December Marathon(+) #2 - HUFF 50k (Hardware!?)

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So to celebrate my birthday, I decided to run the HUFF (Huntington Ultra Frigid Fifty).

When I signed up for the race, I figured that with a marathon 2 weeks before, I should just run this as a fun run (if you could call 31 miles fun). As the date got closer and after noticing how quickly I recovered from the first marathon, I decided to actually race this one.

At 8am, the race started with the firing of a CANNON!!!

The race was 3 10-mile loops of trails. We started out running down the road for 1/4 mile and then we dove right into the trail. The ground was frozen which made it interesting for the first loop. Not much mud. Less hills then Bloomington. I felt like I was going slow, but stuck to my plan and didn't push very hard. I was very pleased when I came up the second loop to find I had parked my truck just off the course. Smile

Lap 1: 1:20.27

Lap 2 had more mud from where everybody had broken through ice and the frozen ground, but it wasn't as bad. I spent this lap trying to determine where I wanted to start pushing on the third lap. As I came up to my truck the second time, I took off my hip pack that had all my supplies (tape, granola bars, cell, & key) and put it at my truck. For the last lap, I wasn't going to have anything holding me back.

Lap 2: 1:26.22

I took my HammerGel as I started the loop. Lap 3 had more mud. By this time I didn't care. I was still leaping over some of the muddy areas, but some I just hit and kept going. I was walking up the hills and trying to run as much as I could on the flats. Something just wasn't jiving so I did the best I could. At the 5k to go point, I took a CarbBoom and instead of drinking water, I drank Pepsi not on accident, but not quite on purpose either. :eek: I grabbed a few potato chips and took off again. The pepsi was kinda wierd, but wasn't too bad. With 1.5 miles left in the race, something clicked. I don't know if it was the CarbBoom, the Pepsi, or something else, but I had full-stride and didn't stop running until I crossed the finish line.

Lap 3: 1:38.32

Afterwards, had some good soup and talked with crunningman and obsessor from CR (obsessor got 2nd). I also got to speak with the guy that won the race overall. It was nice to get to sit down and chat with everybody and nobody was "better" then anybody else.

Overall: 4:25:18 (official time) 28th/212 finishers. 1st/7 in my age group. Smile

That's three trail races this year and three AG placements. Smile

As a reward, I got a box of chocolates. Chocolates? As a reward in a running event?

Anyway, I'm trying to determine what to do with the box of Assorted Milk & Dark Chocolate. Should I eat it? Should I give it to my mom or sister as a stocking stuffer? Should I use it to bribe a special girl from Purdue to come visit me during Winter Break?