Dirty Duo race thoughts

Quick Summary: Finished in 5:08:43 - 50 km with about 5,300 ft elev gain. That's just under an hour faster than the Frosty 50 k ultra from 6 months ago. I felt pretty good for most of the race, but had a bit of muscle tightness in my qauds around 30 km mark which I chose to ease up for and still haven't mastered my nutrition/hydration during a race. But, super stoked for making progress. very challenging, and very rewarding.

Onto some random thoughts from the race.

Coming in I felt like I had the best running base for any race I've done yet, having been running consistently for the last 5 months, and with a purpose for the last three of those.

I'd never run on the trails of the course before, so before the race I asked a fellow runner to compare the course to another course I'd run, and what time she expected for a finish. Turns out I misunderstood both her answers which had me heading out on the trails expecting a much easier day than it turned out to be. These trails were so technical, nothing like what I run on at home. So many roots to slow you down and force you to be more mentally aware while running. So many rocks and drops to descend on which to hammer your quads. I can't even think of any trails in the area here that are anywhere near as rooty as the trails the race were on, nor can I think of any trails nearby with the amount of stairs as there were.

I still haven't figured out my race day hydration/nutrition/electrolytes plan for the good yet. I had some slight muscle cramping issues heading up the major climb the second time, and around the same time I was feeling like I had been punched in the stomach from the inside with a brick, and I had to pee four times during the race, and a lot after the race. Which is a little frustrating because two weeks prior I had ran a 50 km training run using an almost identical nutrition plan and felt great. But the course I ran that day was about 500 metre less elevation gain and much easier on the legs, so that might be it. But I still want to get this figured out better.

I ran the entire race without music, sinister doesn't allowed headphones so I need to get used to it. Not sure if it helped or hindered my run, but I felt like I was used to it by the end.

In my last 50 k race six months ago I felt like I gave up with about 8 - 10 km to go, both mentally and physically. This race, I didn't feel that at all. Sure, I don't think I was pushing quite as hard as the first half but I was still pushing though.

I ran this 50 k race 55 minutes faster than my last 50 k race 6 months ago. Which I am super stoked about, I feel like the things I am doing better in life and in running are showing in my progress. I had a super fun run, shared the trails and shared conversations with wonderful people as always happens at races.

Super stoked from this race, and find myself even more stoked about the rest of my running plans based on how the day went.