First 50k of the season

I was a chilly start at Afton this morning. 5am, dark, and 20 degrees.

There is still lots of snow there which was really chunky ice.

I kept it easy the whole time, running in the dark for the first 1.5 hours.

I met up with Carl Gammon at the snow shoe loop and he joined for the second loop.

The snowshoe loops is now like an adventure racing loop, trying to find the trail a few times, and getting me feet wet as a result of punching through snow and ice.

We decided to do the second loop clockwise again, and Carl claimed that I was not slowing him down, he was lying.

The start of the second loop felt great, I was eating and hydrating properly (i think), and keeping the hr down. At about 22 miles, it felt long.

The snow and ice punished my legs, and even through my knee a little.

We met up with Jim Wilson at the top of the campground hill, and Jim was playing the extreme sport of running without any spikes. There was a lot of ice, and he navigated the sheet quite well. I was running out of brain food and asked Jim the same question a few times. A sign I need to eat. Jim's doing the Kettle 100 in June, good luck man!

It was tough to finish the snowshoe loop the second time, but I am glad I did.

I joined up with Keith in the visitors center, as I slowly was going into hypothermia. (not really). So, time to get in a heated car.

Thinking of hydrating, I thought of Steve Quick when I was peeing. Steve, the SRM on my pee was 4.

I don't think I drank enough. I only had water, with a few s caps, cliff bar, and Hammer Gel. It would have been nice to have a real sports drink. It was a good test, though.

31 miles, 6hrs 40 min, avg hr 145