Notes
A good day in the Camden Hills at the 2nd annual Megunticook 50k. I recommend this race! A lot of rain leading up to this event. RD made note the trails were going to be wet, muddy and possibly dangerous in sections.
Led from the gun. Started on Tar going around the campground and than up the Mt. Battie auto rd. Started walking probably around 1.5 or so on the steep auto road. Playing it safe. The course was marking using white flagging that didn't stand on all that great but you could connect the dots. Each turn was marked with a cone and arrow. Couple of times throughout the course where I started to question myself especially on the Maidens Cliff trails. Kyle from Utah caught up to me on the Megunticook lookout area (4ish miles in). We flew down the hill to the multiuse trail. Wet, muddy and slippery. He continued to push me the rest of the race either right on my heels or just a few steps back.
Somehwere around Mile 14 I ran into a tree branch in the center of my chest/rib cage, close call. Luckily I was going uphill, downhill it could have been much worse.
It was good to have that push out there rather than running alone the whole time. My nutrition (Gel or waffle every 45min) was spot on but I do need a better way to take tailwind powder as the plastic baggie is really difficult to disperse to the bottle. Made quite the mess at the Ski shelter aid station (20 mi) trying to get enough tailwind into my bottle. The brutal climb up the Slope trail from mile 20-21.5 was heart wrenching. Again it continued to be wet and muddy. by the time we got over to Maidens cliff area I was starting to get quite tired and when the course markings ended up on the left and not the right I began to question myself and look at my phone app more to reassure myself I didn't miss a turn. At the Aid station at RTE52 (25mi) I should have taken just water, instead I took this crap called mio and it tasted absolutely horrible.
The final 4 miles from the aid station was a brutal climb followed by a traverse underneath Mnt. Megunticook across some decent singletrack but at this point (mile 27) i was dragging good, nothing sounded appetizing not even the snickers bar I packed. on I went. Kyle was still right there at mile 28 and 29. Right on my heels. We came out with a half mile to go on the campground road and he just turned it on with some impressive turnover to finish the race off. I tried to close in on him but lost about 20 seconds on him that final half mile. 2nd place, well deserved and props to Kyle for a smart Race!
I probably pushed myself a little to quick in the early mile and certainly too quickly on the multiuse trail but when the going it good, you just gotta go for it!