Pigtail's 50K run - PR, bad electronics day, lots of rain

All in all, I really enjoyed the Pitails 50K run, it was definitely my kind of race. Entry fee, $5 donation, plus some food for the food bank. Plus if you can, bring some goodies for the aid station. So I brought some food cans, plus some dog food and for the aid station, I brought trail-mix and "Throwback Mountain Dew" - caffiene and sugar, lightly favored with (presumably artificial) lemon/lime. There were a lot of people who showed up to run - I think I read somewhere that there were 140 registered runners.

The weather was pretty crappy for the whole day - rain. It did ease off every now and then, but never for long enough to dry out - or more importantly, for my MP3 player and camera to dry out.

It was impossible to get lost, which I like - just follow the fence for 9.6 miles. Three times, and then a 2.2 mile out an back.

The trail had pretty good footing, except during my third lap when it started to get more saturated and muddy. By that time though, I cared not one jot, and rather than sidestep the puddles and muddy spots, I just went right through them.

So, what did I learn?

1. Put the MP3 player and camera in a Ziploc bag - it will minimize the risk of them crapping out (sorry, no pictures today :( )
2. If I am staying in a motel, buy bottled water to fill up the hydration pack. The water from the hotel tasted like bleach it was that chlorinated. It was quite unpleasant, and not at all like "Sanford Springs Mineral Water" (aka Jimbo's water from the well at home)
3. Talking of Nathan Hydration Pack - I will need to apply some Sportshield where the chest strap does up - quite some nasty chafing there

Onto the race itself. The initial plan was not really to "race it" - however, as the race went on, I had visions of beating my Derby 50K PR. I figured that if I got in from my third lap in less than 6 hours, then I should be able to finish under 6:28. Easy - 3 x 2 hour laps and 27 minutes for the 2.2 mile out and back.

• Lap 1: 1:54 (this is when I started thinking I could do it)
• Lap 2: 1:58 - game on. 8 minutes (total so far) in the 'bank'
• Lap 3: 2:04. Almost used up all the 'bank' time. I really started to feel the effects of last weeks 100K in the second half of this lap. Bottom line - I arrived after the third lap in 5:56 - PR on the cards, but I was hurting now. Keep moving forward.
• Partial Lap (2.2 mi): 29 minutes. Woohoo! I took a total of 4 minutes off of my PR!

So, to summarize - a PR is always good, and I always enjoy the company of other ultra runners, and I recommend this one - particularly if you find yourself stranded in Seattle in January.... This is a well organized race, and my hat goes off to the people who put it all together and all of the voluteers. Y'all did a sterling job.

I did check - even though they weren't giving out awards for the winner from each state represented - I was indeed the winning entrant from North Carolina (I was also the losing entant from NC, but we will keep that hushed)

Official time 6:24:24 **PR**