Call of the Wild 50k

Sunday I went out for a light 3 mile jog, then Monday I hit the race course again. This time it was for the Call of the Wild 50k Ultra Marathon along the Sammamish River trial. Once again I opted for the early start so I could get home at a decent hour. I felt well rested and didn’t feel at all fatigued by Saturdays marathon. I packed real food to eat, fearing that Saturdays gels caused my brief illness. I had planned on practicing my run/walk strategy during this race, without concern about pace or overall time. I started by walking a mile with Jill (she was injured), then continued on with a .75 run, .25 mile walk for the remainder of the day. The first out and back was lonely with few runners. The fog was dense, wind was cold, but no rain. At mile 18 we passed by the start/finish, then did another out and back in the opposite direction. By this time the sun was out, lots of people were on the trail, both race participants and recreational runners, cyclist and walkers. The trial was no longer lonely. The first 18 mile were flat, the next 8 miles rolled a bit but was more interesting. After I hit mile 20 I decided it would be nice if I could get a sub-6 hour 50k. Doing so meant I had to maintain a steady pace the entire distance while practicing my walk breaks. I finished in 5:54. Really nice considering I paced myself in such a way that I could easily kept going. I wasn’t tight or particularly tired. It was a nice confidence booster leading up to next month 24-hour race.