Hit the Dusty Trail

Well, I finished the first running of the Twin Peaks 50 mile.  This race took participants thru the Cleveland national Forest in Orange County, CA.  The course was mostly fire road with about 1/3 third single track trail thru the canyons.  This has got to be the toughest 50 miles I have ever run.  The first 16 miles were all uphill from about 1500' to 5700'.  What a grind.  I was able to run parts of it, but it was mostly a walk.  Those miles were followed by about 9 miles of up and down along the ridgeline road.  Then it was downhill thru a conyon on some knarly single track trail.  Runnable, but steep at the same time.  Once we arrived at the 27 mile aid station, it was more trail and another 8 mile uphill grind back to the 5700' peak we topped out at earlier.  By this time the heat was starting to take its toll on runners.  In this 8 mile section I managed to pass around 9 runners who were in various stages of discompfort due to the heat.  I was able to climb just fine and arrived at top in good shape for the last 15 miles, which by the way, were all downhill. 

What did I do to manage my body?  I always have a baggy of electrolyte caps, Tums, and Ibuprofen in my pocket.  I kept popping the electrolyte caps regularly, and took the Tums whenever I felt my stomach start to act up a little.  I made sure to eat food at the aid stations, even though at times nothing looked good.  I made sure to drink plenty at the aid stations and had two 24 oz. bottles with me.  I made sure those bottles were drained before I would get to the next aid station. 

I love running downhill and the pounding doesn't seem to bother my quads a whole lot, at least not until the next day.  I managed to cross the finish line just as the sun set and a time of 11 hours, 20 minutes and change.  Good enough for 17th place overall.  There were 47 starters for the 50 mile race and 31 finished.  So not too bad for an early season race.  I was originally hoping for a sub 12 hour run and managed to do that without too much problem.  I missed  out on not getting "chicked" by ten minutes.  The first place female crossed in 11:09.  I did have some concerns about not having enough long runs.  My longest run was around 22 miles and I only managed three of those prior to the race.  so it goes to show you can run ultras on marathon training.  The other thing I noticed was that my time for this race was only 10 minutes slower than my time for my first 50 mile race way back in 1993 on a much easier course.  All in all, not too bad for an old man.