Race Report: Mid-Hudson RRC Recover from the Holidays 50K

Part of the course went by the icy Hudson River - very pretty

Not much to say on this one. It was a low-key "fatass" race - with no entry fee & no awards - but great people. 10 laps of a 5K out-and-back course. I started about 45 minutes early to give myself some extra time to finish. The road was a little icy in the morning (I actually slipped and scraped my knee on lap 3), but all the asphalt was clear by 1pm. My companion at my first ultra, Andy Cable, was there, and we hung out with each other for a few laps of this race too - always fun to talk away the miles. This was my third ultra finish, my eight marathon-or-longer race finish, tied for my third-longest run ever, and, like I said, very laid back and low-key.

Here's the report:
Laps 1-3 I felt great
Laps 4-5 I felt good
Lap 6 I felt ok
Laps 7-8 I really slowed down
Laps 9-10 See laps 7-8. (:

Finished in 7:11, which is a 50K PR for me - by 32 minutes! Yay!

I feel like I should make a big deal of this race - it was, after all, an ultramarathon - but it just doesn't feel like a big deal. Nobody at the race was treating it like a big deal, and frankly, neither was I. It would be disingenuous to make a big deal of it now. And I kind of like it that way..

Notably, Nick Palazzo and Eric Clifton (or at least someone who looked just like Eric Clifton) were there, both of "Running on the Sun" fame - a documentary about badwater and one of my favorite ultrarunning movies. I didn't get a chance to talk to either, but my wife met Nick when he finished his race and they enjoyed a conversation about the movie.

Eric (or his look-a-like), who held the course record at badwater for a while, did pass me like I wasn't moving, at least twice - and he did that at JFK, too. That's always neat.. (:

(in case you're wondering, part 3 of the JFK race report will be posted in a couple of days.)