Notes
Blues Cruise 50K, this year the loop around Blue Marsh Lake run in reverse.
The forecast called for rain throughout the day, but we got lucky as it only rained a bit early on in the race. Going the opposite direction meant that there was a lot of congestion near the start as everyone tried to pile into the single file trail .
I took it slow due to my relatively low mileage training in the 2 or 3 months leading up to the race, so I was unsure how I'd fare at this distance.
In the first half I was running in small groups of 2 or 3 runners, but after the aid station at mile 17.5, I was alone until pretty much until I caught up with another group of runners after the aid station at 21 miles. Then the sun came out for a bit really warming things up, which I didn't like as I had opted to wear a long sleeve shirt since it was cold in the morning.
I started to feel side stitches coming on in the mid 20 miles, but nothing really bad came on.
Towards the end I kind of lost track as to how much further I had to go, but once I came onto the big rocky hill, I knew it was only a mile away. I tried to run up the hill as fast as I could and then pick up the pace from there to the finish.
First 12.5 miles in 2:10 (10:24 min/mile), picked up pace and first 17.5 in 2:57 (10:06 min/mile), but then slowed in the next 4 miles to hit mile 21 in 3:40 (10:28 min/mile, though mile 20 contained the largest hill on the course), then picked up the pace in the last 10 miles, doing the last 10 in 1:35 (9:30 min/mile).
So, this ended up being a 13 minute improvement over last year, plus I didn't roll my ankle like I did last year that really left it swollen for a whole week and a half. This year felt better all around, so I'm happy about that.