Mountain Madness

On Saturday I ran the Mountain Madness Trail 50K in Ringwood, New Jersey. It was loads of fun, extremely challenging, and an overall good time. It was my first ultra that I ran that garnered a 5 rating of out of 5 in ultrarunning magazine.  The beginning of  the race was a little strange, because people took down the course markers and a lot of the runners got lost. But once we figured out the right way to go everything was fine. On a trail race you really need to be paying attention to the trail markers. In the future I will probably carry the course map, just in case something happens. I was thinking of the runner in Arkansas who was lost.

The course it was hilly, very rocky. As Yuen one of the other people from NYC that I rode up to the race with said "it was more of power hiking" than running. I am definitely glad I did the race to get help train my trail legs. Trail running is a lot different than road running, and you got to watch your step. Definatly a lot of fun, and a bit more diversity in the scenery.

I want to thank Scott for driving me up. It was great to meet Garth and Yuen in the car. It was nice running with Garth during the first part of the race and giving me a lot of insight to the sport of ultra running and strategy for dealing with the uphill climbs. It was great meeting other runners on the trail It was great to see all of the New Jersey ultra runners. Hopefully I can get back out to some more the New Jersey Trail Races. The race director Rick and Jennifer did a great job in putting on the race. Awesome time, not getting lost and finishing in a respectable time for this challenging race.  The post race barbecue was great with Boca Burgers and some Pork Slab Beer, probably my second favorite canned beer after Dales Pale Ale.

Overall it was great race, felt I had legs for more at the end which is a good sign. Ready for New York in 2 1/2 weeks and JFK in November.