North Face Endurace 50k Trail Run

I was going to type up a very entertaining review of Saturday's fiasco, but 1) its late, and 2) I wrote a long email to my TRR partner Erin this morning with the highlights. I'm being lazy and just cutting and pasting the email below. Enjoy.



Hey Erin. I survived the 50k and the roller coaster ride that are the thoughts inside my head. Let me take you through my thought process that day. I think you'll find if entertaining.

The race begins on-time at 7am Saturday. Temps are 73F and the humidity is high. Almost immediately, my legs are saying "WTF are you doing? You just made us run 27.3 miles on Wednesday. We're not ready for this." I'm cautious, but not scared. My legs of late typically feel fatigued and tight for the first 45 to 60 minutes of most of my runs. After that, they're loosened up and feel fine. I'm hoping today will be the same but for that first ~hour, I really restrain myself and play it safe. After the first hour, I'm about 2 minutes behind the lead pack of 5 guys, in a pack of about 10 runners that are spread out over 1 to 2 minutes. After about 65 to 70 minutes, I've made my way to the front of the second pack, arrive at the second aid station, and am told that the 5th place guy is a little over a minute in front of me. I down a water and an Accelerade, and make my turn. I'm feeling good at this point and decide to try to join the lead pack. As the race course makes severals swings past the start area early in the race before heading out for a LOOOONG out and back, I'm making what I believe is my final loop past the start area. I leave the 3 volunteers at the aid station and turn around. About a minute later, I pass another volunteer who is directing runners to the aid station that I just departed. I try to confirm with her that I'm going in the right direction and she says that she doesn't know anything about where people go once they pass her the first time. She's confused about where to direct the 50 mile runners vs the 50k runners. I proceed past her and encounter the race director (yes, the F-ing race director) about 3 minutes later and he assures me that I'm on the right path. I then get to another volunteer about a minute later and she, too, sends me along this path. I don't feel good about this but how can all of this people be wrong? Well, they were. I'm not catching the lead pack and I'm not seeing any other runners. I got about 11 or 12 minutes and I'm telling myself "F them. There is no way this is f-ing right. I'm getting screwed again." So I turn around, head back to where I just came from and am pissed beyond belief. I am screaming and cursing in my head like you would not believe. This is my 4th distance race in a row that I'm getting screwed on. At the Lewes 1/2 marathon in April, I was in 2nd place and got off-course twice thanks to a cop who was supposed to be directing runners and let me run straight past him off-course. At the DE marathon in May I went off course 3 separate times and was also hit by the race director in his van, costing me a 4th place finish. And last month in a 23k trail run, I get totally lost after being in 2nd place. I am f-ing sick of training hard, doing everything within my power to get ready for races and then getting screwed by the stupidity of others. I'm calling Erin when I get finished and telling him to partner with Fredrik. There is no way I want to put another five weeks into the TRR only to inevitably get screwed by some moron(s). I'll still partner with Erin if he can't get Fredrik...I committed to that, but if this race was just for me...screw it. I'm out. I'll run it for fun with someone else at Gore, but I'm not wasting the rest of my summer training hard to get screwed.

I get back on course, 2.35 miles and 21:05 later and have dropped from 6th place down to last, 61st place. F-ing BS. I am so angry you would not believe it. Throughout the rest of the race I feel pretty good. I'm passing runners pretty frequently after ~2 1/2 hrs. I'm feeling tired by the end but not so tired that I couldn't continue. Like most of my runs these days, the heat (it was 93 at the finish) and dehydration are the limiting factors. My legs are fatigued, but not dead. I still could have ran a few more miles.

I cross the finish line. 5:15:26. Subtract out the 21:05 and my time is 4:54:21.
Want to guess where that would have placed me?
2nd! First place was 4:53:10 and second was 4:54:42. I spoke to both of those guys...neither got lost. Both pushed each other hard until the end and were pretty beat. I still felt good (even after 33.45 miles) and still had energy remaining. I am VERY confident that with somebody in front of me to catch (5th place was 9 min in front of me) I would have won the race.

Another bad thing is that the terrain was not challenging enough. There were portions that were hilly, but it was about the same level as what I've been doing here at FH. I was disappointed it wasn't harder. If the temps would not have bothered you too much, I'm sure you would have won this thing.

I ran for 30 minutes yesterday and actually felt pretty good. Wanted to see if I had to run one of the 'easy' TRR days, could I do it? Yes. My legs weren't happy, but they loosened up after a bit and I could have gone for 2-3 hrs if necessary.