Jen Runs With Dogs

I was excited to see this 50K road race in Florida at a time I was nearby. I'd seen some complaints about the organization because the 2017 race was abruptly cancelled for weather, but I wanted to like this race. I did not. For a while, it was fine. Runners for all races (5M, 13.1, 26.2, and 50K) ran along the shoulder of the road. It's not the most scenic, but it's fine. I understand why races need to do this. Up to this point, the aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers were great. The volunteers remained great, but things went downhill after the half marathon runners split off. We headed on to a paved trail system which was open to the public but fine to run on. The time limit for the marathon was 7 hours, and ultra marathoners had to be at that pace up through mile 16 when we split from the marathon to do a 4.9 mile out and back to gain our extra distance. I was very much ahead of this pace, and the aid stations on the spur were fine. But when we...

Belatedly, here's my report on my first 50 at the Saint Sebastian 100 in Sebastian, FL. First, weather. It rained and rained the week before, so the organizers were smart and kind enough to move the course. Our new course was a 5 mile out-and-back. The 5 miles out was on grass that is now my enemy. The return was on the most beautiful packed sand road. The organizers are not to blame for the grass being my enemy; it's just a terrain I'd never trained on and didn't really like. That grass was a killer because it was high and thick so I had to really lift my legs to get through it. That caused a bunch of pain around my IT bands which are super sensitive. It also soaked my shoes with dew on the first loop, but I was brilliant and brought a backup pair that I changed into with fresh socks at mile 10! The course was pretty scenic. We ran along a canal with state parks all around. You can see the grassy canal view in the pic above. There was plenty of wildlife, incl...