Dances w/ Dirt 50k OA Winner - 02/10/2009
I went out to Dade City & ran the Michigan based Dances with Dirt 50k run Saturday. It was chilly so I waited in my car for the start @ 7:30am. I sat there fueling up, staying warm, and all of a sudden I saw a big group run past me @ 7 am. I peaked out of the car & asked a spectator “what was that?” He told me it was my race. Phuck! Rookie mistake number one. I stripped quickly and off I went. I quickly made it thru the field by about mile 10.
I took some wrong turns & spent a lot time back tracking and even passing the same people twice. I was pretty bitter when I hit the second to last aid station & my garmin had 31 miles showing on it & asked the volunteer how much further I had and he said 3 or 4 miles. I would then run another four for the longest/toughest run of my life to date. Finished with 35.4 miles on my Garmin. Ran an additional 4.4 miles.
The course was well marked and I accept full responsibility for my wrong turns. It is just very hard to stay focused on a 31 or 50 mile one loop trail for that long. Also..some of the course was not true trails. It was running in the woods from hash (tree w/ a pink ribbon) to hash. I would run-stop-look for next hash-run-stop look for next hash etc..
Luckily I held on for the victory so I couldn’t beat myself up too much for all my mistakes. Here is a picture of my Alligator award I was given; very cool.
http://www.dwdgreenswamp.com/results/50kresults09.htm
Next up…the Valentines triathlon this saturday at Lake Louisa.