Today I ran the Speedgoat 50k. This race had some extreme highs and extreme lows. It has been said that it is the hardest 50k in the US. It definitely lived up to that. Karl Melter, the race director and course designer, is one sick sick individual. That being said, I absolutely loved it. The course stated out going up. I made it .37 miles before I had to walk for the first time. The up and downs on this course were brutal. The flat sections...wait a second, I don't remember any flat sections. At 8.2 miles we summited Hidden Peak. I felt great at that point. The weather had stayed cool, and I made it up in a little over two hours. From there we summited Mt Baldy. This was a fun easy to run section of the course. Going down the back side of Baldy was a bit treacherous, but they did have some ropes set up for us to hold onto. From there we went down down down into Spanish Fork canyon. The down hill felt pretty good and a passed a few people. At the bottom was an aid station and the half way point. Leaving the aid station I knew we were in for trouble because we had to get back up to Snowbird. Miles 16 - 20 had a lot of walking. Occasionally the was a section that was runnable for 20 to 50 meters. But most of it was walked. When we got up to the backside of Snowbird, we got to run through the tunnel. That was neat. After that we had a steep downhill on a dirt road. I was thinking that we were done with the major climbs, but when I ask a guy who had ran it before, he said the toughest climb was yet to come. It was called Cirque and took us back up to Hidden Peak, just the named sounded tough. Going up that really took a lot out of me. At the peak we were told that it was only five miles to the finish. The down hill was tough, my feet were hurting and I was worn out. I managed to get energy from somewhere and kept running all the way to the finish. I finished in 8:20:45. I am not sure what my place was. I was told before the race that sub 9 hour is good, so I am happy with the time. I have two large blisters, one on each heal and I am also quite sore all over. But other than that I'm doing great. | 