The shirtless tire dragger recruited me to run this Ragnar as a 4 man trail ultra. I did not know the other guys. They are really good 24 hour spartan race / obstacle course guys. They have all gone 75 miles in those races, and are very serious about calories / sleep / heart rate / etc. They have well defined upper bodies for all of the climbing they do, and I looked like odd man out. I haven't worn a watch while running for almost 3 years. That kind of caused problems, as they were unsure when I would come in to hand off to the next guy. They could easily track each other, but not me.
Although technically my first 50k, I feel like this is more like 6 repeat 5 milers. The four of us had to do a 4.74 mile green loop, a 5.35 mile yellow loop, and a 5.82 mile red loop twice. The green loop was the most technical, with lots of elevation change, roots, and loose sand. The yellow loop was fairly easy. The red loop has wheel wells that made running difficult at times. For the first mile or so, all three loops have the same course. Also, there is a timing mat for all three loops at 1/4 mile to the finish, that signals on a board, so your next runner can see when you are close. I was the 4th man in the rotation. So I was the last runner, and the team came in with me to finish, which was very cool. We had an 11:00 am start time. The humidity was unbelievably high. Everyone looked like they were swimming when they finished their loops.
Loop 1 - Green - 40:53 - 8:38 pace. 1:36 pm start. During the 1/2 mile of loose sand portion, there were some folks running on the grass next to the sand, and I wanted to pass them, and I did in the loose sand. Immediately after that run, I thought that was a mistake. That was way too much work on my first run. No one passed me.
Loop 2 - Yellow - 44:00 - 8:14 pace. 5:02 pm start. Steady cruising. It was getting close to sunset, and the race directors wanted to make sure everyone had a headlamp. Although I ran with a head lamp, I never turned it on. That kind of made me determined to finish before dark. No one passed me.
Loop 3 - Red - 52:00 - 8:56 pace. 8:29 pm start. Ran in the dark. I ran the rest of the race shirtless, because of the humidity. Heavy fog. Visibility was garbage. I had a hard time telling the difference between the yellow and red course markers. Passed by one guy.
Loop 4 - Green - 45:00 - 9:29 pace. 12:21 am start. More fog. Really had to slow it down to avoid the root trip hazards and fought through the loose sand in the dark. Passed by one guy.
Loop 5 - Yellow - 51:00 - 9:32 pace. 4:05 am start. I was doing great, but tripped and rolled a half mile from the finish. I skinned up my knee and elbow. A woman that I had just passed asked if I was okay. I told her that my pride was very sore. Passed by one guy. I started cramping, like, everywhere from the waist down after this loop. I stretched almost continuously between runs here.
Loop 6 - Red - 56:00 - 9:38 pace. 7:59 am start. Having already done this loop in the dark, I was looking forward to what it was like in the daytime. It was much easier to avoid the wheel wells. I really didn't have a problem running on this loop. I wont say it was easy cruising, but I had little doubt I would finish. Passed by one guy.
Overall - 31.82 miles - 9:06 pace.
I learned that sleep deprivation is a real factor in this kind of race. More than I thought it would be. The rest of the team said they would do this again with a standard 8 man team, so that the gaps between runs would be adequate for sleeping. The other solution is - If everyone ran (3) 10ish milers (which is an option), as opposed to (6) 5ish milers, there would be more opportunity for sleep. Obstacle course guys aren't crazy about long runs. So if I'm serious about that option, these might not be my guys. We did have some laughs, though. Obstacle course guys are bananas.
With this race, I'm over 25,000 lifetime miles, and 1,000 shoe miles. So I left the shoes.
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