First 50 Down!

Well I didn't have much to say the two weeks leading up to Des Plaines River Trail 50. On Monday the 18th I started my taper. I ran 14 miles easy but felt a strange twinge in my left Achilles. I took the next day off to be safe but was only able to put in 3 miles on Wed! I'm not gonna lie, after all the miles I was putting in I was scared of an injury. I waited until the following Monday to run again as suggested by several co-workers at Gazelle Sports. It felt better but not 100%. I jogged another 3 on Wednesday and had some confidence back after that. Tarryn and I traveled down to Illinois on Friday for the race. Saturday morning was perfect weather 40 deg at race start. I didn't really do a warm up considering I was going to run 50. I hind sight not a great choice. Todd Braje was at the race along with Oswaldo Lopez a phenomenal Ultra runner. Everyone took off much to fast at the start and I threw my game plan of starting easy out the window. I averaged 6:41 pace for the first 20 miles(CR pace), much to fast. Original plan was 6:50-6:55's through 50k then just hold on. At the marathon turn around I was about a minute behind Oswaldo and found out that Todd had dropped out. I changed shoes at that point which put me about 2.5 minutes behind. According to all the aid stations that's where I stayed for the next 10 miles or so. Around 33 miles in the fast start caught up to me, I was starting to hurt. I just told myself to go slow and steady. With bathroom and aid station breaks I averaged a little under an 8:50 pace the last 16 miles. With 4 miles to go I was passed which put me in 3rd place. I was dead and just wanted to finish by this point. I ended up in 3rd place 6min 53sec behind Oswaldo in first. My time was 6:24:57 7:42 per mile. If the two weeks before the race had gone better and I stuck to my race plan I would have finished better for sure, BUT a great learning experience. I'm pleased with it for my first 50 miler. My future plans are to run Yankee Springs Winter 50k January 5th then travel to Texas to run the USATF National 50 mile Trail Championship on March 2nd. I'm a little sore but feeling good. Can't wait to start training again!