Runner's Forum: Race Log

There's a training log so why not a race log?

Ice Age 50K Relay, Lagrange, WI 5/10/08. A good time was had by all.

It sure was a nice day for running. The 50k individual and relay started at 8am 2 hours after the 50 mile start.  150+ peole took to the Ice Age trail in the Kettle Moraine Park. The 50k runners took off on a short half mile loop before starting their out and back run for 13 total miles. After about 90 minutes the first runner came through and ended up winning the individual race with a time of about 4:05:55. After he did some rummaging in his bags and got a drink from the aid station he went back out. A few minutes later the next runners started coming in. I started getting a bit nervous because I was expecting my wife to be coming through but other people who looked like she would be faster than started coming through. She finally came in after being detoured for a bit and we exchanged the timing chip and I was off. To chase people down. 

I took off around the Nordic loop not knowing what to expect. I don't know what my pace was I just took off not even thinking about it. I hadn't thought too much about the elevation profile I had seen of the Nordic Loop here and was a bit surprised by the steepness of the hills and the amount you could stick back to back to back to back to back over a short distance. If I had known better I probably wouldn't have run them up and down, and if running hadn't sucked all the blood from my brain I might have remembered them and not done it again the second time. I only got passed twice but unfortunately both runners were in the relay. The first guy to pass me did so at about 2 miles and ended up being the first finisher so a 50k coed relay team finished first. Then the 50k individual guy, then a 50k coed team I wasn't able to catch finished at 4:15, the guy who passed me from a coed team at 4:18, and then me for a coed team at 4:19 and the 2nd place male finisher about 40 seconds later followed by the first female finisher at 4:29.  The coed teams dominated the relay and finished 1-5 for relays and had 4 of the top five times. I thought that was pretty awesome. Even though I didn't get to see the first 13 miles of the course the hills sounded pretty steep, numerous, and the trail gnarly. The 9 mile loop done twice for the second portion was wide trailed and soft as it is used for skiing.