This one is pretty flat with a hill here and there, but all of them small and not rolling at all. This can be safely called flat. It is in the 40's at the the start and into the 60's in the afternoon. There is a 15-20 mph wind. This one has an early start of 6:00, but most all the runners took the 7:00 start except the 50-milers. All but one of the 17 50-milers take the early start. I do not like early starts, besides I am running the 50k and I really needed that extra hour of sleep. I failed to mention that I am this weekend with three teeth giving me pain. My denist could not fit me in until the morning of November 4th. I try not the take anything for it. I think it diminishes my proformance. The course has two loops. The first one is a 4.5 mile out and back for 9 miles. The other one is a 4 mile out and back for 8 miles. The marathon has a special start to get in the point two. Then the half and 50k has a special turnaround. The 50-miler run the 9 miler twice and the 8 miler 4 times. We start out running the 9 mile out and back. The course is almost totally on the crushed rock trail with a very small amount of concrete, when you go under a couple of roads. At the start I am running with the same two young ladies, that I ran with early last year. They are both running the half marathon, but their friend is running the 50k. After running with them for a little over 6 miles the four of us make a wrong turn. Before we notice we had run 3 tenths of a mile, so we had to back track the same distance. At the time none of us really cared, but it will make a difference in my run later. We finish the first 9 miles in 1:36. I do not spend much time at aid stations normally, so after I got my water I was off again. On my way I see the half turn around and 50k turn around. It helped break up the course, since there are no mile markers. This is very normal for trail runs. I run the next 5 miles at a 10 minute pace, then I meet a guy going by talking to runners. He becomes interested in me and he paces me the 3 miles to the next aid station at a 9 minute pace. I do not mine. I feel great. I tell him if I can keep this up to the marathon distance and feel good, I just might run the 50-miler. Has we near the aid station he greets me good luck and with my name he will go online to see how I finished. Going so fast I slow down the next 9 mile out and back to just under 11 minutes. I just cannot believe how great I feel. At the marathon distance I am at 4:32 and feeling very fresh. I tell the RD, Lou, a 50-stater himself, that I was switching to the 50-miler. He said, "All Right". It made him seem happy. He told me last year no one had never done that before. I get my cell and carry with me. I call Donna and let her know that I might not finish until 6:00pm. When I tell her why she tells me. "If you have any kind of trouble you stop. Your health is more important to me than any 50-miler, besides you are crazy even to try this." Now I have to put together an unexpected game plan. I decide to try run between 11;30 to 12:00 miles as long as I could and go for a sub 10:30 although I knew it may become difficult to break 11 hours, because of yesterday. I used the half mark, 2.05 miles turn around, as a 24 minute goal, the 50k turn around, 2.5 miles, as 6 minute goal and the 4 mile aid station as a 18 minute goal. This will help me greatly to keep my pace. I now start on doing this course of 3 out and backs. I spend about one minute at each aid station. The first out and back I run a 1:32, which I feel great about. I did slow down for a bit between mile 29.5 and 31 for some reason. I did not feel so good, but then I felt great again. Just a little odd, but I was very happy about the 8 mile pace. Shortly after I leave the aid station I get a call from Sophia the original mudbabe, this will mean something if you read my RR of Rock Creek, which I ran the day before. She caught me totally off guard. She wished me good luck. Donna had gotten online there members of my local running group and told them what her crazy husband was doing. It was really neat. Donna calls me off and on until Mile 47. The next 8 miles I go very steady and I can hardly believe what is happening. I do not have one sore muscle, I am not exhausted, and I just might have a PR for a 50-miler. This will be my 15th and my PR is 9:11:59. Near mile 44 the wind has picked up to 30 mph and it is now a real bother. It was not to bad before this. I finish this lap at 1:28. How I am getting faster, I have know idea at all. Heading out for my last lap I know this will be very tough. The wind is causing problems and I can not see how I will be able to keep running another 8 miles without walking a good piece of it. I decide to do my best and put the rest of it in God's hands. Going in I see that I need a 1:35 for a PR, since I lose a minute at the last aid station it is 47 minutes each way. I need to run better than 12 minutes still, that 47 minutes each lap. Going out the wind is mostly to my back. At the half turnaround I am 3 minutes under for 21 minutes. I am still running, but the wind is helping me quite a bit. At the 50k turnaround I pick up another minute, I ran it in 5 minutes. At the aid station I picked up another minute, 17 minutes. I did the first 4 miles in 43 minutes. Now instead of having 47 minutes I have 51 minutes, actually nearly 52 minutes. My time at the aid station was very short. On the way back there was a strong wind which has now become even stronger. At times it felt like I was being blown away. I am going to keep my legs going no matter now strong this wind thinks it is. I actually ran the next 1.5 miles in 18 minutes, just one minute slower, but the worst is yet to come. The next half of a mile I some how ran in 5 miles. Now with a little over 2 miles to go I have 29 minutes. Now all I have to do is not walk and I will easily have a PR. The wind is blowing like crazy. It is difficult to stay on the trail at times, but I am determined not to let this wind make me a walker. I not only keep my pace, but I do my best to go a little faster. I can see a 9:05 to 9:07 is possible. I keep running I see the road crossing which is only a little over a quarter of a mile to the finish, but I know the trail zig-zags around trees to get there. As I get to the road crossing I am very surprised to see what is on my watch, 8:59. I am running as hard as I can into the wind. On the other side of the road I have trees around me and the wind is not a bother here. I finish with a new PR of 9:02:36. I bettered my old PR by 9:23. One of the volunteers told me why I did so well is that I had an unfair advantage over the other runners. I had a warm up race the day before. I credit this performance to determination. I finished with no pain, but I was tired. When I called Donna she simply said, "You are my PR." Next is Mid-Southern Marathon in Wynne, AR, on Saturday, November 1st. The next day I will run a marathon Springfield, MO. TomD

Aren't our bodies strange things? You started to get faster at the end with no pain!!! Amazing accomplishment that is really mind-boggling to me. Congratulations on the PR!

Tom, Glad I've been reading your RRs for some time...or I wouldn't have believed how you demolished this 50M after running a rocky 50K. No mention of bruises, aches, just determination and a new PR. You do the unbelieveable. Hope Donna feels better.

I tell the RD, Lou, a 50-stater himself, that I was switching to the 50-miler. He said, "All Right". It made him seem happy. He told me last year no one had never done that before.

I`m thinking that thousands of runners face the reality of downgrading their ultra distances every year but this is probably a Guinness Book feat.

I finished with no pain, but I was tired.

Tom, I just can't say it enough - you are amazing! Congratulations on your new PR!

What's next, Tom? 50 milers in each of the 50 states?

WOW that is all I can say just WOW! You are really something else Tom way to go.