Kilometers: 50
Miles: 31.07
Participants: 59
Time: 5:35:14 or so (they still haven’t posted the official results)
Overall Place: 11
Overall Male: 10 (The woman that won is a famous ultra runner)
Powerbar Gels consumed: 6
Electrolyte pills: 5
Dixie cups of warm, flat Pepsi: 9
Ounces of Gatorade: 100+
Injuries resulting in blood drawn: 0
Times lost on course: 10
I ran the Long Island Greenbelt 50k trail race yesterday.
It was my longest race to date (previous was 18M) and my first trail race. Path-finding was a major challenge and one that I did not fully anticipate. I got lost a whole bunch of times, but fortunately never for very far or long. The biggest physical challenge was the steep downhill sections. Even though I had limited time training on trails, I had prepared to go up hills well enough to cover the day, but I neglected to train specifically to go down steep inclines and by half way my quadriceps were crying uncle and I was forced to pick my way down hills slowly and often times by grabbing trees to slow my descent. The whole vibe was completely different from a road race, nearly everyone you passed along the way (it was a double out-and-back course) would say things like “looking great!” or “awesome job!”.
Since so much of it was a new experience, I’m thrilled to have learned as much as I did and finished with no major catastrophes along the way.
UPDATE: official results posted