FATS 50k Race Recap

Well, it appears the requisite distance required to complete the FATS 50k was not quite enough for me, nor the difficulty of the course itself—I had to tack on a little over a quarter mile (to an already longer-than-the-actual-distance course) and run the last 7.5 miles uphill, as opposed to the slated downhill.

Notes to self:

1.) You printed out (and used packing tape to protect) the course directions/section distances for a reason. Learn to use them, so that when you get to the final aid station in first place (with approximately 7.5 miles to go in the race), you don’t go the exact opposite direction you were intended to go, thus ending up in a parking lot…after which you still can’t figure out where you went wrong, so you run the final portion of the course backwards (and uphill) and get passed by three people, thus relegating you to fourth place overall.
2.) If not for feeling sorry for yourself, you would have still held on to second place. Getting lost happens (more often than you’d think) in ultras, so get past it and let the time you’ve lost fuel you to run faster/better.

The race itself went well, for the most part. Though I likely went out a little fast, I stayed within myself and kept a nice, steady pace throughout (besides the last 7.5 miles, wherein the steady uphill, my discouraged mind, and the lack of Gatorade I’d consumed all got the best of me and caused me to walk far more than I would have normally liked). Though a 50k equates to 31.07 miles, the course was a bit longer than that (one person’s estimate was 31.8 miles), so my best guess is that I ran approximately 32 miles in an official time of 5:31:47. The weather was great (possibly even a bit chilly, for the clothes I was wearing, in the shaded woods—my car registered low 50s at the start of the race), and for a “free” race (they only accepted donations), it was well run. Though I probably won’t run this particular course/race again (on many parts, I felt as though I was on a mogul course—indeed, one particular stretch of the course was appropriately named Brown Wave), I’ll very likely run more of the races in this series, as the drive-time to most of them isn’t atrocious (this one was just under 3 hours) and there are no trails to speak of in my neck of the woods.



Though they’re still a bit tired, my legs feel great (in fact, I only used Monday as a recovery day) and I’m already jonesing for another long distance escapade (of which I’ve still got nothing scheduled). I need to decide on one, though…Calli is getting tired of my stalling.



EDIT: I just received word from the FATS 50k race organizer that the race itself was just over 33 miles, so I probably ran closer to 33.25, rather than the previously quoted 32.