From owner-ius-l@AMERICAN.EDU Sat Oct 19 02:01:29 1996 To: drs@caligari.Dartmouth.EDU, IUS-L@AMERICAN.EDU, dead-runners-bay@saluki.eng.sun.com Subject: Firetrails 50 (belated report) Date: Fri, 18 Oct 96 17:54:40 -0700 From: Jane Colman Before I started, I knew it would be my greatest running challenge so far. I've run longer distances than 50 miles, but never more than 50K on hilly trails. I would never have made it had I not taken RD Dick Collins' offer of a half hour early start; without it I would have missed the 6-hour cutoff by 6 minutes and the 10-hour cutoff by 28. But I did finish, in the dark and dead last at 13:30--but as dead last I had the honor of participating in one of Dick's race traditions, as he joined me for the final mile. The weather was perfect--60s and overcast, but with the cloud cover too high to obscure the great views. The course is mostly firetrails (as you might expect) and mostly pretty runnable, even for the unsure-footed like myself, although there are plenty of steep-enough-to-walk hills. There's a single-track section in the middle, and one part of that is narrow and steep and loose-surfaced enough that coming down I had to use my arms for balance. I'm sure that many of the less balance-challenged folk ahead of me took advantage of gravity and sprinted down, but not me. I had some stomach problems on the first half, and a chest (rib? breast?) pain that had me worried a little, but by the second half I felt fine, just increasingly tired and slow... It was the best-marked trail course I've ever been on, and the aid stations were all well stocked and filled with cheerful and encouraging volunteers. All in all, a great experience, even if I didn't enjoy every minute of it. And I've brought away some lessons for next time: more training, more hills, more trails, more speed, a better flashlight. It would also help to get younger, but that may be a bit more difficult :-). I've also learned not to make any important plans for the following week; even though I've been taking it very easy, and haven't started running again yet, I've been exhausted all week--which is one reason why this report is so late. Jane jane@netcom.com in almost-rainy-season Berkeley and/or Oakland, CA