(photos down in reply)

Ran the Ironmasters 50k today. Ran it last year with the goal of making the cutoff and gave a hard effort to finish in 9:47, which I was real happy about. Winner last year was a 2:19 marathoner who finished the 50k in over 5 hours. He got lost, but still, he won and it is a tough course.

Today I crossed the starting line dead last, which I always do, then pushed hard (for me) from the start, kinda like a 260 lb Jim Walmsley. I figured if I blow up, I blow up, but I'm going to take a shot at the elite 9 hour barrier.

And...

Finished in 8:21. Boom. Almost 1.5 hours faster than last year. I felt awesome the whole time. It got hard, of course, but I kept the pedal down and never blew up. Don't know my placing, it'll still be back of the pack, but I passed a lot of people before spending the last few hours completely alone with no one in sight.

Everything went perfect. Didn't get lost, although a couple times I stopped and waited until someone behind knew which way to go. I fell once, but it was on the only six feet of the course that wasn't sharp rocks.

What a fun day!

1.5 hr PR. Not to shabby.  Congratulations on what sounds like a tough trail.

 

I didn't volunteer this year. I usually mark most of the first 20 miles (from Woodrow Road to Mt Creek area up to group camping area), but they way I've been feeling, I told them I just couldn't do it.

Thanks. And thanks for volunteering in the past.

One of the points where we stopped and waited, we couldn't see any orange and there wasn't any clear path any direction and we didn't know whether to go up or down. A guy came behind us and said he knew we should go down by the creek. When we got down there, we saw that the flags had been trampled down into the muck.

The other spot, we had a group and we came out to a road with a little parking area next to a park-like area and didn't know which way to go. A guy came from behind and said we should go left. The speculation there was that non-race people had removed the flags.

There were a few times when it was uncomfortably long between orange flags, but mostly it was places that had a pretty clear path that you could assume you should stay on. Up the hill on mile 26 orange was real sparse and I was all alone, but an advantage in being back of the pack is that you could just follow the trampled areas, and also I knew from last year it went up along that stream and then over the top.

Thanks. And thanks for volunteering in the past.

 

One of the points where we stopped and waited, we couldn't see any orange and there wasn't any clear path any direction and we didn't know whether to go up or down. A guy came behind us and said he knew we should go down by the creek. When we got down there, we saw that the flags had been trampled down into the muck.

 

The other spot, we had a group and we came out to a road with a little parking area next to a park-like area and didn't know which way to go. A guy came from behind and said we should go left. The speculation there was that non-race people had removed the flags.

 

There were a few times when it was uncomfortably long between orange flags, but mostly it was places that had a pretty clear path that you could assume you should stay on. Up the hill on mile 26 orange was real sparse and I was all alone, but an advantage in being back of the pack is that you could just follow the trampled areas, and also I knew from last year it went up along that stream and then over the top.

Karen B., the RD is a hiker, and I always fussed with her about the difference between hiking markings and running markings. I used to put those orange ribbons everywhere I could so you could always see the next one.  I know who marked where I usually did, and he's also a hiker.  I run there a lot, so know exactly where you were missing markings.

On mile 26, there's only one trail and it goes up and up and then up again. 

Every year, it seems. they have issues with ribbons being pulled down. The last year I ran it, a section that I had marked the day before was missing markings, so I knew for a fact there was foul play.  MTB'ers messed with things 2-3 years ago and switched arrows for the 15k and 50k turn. We had a lot of 50k runners go the short way (the 15k way) and miss Hammond Rocks. Luckily it was late in the race, and din't effect results, but some were upset that they missed the whole 31+ miles (It's always closer to 32). also the 15k runners had all passed that turn or they really would have been upset.

Nice job GC100K...I actually thought the same thing as Warden...your improving from hanging out here.    Himmm a 260 pound Jim Walmsley...does that mean you were wearing little shorts and a ripped up mid drift t-shirt?  We need pictures of that. 

Awesome. Congratulations. Starting dead last rarely puts you finishing dead last.

Late reply but that is a great improvement. You don't have to sell me on the difficulty of the course. I felt I ran pretty good there last year (especially the second half) but still my slowest 50k in terms of time. Hang around here another year and the sub8 will be yours!!

Great job.

What  was your training like for the race?