My First 50-Miler
On August 24, 2018 I ran my first 50 mile race. According to my Strava data, it took me 11:21:19 to travel 51.45 miles, for an average pace of 13:14/mile.
That’s not a particularly fast 50-mile time, but it’s my first one and I’m pretty proud of it.
Going into this race, I had a lot of doubts about my ability to even finish. Until this year, my history with running has been pretty sporadic. I went through a phase in 2012-2013 where I ran a lot and I ran fast. This is when I put down my best marathon time of 3:11:36. Since then I’ve been pretty off and on with running, more off than on.
At the end of 2018 I decided that I wanted to run an ultramarathon this year and chose Baker as my main goal race of the year. I ran the Pittsburgh Marathon in May as a nice long training run; I ran the Hell Hath No Hurry 50k (technically my first ultra) in June as a nice long training run; and I ran a couple other marathon distance training runs as well. Even with all of that mileage and training, I was unsure about my ability to complete 50 miles. 50 miles is a long way.
The race ends at a farm in Smicksburg, PA, not terribly far from where I grew up. After parking my truck at the farm early Saturday morning and eating a quick PB&J, I boarded a school bus for the hour-long ride to the starting line. I managed to sleep a little bit on the bus, which was great because I only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before.
After a few quick announcements from the race director, we were off and running. The thing to know about ultramarathons is that for most people, the running is slow. It’s way different than marathon running. My goal was to just feel comfortable all day – hopefully averaging somewhere around 12 minutes/mile. After an easy mile or so of downhill, we immediately came to a hill that everyone was hiking. It’s like that for most hills – generally you walk the hills in an ultra. Walk with a purpose, but still walk.
I fell in with a group of runners going about the same pace as me and we chatted as we made our way to the first aid station, roughly 8 miles into the race. I came into the station, grabbed a couple fudge stripe cookies and a gel, drank some water, and made my way back out onto the trail. The next several miles passed in the same manner, until we arrived at aid station 2. AS 2 had PB&J (my personal favorite food while running long distances), so I grabbed a couple of those, a gel, filled my water, and was on my way. Leaving AS 2 meant a gradual downhill on some roads and I found myself running way too fast around mile 15, putting down a roughly 9-minute mile. I forced myself to pull back and reminded myself that I’d be wanting that energy 25 or 30 miles later.
I managed to hang around 12 minutes/mile through mile 20, until around mile 27 or so. At that point, I caught my toe on a rock and stumbled. As I stumbled, my left leg went out in front of my body to catch me from falling and when it hit the ground with all of my weight on it, the leg completely seized up into a massive cramp from my ankle to my quad. Luckily I was alone in the woods at this point because I yelled and screamed some choice words while I sat on a log and waited for the cramp to calm down. After a few minutes, the leg started to come around and I decided to slowly make my way to the next aid station. About a quarter mile later I was feeling much better and was able to continue running, just a little slower. When I reached the next aid station (AS 5), I had some pickle juice, PB&J, ate a salt tablet, pirogi, and a kind gentleman rolled out my legs while I sat in a chair for a few minutes. This was somewhere near mile 29 or 30.
After that little break at the aid station, I felt like a new person. I knew I wasn’t going to hold 12 minute miles for the entire race, but I ran on feeling much better. At AS 6 my friend Ian was there to meet me. AS 6 is the first place runners are allowed to pick up a pacer and Ian was planning to run just a few miles with me to keep me company for a while. Well, as these things happen, we made it to AS 7 and Ian asked if I would mind if he just ran to the finish with me. Of course I was happy for the company but I don’t think Ian was expecting to do 18 hilly miles that day!
Aid stations 8 and 9 were relatively close to each other, maybe 4 or 5 miles between them. Getting to each aid station at this point in the race (40-45 miles) felt like a real accomplishment and something to be celebrated. Still, I did my best to get in and out of the aid stations in just a couple minutes.
The stretch from AS 9 to the end featured, for me, the hardest couple miles of the day. Mile 45-47.5 were really tough. Mentally, I was tired. Physically, I was tired but feeling pretty good. I was just ready to get to the end. Around mile 47.5, I started to feel like I was actually going to finish this thing and started getting excited. I got a real second wind and was able to run in the last couple of miles.
All in all it was a great day. I felt pretty good all day long and actually felt like I could have run more after I crossed the finish line.
Next up is the New York Marathon in November. After that I’ll start planning my 2020 race calendar. I’m thinking maybe 2 50-milers and a 50k. Gearing up for a 100k and 77-miler in 2021 and a 100-miler in 2022!
Here I am coming in to the finish line:
