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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.

Got interviewed by Bart Yasso yesterday about the NYC Marathon at the NY Running Company. Here is a pic.

ET 51K Pictures

Extra Terrestrial 51k

Sitting in my hotel room relaxing after the ET 51k in Rachel, NV. My quads are still in pain after the 1,000 foot clime. The race was an adventurer, not only the race. First the packet pickup was at the hard rock cafe. It was interesting to see the mixture of runners and par tiers at around 8:30 Saturday night. The next part of the adventure was the bus ride. The bus driver passed every car, semi, other buses going at top speed over the dark single lane highways. That was a little scary.

The race: the extra terrestrial full moon 51k, marathon, half marathon, and 10k. I ran the 51k. Everyone we met at the black mail box on the extra terrestrial highway, this is the box where federal agents know where to turn into area 51. All of the runners where given glow necklaces. Everyone had to where a headlamp. The 51k and marathon began at midnight and we ran. The half and 10k drove up the road to start. It was flat for the first 9 miles or so. I was feeling real good and pushed it a little too much. Then it gradually got steeper and steeper. Miles12-13 where the worst, it was an extremely long clime from 4500-5500 feet in elevation.

After the hill it became steady and I got my groove back, then my dinner started rumbling in my stomach. The pain in my quads caught up to me around mile 22-26. By mile 28 I started feeling good again. Had good conversation with a fellow Brooks ID member from california and pushed it the last mile and passed a bunch of people.

Running under the stars was awesome. The headlamp, while the fool moon was out made it harder to see. I turned it off and got to see some great views of the stars. When the fool moon went down around 4am it became pitch black.

Overall it was a great race and a great time. Awesome t-shirt, neat metal.

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