Antelope Island 50 Miler

GOOD TIMES!

Pure insanity running a 50 mile course that pretty much involved running . . . without there being any real climbs, I found myself running nearly the entire course. Felt like a good place to be for this time of year. Despite a couple of mistakes -- getting lost for an extra half mile or so on the first out and back and miscalculating my pace during the first section of the race -- I felt like I finished a successful race. In fact, I am becoming more and more comfortable with the notion of racing 50 miles as opposed to my general survival strategy for the 100 mile distance.

Spent the night before the race camping out on the island and slept as much as possible . . . kept having dreams/nightmares about the tent blowing away in the post-storm winds that were still whipping off the lake most of the night. I definitely think that camping goes pretty hand-in-hand with trail racing, but in the long run there is something to be said for spending the night in a warm bed instead of a freezing sleeping bag.

As far as the race goes, my mind and body seemed to be in synch for most of the run. I took the first 20 miles relatively conservatively and only struggled a little with some strange twinge pains running up my knee and left quad. The shots of pain didn't necessarily seem to alter my pace or overly effect my race; however, they are the only real after-effects that I am feeling today. The hardest aspect of the race for me was simply committing to run, since I am used to more mountainous courses that generally involve walking the longer climbs . . . anyhow the flat course and the fast trails led to a PR at the 50 mile distance going under 8 hours for the first time.

WILDLIFE REPORT: Bison and antelope aplenty. The high point for me was watching as a small group of antelope ran free and wild across the trail in front of me -- a definite mental boost when I was starting to feel down on the long out-n-back that makes up the Mountain View Trail part of the course.