Trail Monster Bradbury "Fat Ass" 50k (Read 358 times)

Trail Monster Running "Fat Ass" 50k today - it was a lot of work. "No Fees, No Awards, No Wimps" as a motto was perfect - it was not a run for the faint of heart. There were 11 of us at the start, and the "50k" was actually 3 laps on a 10.6 mile loop. I was only intending to run 2 loops from the get go (I am training for a marathon and not a 50 or 100 miler like some of the guys, after all) and I'm quite pleased with that. The course starts at the Bradbury parking lot and goes down route 9 for a quarter or half of a mile before turning onto Minot Rd. Minot Rd ends and there was about a half mile of unbroken trail. A couple of the guys have been out on it in snowshoes over the past week, but with an extra foot of snow Friday night through Saturday it wasn't the most ideal running conditions. Lap 2 wasn't as bad after a dozen people packed it down, except that if you slipped off to the side there was nothing to stop you from continuing to go down through the snow into the river. I fell a good 5 or 6 times on that second lap; not sure how many times on the first lap. Once off the trail, it was back to a dirt road for a mile or a mile and a half to get to the power lines, which were followed to the connecting trail to Bradbury and back to the parking lot by way of the link trail. There was no wind until the woods near Bradbury on the first loop, and it was at our back on the power trails on the second loop thankfully. It had some good gusts. While the footing was pretty good on the 1st lap, it was soft on the 2nd one after the sun had started to have its way with it. Even walking you slid and slipped through the snow. My Garmin watch battery died as I got out of the car, so I didn't have a watch on during the run. There was an "official" stop watch at the aid station, which was the back of a pickup truck in the parking lot. I baked some protein bars that came out pretty well for everyone to share. I made a snow angel off the side of the trail at one point.

Wow, I can't believe you ran that! I wasn't even willing to run on the streets in North Yarmouth today!! Oh, well, I'm a lot older than you. Good job surviving those conditions!

Maybe next year, when I can run at least one of the loops, and there will probably be not QUITE so much unpacked snow. I am truly uncoordinated, and today's conditions would probably have done me in.