Notes
Beautiful weather, 59 degrees at the start. The race started out on the road for a half mile then turned onto the trail. I was in the lead pack with 4 others. Matt Mahoney was among us and some other guy that had run Western states so they chatted about that race.
The pace started out fairly slow but I was pretty happy sitting back and letting other people lead. No one really made a move until about 3 miles when we started doing some 7:20 ish miles. I stil felt pretty good and then we were down to 3 in the lead pack. (I think). I stayed in either 2nd or third for the rest of the lap. (Laps were 7.5 miles)
As we got to aid station 1 for the second time one of the leaders lost some time looking for his cooler for a refill and I didn't see where the other one went. When I got through it I didn't see anyone in front of me. I was pretty sure the other 2 were behind me but not positive. I started picking up the pace a little to see if anyone was in front but never caught anyone so was pretty sure I was in first.
I carried 4 gu's with me but only ended up taking 3 of them. I guess the spacing on the aid stations kind of messed up my plan. On every stop I didn't take the gu, i'd drink a cup of gatorade, take a cup of water and drink some of it then pour the rest over my head to keep me cool. Seemed to work pretty well I felt pretty comfortable the whole time. There were a few hills on the course and by the 3rd lap they were starting to kick my butt. Both up and down's were pretty tough by then. The only place I walked was really steep uphill climb out of a gulley, and I don't think walking was any slower than trying to run it. Last several miles were pretty tough and I kept thinking I was going to be caught. Ended up being about 16 minutes ahead of 2nd place. I'm sure that if I knew that, I would have slowed even more.
I am pretty happy with the race and think going out at a slower pace was the right thing. The terrain was only a little bit sandy in places and other than the 1 uphill totally runnable. Nice course and fun race. Shirt ended up being pretty cool with no advertising on the back and nothing obnoxious on the front. Won an IPOD shuffle which I gave to Karen to replace hers.
First 50k and 1st win.
Pics are here: http://www.jimbodoh.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=56028