right as I got to the biggest climb.

About halfway up the climb I decided to take a 20 minute break.  BAD IDEA!  So I cramped up real bad and was barely able to continue.  Once I worked out (walked) the cramps I slowly picked up the pace.  While I was walking I was just trying to keep moving so that I would be able to finish the race under the time limit.  There was no way I was going to get running again.  Once I started jogging a little again my old roommate Dan joined me for about 7 miles of the course including probably the toughest section of single-track.  This helped me get motivated again and get back in the mode of running after being devastated from the idea of how far my mistake had set me back.

As I started running on my own I was getting closer and closer to the finish.  I started feeling better physically and mentally.  I was really moving again.  I also realized I still had a chance to reach my goal time of 9 hours.  This pushed me even harder.  I was moving as fast as I could all the time.   For the last 10 miles or so I would say I was running around 8 min miles again.  Granted, there was a fair amount of downhill on this section.

At the finish I was greeted by our support crew, including my girlfriend Katie (who has decided to do her first ultra in February), and the race directors.  As I crossed the finish line I felt great.  I was willing to run at least another 10 miles.  The blood was flowing in my legs and my muscles were pumping.  It was a great finish. Official results 28th place in a time of 8:54:13.

I also learned after my finish that I was the Fastest Fatboy.  This is a division for people over 200 lbs.  The last 2 ultras I did I won this division as well.  I usually have to work up to race weight before weigh in and eat a big pre race meal but I make the cut.  I am sure I lose at least 10 lbs during the race

I look forward to racing this race again in the near future with goals of finishing Top 10 and shooting for 8 hours.  A feat accomplished by Baker a few years ago.

Lessons learned: Once you’ve been running fast for more than 2 hours don’t stop moving for more than what you need to grab food.  Walk and eat and then start running again when you can.  Even if you get really tired just walk as slow as you need to to rest up until you can run again.  50 miles is a long way.  Taking a few minutes to catch your breath and rest your legs so they can recover is not a bad thing.  It will actually help you in the long run.

-Brian