#37 - Hyner 50k

When I originally signed up I thought it was two weeks before Zane Grey so it would be perfect prep. Then I looked again, after I signed up, and it was only one week before…oops! Oh well how bad can it be, its only 50k and I’ll take it as a longer run instead of two shorter long runs that I would do anyways on my own. Boy was I wrong, this race was harder that Bear Mountain 50M and my legs feel worse today (3 days after a 50k race) that they did for a 50M race. Not sure how my legs will hold up this weekend but I hope I can have a good showing. Below s short recap.

I rented a car and drove down Friday night and slept at the starting line, or should I say napped in the car freezing my ass. I might of slept 3-4hours. It was chilly in the morning and the wind was strong so I had some arm warmers and gloves, and took a toque and a pair of socks in case things got rough. The race started at 8am and as expected the pace was a bit fast at the beginning leading up to the first hill of the day. Wow, what a monster of a hill, the thing went on forever and it had to be at least 20%, I was about to quit at the top. The good thing is that it heads down quickly but my legs were in shock. About ~5 miles after the first hill the trail splits into the additional 25k loop for the 50k group. It was at that point where my legs came back a little and I settled into a pretty good rhythm. I didn’t go nuts but I pushed a bit and I could feel the quads screaming on the downhills and I knew that I would pay the price, if not during then after the race. Things went quite well on this loop, it was a nice trail and meandered through creeks and lots of water with some hills but nothing extremely hard. I passed many people here and the only issues I had were cramps on the inside of my thighs, which subsided when I took some salt. It was weird because I was not sweating too much and I was cold at times. It must have been the terrain more than anything. As I rejoined the main 25k loop trail at around 4:30hr mark I was feeling pretty good but the legs were pretty much in pain and I had another 8 miles to go, with 1.5 uphills and 2 downhills to go. I was not looking forward to Cleveland Hollow/SOB. At this point I was thinking about the 6hr mark and I wanted to best that if possible.

The trail really got sloppy because of all the runners on the loop (>1,000) with lots of mud/water and rocks, and passing the 25k runners was somewhat of a challenge. As I approach the last hill, things got a bit harder for me for a while and the SOB was basically a wall, I was on all four going up. Ater that a very long slight uphill/flat (or at least it felt that way) before a 2m downhill which will destroy any remaining legs you may have at that point. When you come out of the trail you join a paved road for ~1m that takes you back to the starting line and then after a hard right you go up another small hill to the finish. As I hit the pavement I have about 12 minutes for the 6hr mark so I knew I had it. I ran the last mile and finished at ~5:56 and very tired.

The food at the end was amazing, with lots of it. I cannot think of anything that I would change about the race, and they really put a good show down there. The swag was great (tech shirt and socks and other goodies) the people were really helpful and the setup of the trail was excellent.

My nutrition went pretty good, as I took my gels every 30min and water every 15min on the dot. I only ate one piece of banana at one aid station and drank a cup or two of Powerade at every station. Feet felt fine and my ITB band issues never gave me any problems. Now I need to rest and make sure I’m ready for Saturday.