Well, this was a new one for me. It started last year, but I did not run it. It is only about one hour from my home. Donna was unable to go with me, since she is recovering from pneumonia. I will really miss her tomorrow, when I run in Blue Springs. This is my running partner's birthday and his first trail ultra. We run down together and I gave him 20 ounce water bottle just like mine for his 53rd birthday. At the start it was in the upper 40's, but it was up to 72 degrees at the end, which was a surprise. The heat was not a bother, since we had a lot of shade with all the trees. This course is pretty average with hills for a 50k, but it was a lot rockier than most trail runs. We start up a hill on pavement for about a tenth of a mile run before the trails. Their are about 200 runners total. Maybe 50 in the 50k. About 100 yards into the trails I fall for the first time just before the rocks. It is muddy, but not near as bad as I thought. They must of gotten a lot less rain than we did. It had rained about 4 days in a row finally stopping the day before this 50k. We had several inches of rain, but other areas had more and some much less. God did not spread it out evenly. The trail is muddy, but not the mud holes I expected at all. The first mile I am going a little fast at a 9:00 pace and leaving John behind for the first half. This half is for me and I will help John through the second half. John has run nearly 90 marathons. He used to run sub 3:00 marathons, but now he and I run about the same although I do push myself more, a trait of mine. After a couple of miles I start running at a comfortable 10 minute pace. Their are not a lot of 50k runners around, but a lot of half marathon runners, which will be with me until 8.8 mile aid station. Today I feel really good. I hope to break 7:00, but I will stay with John in the second half. The rocks will slow me down more than I thought. The rocks are everywhere. We run a lot around a very large fishing lake, Lake Perry. Donna told me it was popular with fishermen, but I did not see anyone fishing. The first aid station is at 4.8 miles. I feel great and I am still running with a lot of half marathon runners. I get to wondering if I took a wrong turn. At this point I did not know we ran together until 8.8 miles into the run. I have now fell down twice, but neither one was bad. I did have to retie my left shoe twice. I have one of John's car keys on it. We drove up together for this one. The next 4 miles I only fell down once, but got a little dazed, if you can be dazed a little. It cut me up at the base of my right pinky finger. It bleeds a little, but not much. Near mile 7 I run with Sophia. I thought, that I never met her, but later I find out she is the original mudbabe. It is a group of women, that are part of a local running group that I am a member of. I see her posting emails all the time, but thought she was another young lady running the half. I did know a group of them were running today. This will have more meaning during my run on Sunday. Soghia tells me she has been using me as a pacer for 3 or 4 miles. At the Mile 8.8 aid station she makes the turn to the finish and I do a loop before going on the same trail to the finish, but I do not see her again. They ask me at this aid station if I am the runner that has run all fifty states and so many marathons and ultras. My friend, Ben Holmes, was in front of me. He must to told them. He puts on a lot of local races and he started the local running club, that I mentioned earlier, so he is well known locally. This small loop did not seem quite as rocky, but it was hilly. Going into the final 5+ miles I feel great and I am doing well. I see another 50k runner here and there. I fall another 3 times in the final 5 miles to the end of the first loop for a total of six falls. I run the final 2 miles of it with a guy of 25 and a couple of young women. They are trying the do the first half under 3 hours, but it appears they will miss it by a little. I do run with them. The guy is trying to beat everyone younger than him. I tell him, that I am trying to out run everyone older than me, but I believe I am the oldest one in the 50k today. The 4 of us finish the first half in 3:05:40. Better than I thought. John comes in 4 minutes behind me. We stay another 9 minutes filling up on stuff. Finally, John is ready to go. We run about 4 miles together at a steady pace. I fall down 2 more times. The 8th time knocked the wind out of me. Shortly after this John takes off. He will pay for this later. It is a long day for him and he wants to get it over. I run my own race. I do not want to burn myself out with another run tomorrow. With about 5 miles to go I get into my Zone. I feel fresh again. I am passing one runner after another, that had put me behind earlier. I almost forgot my falling count is now up to 11. In this last 5 miles I will retie my left shoe two more times for a total of 4 times. Just before the final four miles I have my 13th and worst fall. I hit the ground very hard and luckily I did not land on a rock. I finally get up, but I am still dazed. I have to walk some. I am having a difficult time going in a straight course. I keep this up for about half a mile. I am still not 100% but I am able to run slowly. Another half of a mile I feel fine again. With a little less than three miles to go I hook up with a fellow running near my pace, Allen. We run together for a couple of miles at a good steady pace. I do fall down two more times with Allen. He helps me up each time. Then coming around a bend with about 3/4 of a mile to the finish we see my friend, John, walking. I try to get him to run with Allen and me, but he cannot do it. I fall back with John and we run in together. We finish with 7:26. John is so happy about finishing his first trail 50k. Allen and I talk for awhile. Then at the drawing John won a pair of sunglasses and I won a stocking cap. I was glad that neither one of us won one the T-shirts. We have a lot of them. My final fall count was 15 falls and 4 times retying my left shoe. Both of them records for me. I sure hope to never break either one of them. Next is October 26th at the Blue Springs 50/50. I have entered the 50k. I sure wish Donna was not sick. I will really miss her tomorrow. Things could become ulgy. I have never done two ultras in the same weekend, but there is always the first time. TomD

That sounds like a nasty trail race with all the rocks, etc. Falling 15 times in the race says a lot about the conditions. I've never had any doubts about you being tough but this takes it to a new level. Congratulations on a fine race and I hope the one on Sunday went well. TomS

Tom.... Man!!! Ouch!!! You keep setting the bar higher and higher. You are in a whole new league. Thanks for the RR

I cheated and read the other one first.... That's a lot of falls - tough course, and yet you ran so well the next day - you continue to amaze me! I hope Donna feels better soon.