i was originally going to pace a fellow bfr'er to finish his first 50 miler, but the heat took him down. after a 1.5 hour drive, this wasn't lookin to be my day to run...
but just then, a fellow mtn biker i've ridden with rolled through the start finish line, in vff's no less!! he was getting ready to start his final 15 mile lap, and i went along for the ride (ummm, run...)
the way to the first sag was a breeze, and had some beautiful scenery along the trail.
the next leg was brutal, it was the longest stretch between sags, and it was also the hottest point of the day, with lots of direct sun on the trail. between the two of us, i went through 22ozs of water, and my partner, almost 60ozs! (and we still had a couple miles to go!)
luckily the volunteers at the next sag were prepared with a cooler full of ice water for our heads and bodies, lots of snacks and drinks
the pb&j sandwich i got from the sag sat in my belly like a brick for the rest of the run, i wanted releif bad, almost to the point of sticking my finger down my throat to remove the vile thing, but i didn't want to start a chain reaction, so i suffered through it
with only a few miles to go, my running partner took off. i couldn't keep up, and i found out why as i walked/ran the rest of the course. after the last sag, there is a nice section of fairly flat terrain, then it turns into brutal hills. since he knew this, and he wanted to finish under 10 hours, he bolted through the flats so he could walk the hills if necessary. the strategy worked, he finished in the 9:50's, congrats derrick!
derrick lookin good early in the last lap
i couldn't keep up with him through the last part, just wasn't prepped for 10 min/miles after running almost 12 with him. i finished 15 miles of awesome trail out at croom, and had a great time doing it. next time i'll be rockin' my nathan hydro pack!
