North Face Endurance Challenge 50k

North Face Endurance Challenge 50k
Kettle Moraine State Park & Ice Age Trail
October 25, 2008
31 Miles 4:10:34 8:02 average
1st Overall out of 118
8:00 am) mid 40's cloudy
Wow is all I can say. I never would have thought I would actually win.
I really had only one goal and that was to finish being my first run of
this distance.
We started at 8:00 am and started at a easy pace. I ran with a couple
of my friends and we passed a few runners and got into a groove.
The early miles were tough lots of muddy sections from all the rain
we had the previous day and early in the morning. So it was a lot of
dodging trying not to get shoes to wet and dirty in the early stages
of the race. After a few miles it was just 4 of us running in a group
my friends and one other guy. I new there was still some runners in
front of us but I didn't know how many.
Eventually we caught up to a group of runners that was in front of
us and now we had a pack of 8-10 runners in our group. This was
probably around mile 13 or so not sure. I heard some of the runners
saying we are in the lead group other than one runner that was
ahead. I was kind of shocked that we were doing that well. I was
thinking to myself just stay with this group and use the energy from
them.
We came up to a aid station and that was when our group split up
some people would stop and drink and eat others would just keep
going or only stop briefly. I was usually one of the faster ones out
of the aid stations. At each aid station we had to call out our bib #'s
so they could record them. After this aid station it was just myself
and 2 other runners. I was behind the other 2. It was a single lane
path at this point so it was hard to pass and I liked having them
around to keep my pace in check. The guy in front of me dropped
his bottle so he stepped out of my way and he never caught back
up to me. So I was running with just the other guy at this point.
At the next aid station the two of us were still together we both
stopped for a drink and we started back up together. This time I
was ahead of him and I was feeling good and before I new it I had
a nice lead over him. So I figured I was on my own from this point
on no looking back. At this point I would say we were at mile 17 or
so. I got to mile 21&22 and there was some huge hills I decided to
power walk them to save energy. I thought to myself I hope they
don't all catch me now. But I'm sure everybody was walking these
hills they were steep. I could feel some pain in my IT band but it
was not slowing me down I just hoped it would hold up till the
finish it did.
The last aid station was around mile 28 and I stopped and got
some Pepsi and M&M's I needed sugar my energy level was getting
low. This really helped and I finished strong. When I crossed the line
the announcer said I was the first 50k runner. I was not sure of that
because I new there was that one runner out in front early in the
race. I learned later that he was disqualified.
We stuck around for the award ceremonies and my friend Mike
took 3rd overall so we were both super happy with our races. In the
picture above he is on the left and I'm on the right.
The course was challenging it had lots of different elements you had
hills, rocks, mud, open fields sandy sections and more. This was a
good course not as hard as some ultra marathons out there but
definitely not easy. I plan on doing more of these in the future for
sure. Maybe even a 50 miler next year.