On Saturday, I successfully completed my first ultramarathon: the Upstate Race Series’ Sandhills 50K. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, event, or crew.
In our party, we had two 7.5 mile runners (including the 2nd place female), a 25K runner (the female winner), and two 50K runners. A couple of our friends camped in the park, and we were able to make their campsite (mile 5.5 of the loop course) a makeshift aid station for food, water, Advil, and Body Glide resupply.
My buddy Bill, who did not train for the race yet could have left me in the dust, ran all four loops with me. I stuck to my strategy: start slow, hammer nutrition intake early, and don’t bonk. I took down 1.5L of water, 3 gels, 3 fruit snacks, a waffle, chips, and a protein bar during the first 13 miles of the race—after eating two peanut butter, banana, and honey sandwiches as a pre-race breakfast. This kept my legs and lungs feeling good for most of the race, but my stomach was less happy (despite having trained to eat a lot on my long runs). I continued to eat and drink for the last 18 miles, but at a slower rate to let my stomach settle.
The course itself was hillier than I thought, but relatively free of hazards and enjoyable overall. To their credit, Sesquicentennial State Park does a fantastic job of maintaining their trails, and the Upstate Race crew always puts on great events.
We finished around 6 hours and 17 minutes, just over a 12-minute-per-mile pace (including our short breaks). While I would’ve loved to break 6 hours, the paces of my longest trail runs in training were in the mid-11’s, so the pace we made for 31 miles wasn’t bad at all. More importantly, I didn’t re-sprain my ankle or suffer any other type of injury, so being conservative paid off.
Ultimately, I am pretty pleased with my fitness level after somewhat of a “messy” train up, which started as soon as I finished my last powerlifting meet of 2023. Amidst a 26-week season of getting married, being a best man, trans-Atlantic travel, starting a business, getting COVID, and spraining an ankle, I was able to achieve my running goal while also doing a decent job of maintaining my strength in the gym. As far as the race goes, while I wasn’t fast or “competitive” in the 50K, I never really hit a wall or doubted that I would be able to finish. My inner nut job is already convincing me that I’d probably be good for a 50-miler.
What’s next for me includes some rest (I rarely take more than one day off of training in a row, I’m taking at least three or four days off this week), shifting the training emphasis back to strength, and enjoying some time training without the pressure of having an event on the calendar. I do plan to compete in powerlifting at least once, if not twice, in 2024. I will also continue running at a reduced weekly mileage. My next race goal might be a road half-marathon personal record attempt, but we shall see.
Final Race Season Stats (26 Total Weeks)
117 hours and 5 minutes of running
668 miles
24,146 feet of elevation gain
