Having won the US 50 mile road national championship this past fall at the Fall 50 I decided I'd take a shot at the trail championship. That being said I booked my trip out to Ithaca, NY in search of a challenge.
I arrived in Ithaca late Friday night and took a taxi to my hotel and got a good night's rest. Saturday I ran to the packet pickup and did a pre-race round table interview with USL.tv ( I was joined by Eric and Maggie). Afterwards I grabbed some lunch and supper and got to bed early.
Race morning I got up at and had my traditional cliff bar for breakfast and I jogged the couple mile trek to the starting line. I filled my water bottle with some heed and I grabbed a stick of shot blocks and waited for the horn to blow sounding the start of the race.
My plan for the race was to go out with the leaders and I did just that. I was feeling great and in control and was enjoying the beautiful course. The waterfalls were amazing and the single track was a blast (both are few and far between in Green Bay). Somewhere along the way I had pulled away from Tristan and I was on my own in the lead.
At the half way point I was still feeling great and had a decent lead. Things continued going well until the second lick brook hill. I slipped at the bottom of the steep hill and aggravated a nagging glut/ham issue I dealt with all winter/spring. I walked the next few miles until it felt good enough to run again. During this little hiatus I was passed by three people putting me back in forth place. I continued to forge along and moved back into 3rd place on the descent into butter milk falls.
I'd hold 3rd place through the finish, a place that I was both happy and disappointed with. Happy because I was able to turn things back around and hang on for 3rd and to get 3rd off of the small base I was able to build leading into the race. I was disappointed because had I not slipped and aggravated my glut/ham I'm pretty sure I could have gutted out the victory.
All in all it was a great experience. It was a beautiful and challenging course, i met some great people and I had a great time. I would highly recommend this race to anyone and if you're not up for the race take a vacation to the city and explore the great parks.
Link to the results:
https://www.cayugatrails50.com/Images/CT50_2015Results.pdf
Top 5 results:
Place Name Final Time - Half split
1 Mendoza Mario 6:55:28 - 3:21
2 Burdick Jared 7:00:24 - 3:16
3 Sigl Tyler 7:08:47 - 3:15
4 Williams Tristan 7:22:45 - 3:16
5 Nephew Ben 7:28:34 - 3:29
No comments:
Post a Comment