Run With Garrison

Aloha,
Today I attempted my first ever back-to-back 50k races on consecutive days. And the verdict is in…..today hurt pretty bad. All that was awesome about yesterday was equally rough today.

The race organization and volunteers were fantastic and the course was very well marked. The course consisted of multiple loops with runners racing along half marathon, marathon, and 50k distances. There was around 6700′ of climbing and that proved to be very difficult for me today. There were 5 climbs and descents total and there was almost no flat running.
The plan was to run conservative until about 16 miles when we crested the big hill for the second and last time. At that point, the plan was either to get competitive or just chill. By necessity, i hit the chill button. My legs were toast all day so I spent an unhealthy amount of time walking on the uphills the second half of the race. On the long descent, about 18 miles in, i decided it would be fun to kick a hidden root and I took a nice tumble onto the trail. My left calf cramped as soon as I hit the ground. It had to have looked pretty funny but nobody was around to score my landing. Oh well. I just skinned up my hand, elbow, and hip a little. No biggie.
The last 10 miles of the race were pretty tough and I though more than once about making this my first DNF in an ultra. It was extra tempting because we came back around into the start/finish area at the marathon mark and then had to embark out on our final loop. I just wanted it to end. Somehow. I pulled it out and ran/hiked in the final lap with Ryan from San Francisco.

Final results. 15th overall. 3rd age. 5:55:54.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend. More follow up once I recover a bit😃

Michael