Going to try and keep this brief...

The race was held at Ringwood Park in NJ (just South of the NY border).  I live near there, I've been there, I had run 80% of the course before, I knew what I was getting into.  I had decided to do this race months ago when I found out there was a 50k in my "backyard", which had the added benefit of opening up a new park for me to run in.  Every time I run at Ringwood I leave thinking "boy those trails are tougher than I remember" and yesterday was not an exception.

Miles 1-20

After the first 6 miles I stopped leap frogging with most people and I was pretty much on my own.  The first 22 were really uneventful but enjoyable running.  I saw JByram2 on the out and back section of the trail, who appeared to be moving well...we bumped bottles and kept it moving.  The out and back was "action packed" as far as seeing people on the trail (the trail was busy with pedestrians/50k/25k).

Miles 20-24

I was moving really well and felt full of energy when out of nowhere I started feeling a sharp pain in my left foot (between big toe and second toe bones on the forefoot).  Eventually I stopped and massaged the area, which helped for about a half a mile.  I walked some but mostly ran through this section.  I would be passing my car at mile 24 and I was seriously considering just dropping at  this point.

Miles 24-31

Left the last aid station knowing there were only 7 miles to go.  When I started the race my game plan was to just get through the first 24 miles and crank it up during the last 7.  That didn't happen.  I walked and ran.  My legs weren't beat yet, but my feet and ankles were hurting.  I hated every step of those miles and I just wanted to be done.  I looked at my watch and figured out that I could probably beat 6:30 if I pushed a little.  I ran the last 1/2 mile and ended up crossing in 6:29x.

Take-aways

-Ringwood park hurts.  I consider myself someone who likes running on rocks, but I've never taken such a beating to the feet/ankles.  The whole entire course was rocks, not exaggerating.

-I'm glad I didn't sign myself up for a technical/difficult 50 miler...covering the distance will be enough of a challenge without a ton of elevation/technical terrain.

-Get back to the core workouts...my back and sides are much more sore this time than last time.

-I can tough out 11 miles if I need to

Good Job. I looked up the race on line and it looks like a lot of small rocks. I can see how that would beat up your feet. A 6:29 finish is pretty good.

Now you can recover for several days and then sign up for Blues Cruise this coming weekend .

Nice job for finishing when it got tough, congrats!

Hope the toe thing gets better!

Take care of your feet.  You kind of need them for running.  BTW - you did end up signing up for Stone Mill 50 right?  Not too many rocks there - you should kill it.

Congrats!

Congratulations, nice work toughing it out and getting the courage to run most of that last section!

Great job there, James. 6:anything is a great time on that despicable course.

Day dreamer. there are a lot of small rocks, lots of big ones too, with solid rock ridgelines on occasion.   and just enough dirt single track to let you relax and trip on the one lonely root sticking up all by itself.

I'll get my act together and finish start writing my RR.

Way to go. I understand you being happy that you didn't sign up for the 50 miler, but if you had signed up for it, you would have made the mental adjustments to deal with it. I don't think anything hurts any worse after 50K; it just hurts the same for a longer time.

Congratulations! Great job toughing it out finishing under 6:30. I hope your feet/ankle issues resolve themselves quickly.  Thanks for sharing the report.

Eric