Awesome. Awesome awesome awesome awesome.

The start/finish area was the Dogwood aid station, and it was nuts. There were a couple of pavilions set up. One was the aid station tent where the excellent volunteers. The other one was a tent with a number of camp chairs where runners coming through the aid station could sit and take care of their feet or just rest. People were everywhere. Supporters were camped out where they could cheer incoming runners, kids were playing with sticks and running around, people were taking down numbers as runners came in, and runners were milling around eating, drinking, changing shoes, and otherwise getting ready to head back out.

The Nature Center aid station was about three miles from Dogwood. This portion of the run was pretty technical with lots of single track, rolling hills, and roots. Lots of roots.

Dam Road (or Damn Dam Road after thirty miles or so) was three miles after Nature Center. Running through here was pretty easy, with most of the running on well packed jeep roads. Some small hills, but nothing too bad.

After Dam(n) Road the fifty milers did a two and a half mile loop to return to Dam Road. The damn itself was amazing. I loved each trip through here, and not because the dam was flat as a pancake. The view was amazing. John, whom I picked up just after the first Dam Road on the second loop, pointed out that you could see the Dogwood circus back and to the left of the damn.

The next stage was a three and a half mile stretch to the Park Road aid station. There were some low-lying areas here with lots of splashy mud. These areas were fun. Lots of folks were picking their way around the mud. I probably got less mud just running through it. Great fun.

The last stretch, the four miles back to Dogwood, was the most difficult part of the loop. Not only was it long, but the roots, turns, and hills all seemed more aggressive through here. This was also the only part of the run that I had to do in the dark on my last loop. John and I walked most of this. We had come too far to risk rolling an ankle in the dark.

I got to the circus-like race start area at six thirty with just my one pair of shoes and my pack. I did not bring a drop bag. I did this for two reasons. First, I've never done an ultra like this before, so I wasn't sure what exactly constituted a drop bag. Second, I was already planning on packing most of my supplies on my GoLite Rush pack. This proved to be an awesome idea, because I didn't need anything more than what was on my back and the pack itself didn't bounce or cause any discomfort. I take that back, the waist strap gave me a bit of a bruise where it rubbed against my abs, but that wasn't a problem until around mile forty. Next time I'll carry some sort of washcloth to pad the strap.

I'm slowly learning my way around ultras. I drank mostly Gatorade between aid stations, which generally gave me enough electrolytes to keep from bonking. Again, this was a change from my run in November and it hugely helped. At the aid stations I tried to down a cup or two of Coke and I ate just about everything I could get my hands on, including peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, Ruffles, Doritos, bananas, oranges, Hammer Gel, even a couple of wedges of grilled cheese. I had some snacks in my pack for those stretches between aid stations, but between the electrolytes from the Gatorade and the sugar from the Coke I didn't really need them. Another difference from November was the out-and-back nature of the fifty miler. Most sections of the run had traffic in both directions. Being able to see other people was enormously mentally uplifting. Calling out encouragement to them ("Lookin' good," "keep it up," and "lookin' strong" were all very common) and having encouragement shouted back kept me from ever going into the dark mental places I found myself in on the 50k.

Running through the woods is amazing. John and I saw a couple of deer darting through the trees. Early in the morning there was light fog in the air, and the shafts of sunlight slanting through the trees and fog were amazingly beautiful. But as idyllic as the running itself was (despite the pain) the people were even more amazing. Aid station volunteers were ready to refill water bottles as I went into each aid station. Anything that I needed they were ready to provide, whether that was another piece of sandwich, a couple of Tylenol, or putting my water bottles in my pack because I was having trouble getting my arms working properly. They were friendly, supportive, understanding, and altogether awesome. I cannot stress enough how much I love the ultrarunning community. After I get more experience in this sport I don't have any doubt that I'll be volunteering at races, because this is a community that I am more than happy to give back to.

The fifty mile race started at seven o'clock. The temperature at race start was right around thirty-eight degrees. I ran for the first mile with my new friend Sarah Thomsen (@SeriouslyTruly) before I increased my pace a bit and left her behind. It was cool at the start so I was wearing a lightweight jacket. I took this off at the first Nature Center aid station and went the entire rest of the run in one of my long-sleeved shirts. The weather was simply amazing. It rained in Huntsville earlier in the week, so some areas were splashy and muddy but the sandy areas that gave me a ton of trouble at the Rocky Raccoon 50k in November were packed down and easy to run. This made a huge difference.

Going into the run I had been having a lot of difficulty with my knee. The Tuesday before the race I was doing an easy run with the Arlington Striders when my knee flared up after three and a half miles and I had to walk back to The Runner. I was really worried about even being able to finish the race. It turns out that my concerns were well founded but that I'd be able to find ways to work around the pain. During the first loop my knee cooperated pretty well. Whenever it felt like it might start to hurt I stopped to walk for a couple of minutes, which managed to keep things from flaring up. This was okay because the walking tended to correspond with hills, and it is perfectly acceptable to walk during an ultra. It took some encouraging volunteers and swallowing my pride in November to realize this and it saved my bacon in this race. My knee finally flared up in a very painful way about mile fifteen. I walked, limped, and hobbled my way through the remainder of the first loop.

After the first loop I was pretty worried about my running prospects. I was preparet to walk the remaining two loops if necessary, but I desperately wanted to run some of it. Starting back out from the Dogwood aid station was tough. The initial stretch was uphill, so I walked that, and after it leveled off I was able to run a bit before my knee made me have to stop and walk. I took some Tylenol at the first Nature Center aid station, and that kicked in about halfway to Dam Road. I was able to run more after this, but I still definitely walked the hills.

Things changed in a very huge way shortly after the Dogwood aid station. During one of my running sections I passed a guy and called out "Keep it up!" This, like I mentioned earlier, was pretty common. He heard me coming and said, "Lookin' good!" I replied, "I know you're lying, because I'm sure that I look like shit." Later he passed me during one of my walking sections. Leapfrogging people like this happened quite a bit during the race. We did this a couple of times and finally decided to run and walk together since we were going at pretty much the same pace. This runner was John Kimbrough, and we spent the next seven or eight hours running together. His companionship, more than anything else, helped me finish this race strong. We managed to feed off each other. He helped me when my knee was bothering me and I helped him when his legs weren't cooperating. It's funny how much you learn about a complete stranger when you're running together like that. I really feel like I met a friend that I'll have for a long time. Finishing in under twelve hours was completely out of the question before I met him. Together we managed to run quite a bit more than we walked.

This race report is pretty rough around the edges and could likely use some editing. I'll keep that in mind for next time, but for now I just wanted to get my thoughts down.