Notes
Crown King Scramble 50K....My first (only?) ultra. Started at Lake Pleasant and went north 31 miles to Crown King, AZ.
Started race with Chris Patters and Brian Chernauskas.
Race distance and time changed to official. Finished 106/133.
Just a brutal brutal race. The first 15 miles were tough, but I was doing pretty well through the 15 mile aide station. I struggled horribly from Mile 16 through Mile 19. Patters left me behind about Mile 16 (and wound up finishing about 45 minutes ahead of us). Brian passed me about Mile 18 and kept on going. I almost dropped out at the Mile 19 aide station, but got quite a bit of encouragement from Brian and other runners. I sat at that aide station for quite awhile. Had some coke. Got my frozen Gatorade bottle and then decided to try and make it to the next aide station (Mile 22.3). The course "flattens out" a little bit from 19-24, and I felt a lot better through this section. I walked fairly briskly and even ran a little bit at times. Caught up with Brian about Mile 24 or so. Pretty much stayed with him through the finish.
The course got very steep again about Mile 25, but by this time I knew I could finish if I just kept putting one foot in front of the other. I sat down a few times along the course to rest my legs and sat at each aide station for quite awhile.
The scenery was beautiful and finishing this race was quite an accomplishment. However, I don't know that I'll ever try anything like this again. If I do, I need to figure out electrolytes and such. I didn't feel very well for much of this race and dealt with some cramping issues for most of the 2nd half.