Dances with Dirt Gnaw Bone 50 miler turned 50k

I remember thinking during the last 20 minutes of the drive into Brown County, Indiana, the Thursday before the race, "Wow, these hills are serious!". They were a surprise, after driving through western Indiana. I was about to spend the weekend learning all about them. What a gorgeous place to camp for the weekend and run!

Pre-Race
After all of the hectic running around I had gone through the morning of my last race, I decided to pack everything and have it set the night before. After what seemed like a short nap in the tent, it was time to get up and start rolling.

My friend, Josh, was just leaving the campsite as I was getting up. He was planning on being a part of the early start option. I remember being a lot calmer than I had the previous race. After breakfast and my morning coffee, it was time to start heading to the race site. It was nice and cool outside and I was excited about the idea of it not being super hot all day. We had some rain overnight, but it looked like the radar was clear. Boy, was I in for a rude awakening.

There were a lot more people at the starting line for this race. I saw a few friends that I had met at Green Swamp and was excited to see more throughout the day. There were 2 spots to drop off drop-bags. One of the drop bag locations was Hesitation point (miles 11 and 30) or Fire Tower (miles 21 and 40). I only had packed one back so I decided to leave mine at Fire Tower.

After dropping my bag off, it was pretty much time to start. I said my goodbye's to my wife and dogs. It was time to run!

The Race

This race was basically a 5 mile run from the start up into Brown County State Park, 2x20 mile loops up and down the hills around the park, and then 5 miles back down to the finish line. 

To be honest most of this race is a blur for me. I remember in the first hour or so there was a lot of climbing followed by some runnable terrain. Roughly 10 miles into the race it started to rain. It really started to downpour and the trail became a creek. The following 3 hours were a tunnel of rain on the trail trying the best I could to stay fueled and hydrated. By mile 25 my hamstrings were cramping up. Not being able to run dropped my core temperature way down and I was miserable. I opted at this point to drop down to the 50k and finish the final 5 miles down the hill. I regretted my decision the whole way, though I wasn't in any shape to change my mind. I had come to the race mentally unprepared and it had defeated me. Much more preparation will go into the next one.