Tag: ultrarunning – 50k race report

Humbled by the 50K
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Sometimes when you’ve run a certain distance a few times, you begin to get sloppy. You start to treat it like it’s no big deal, and you take your training and health for granted. Last weekend, I was humbled. I ran my worst race ever at the Mendocino 50K.

I realize now that I’d grown a little too confident after I successfully raced a 50 miler last fall. It didn’t help that this past New Year’s Eve, I ran up one of the biggest hills in town and felt on top of the world. On New Year’s Day I signed up for a 100K later this summer with 14,000 feet of elevation gain at altitude. I popped iron pills, cut back on alcohol, ran a practice 50K and kept a consistent core routine all to prepare for this race, the Mendocino 50K, which was going to be epic. Read more >>

Oregano’s Race Recap: Trail Factor 50k
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The start! Photo cred: my mom.
The start! Photo cred: my mom.

Race morning dawned cool and overcast. I took a hot shower to loosen up and put on my race clothes, which were set in an orderly pile the night before. I filled my camelbak water bladder with Nuun (tri-berry flavor), and double checked the other stuff I had in my pack “just in case”: a band-aid, eight gu gels (in a variety of non-fruit flavors), a map, my ID, $10, an extra pair of contacts, toilet paper, an extra layer in case it started raining (the sky looked questionable). I got a cup of coffee and oatmeal, my go-to race morning fare, and headed out to the course.

As I drove in I reviewed my goals… Read more >>

Coriander’s “Forget the PR 50K” Race Report
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I couldn't decide if I was hot or cold at the start. Definitely wet!
I couldn’t decide if I was hot or cold at the start. Definitely wet!

At the beginning of this year, I planned out all of my races for 2013. At the top of my list, was running my first 100 miler. When I was considering what other races to do besides the 100, I knew I needed to avoid burning myself out running a ton of small races during 100-mile training.

The Forget the PR Mohican 50K fit perfectly into my training schedule. And even better, the race shares a lot of the trails I will be running during my goal race,  the Mohican 100. I was excited to finally run this race and from what I heard, it would be a tough, long training run for me and a good race. Read more >>

Finishing Strong: Coriander’s Bill’s Bad Ass 50K Race Report
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Freezing before the race!

After my first DNF at Oil Creek in October, I had the thought that I should just not run another ultra for the rest of the year and run the Turkey Trot and be done. But I already had a coveted spot in Bill’s Bad Ass 50K and I didn’t want to give that up just because I was afraid of failing again. My knee still isn’t 100 percent and I was undertrained, but I decided I needed to run the race anyway.

An added motivation is that the race is free! But there are bib numbers and the results are in UltraRunning Magazine, so I consider it a real race. Throwing caution to the wind, I was in! Read more >>