8AM 50k in Jefferson Memorial Forest in Fairdale, KY (close to Louisville). This race is called "Loving The Hills" for a reason! Great weather and trail conditions except for the dreaded muddy beat up last protion of the trail where the shorter races are run (same start time for a 6miler and a 15 miler). Met up with a buddy rpior to the race who was running the 15miler. Good to see him and meet some new people.
The race was pretty tough - I was solo for about 4 hours out of the 5:35. In no man's land, apparently. Managed to pass a guy at an aid station and a guy struggling really bad early on, but, the later miles was were I could've used some company or a target or something. I bit it hard in the first 3-4 miles going down hill - slide on my chest a few feeet before getting my hands down. Fortunately, no lasting impacts other than some scraps and bruises. Did really well with nutrition today: Ate 6 gels total, with my handheld water bottle refilling it at aid stations with only water. Had some pretzels as well for the sodium. Think the formula is figured out for me - about 4-5 gels with water and some gatorade for a 2:45-3:00 marathon. For 3:45 and longer ( up to about 6 hours) 6-7 gels (with caffein for all), but, a couple of them need to have the "electrolyte boost", AKA a much higher sodium content to keep the ole gut happy and out of knots. Energy levels stayed fairly even. The legs were not ready for trail running, nor were they ready for 5:30+. The walking hills seemed to become less steep as the day went on :)
And my goodness - looking at the GPS data... Again with the large discrepancy between Garmin and Strava once the activity is uploaded:
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/692123796
https://www.strava.com/activities/251721177
I think I'll go with the Garmin data: 31.45 miles - 5:35:47 with 6040' of elev. gain. Think I was 6th, but, was too tired to check afterward, and this race is notorius for slow posting of results.
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