2024 Running Man 50k

The Background

At the Habanero 50k, I placed in the top half of the field, which is always welcome.  Three weeks later would be the Running Man 50k.  A running festival in Georgia, this would be a special treat.  

Jamie and I flew out, arriving on Friday, the first day of the festival.  We tried out the combination of a cold plunge followed by a sauna, which was invigorating. There were several speaker options, and I heard running legend Jeff Galloway talk on the run/walk method.  Several speakers shared on near-death experiences climbing mount Everest. Jesse Itzler gave a great motivational talk to close the day. Tent camping, I got some good sleep and enjoyed coffee and muffins race morning.

The Race

The race would be one-mile loops with an 8-hour time limit, circling the festival grounds on smooth trail.  There was a slight climb on the 2nd half of the loop.  The great backyard runner Harvey Lewis ran with us.

The weather was nice and cool, clouds overhead.  We had worried about the weather report of rain, but it only rained lightly and briefly.

The first 10 miles, I ran relatively fast for me, 10-minute pace or so.  

Getting a bit tired, from 10 to 15 miles, I hiked the quarter-mile climb, and ran the rest.

Halfway to 50k, I hit an energy low.  The race did not offer coke, and the energy drink available was low calorie, so I needed to adapt my nutrition.  I decided to eat a whole pack of M&Ms each hour, to at least get in 200+ calories.  Jamie pulled away from me at this point. As I neared mile 20, I started to feel better.

At this point, I was powerhiking everything, but my pace was 14- or 15-minute miles, good for me.  I had set an A goal of 7:15 for the 50k, as that was what I did at the first 50k of the 2023 Arkansas Traveller 100. As my powerhiking pace looked like would get me to that, I figured why mess with it, so I kept it up.

I misunderstood the rules of the race, as I had reviewed the previous year's results and just looked at the overall number of laps completed.  I thought you could get in as many loops as you can under 8 hours. This year they did not have the overall lap count.

This was another reason why I didn't start running more of these miles: I was saving up for a final push in the last hour.  But when I had reached mile 30, a lady at the start told me it was my final loop, and confirmed that the results would only show up to 50k.  I had hoped I could move up in the field by tacking on more miles.

Well, I thought, might as well run the last mile and see what I could do.  I did pass some people that last mile, finishing in 7:04.   

Looking back a week later, the place results were organized in alphabetical order by first name, making it difficult to get a sense of the order of finishing time.  Before they reorganized by alphabetical order, I remember I was like 39th out of 109.  Jamie beat me by like 40 minutes.

Reflections

This was a great experience, as I liked the festival atmosphere. 

Finishing in 7:04 gave me confidence for my goal race of the Arkansas Traveller...if I did that again there, I would have 2 hours banked off of 30-hour pace.  I could have got in under 7 hours had I paid better attention to the rules, but I'm grateful for the time.

Moreover, it was wonderful to go on a running trip with my good friend Jamie.

Thanks to the God, All Day Running, Jesse Itzler, the workers, the volunteers, Jamie, Luke, Cesar, all my friends, all my extended family, Terri, James, and Paloma for the support!