DWD Devils Lake 50k Trail Run

After doing the 50k run in September 2017, I started to look at what would be next. I decided to sign up for "The North Face Endurance Challenge #ECSWI 50 Mile run". So, why is the blog about the DWD Devils Lake 50k Trail Run, you ask?

Well in in training plan there was the need to do a 50k run, so I looked for one that would fit and picked this race.

Now this run being in July the weather was really good, there was a storm the night before and helped with getting rid of any humidity, and was a bit cooler. For this event I was less apprehensive as I did one last year and knew more what to expect. was challenging. What was good here is that I got my daughter, and my friend to sign up for the half marathon run so that they got exposure to the trail running experience.

For the 50K we started at 5.30am with the 50 mile runners. When you start this run it immediately starts up a steep climb. Now, I thought the hills in the #ECSWI were steep. Yeah, they had nothing on these hills, which to me seemed more like small mountains I was climbing. The mini mountains went up for a long amount of time, and then you would get to the top of these and then make your way down the other side. There were some small trails which were less than single person, and what you would notice on some of these that there were out and back sections of the course and you would have people coming back the other way which did cause some challenging sections where I could swear I was going to fall off the edge. The other thing that go to me was "This is great I am going down these mini mountains" feels good on the body, legs moving at a nice pace, and then you realize that people are coming up the other way. "Yes", I finally figure it our there is a turnaround point coming up and I will need to run back up these hills.

While this was the most challenging course I have run, ran into cramps in the legs at around mile 22 which took a bit of time to get over - What helped here was the aid station having salt, and a tablespoon of that and the cramp went and did not come back. It was an overall excellent experience.

The people you meet on the trails are fantastic and you get to have some great conversations, and make new friendships and help people out their with encouragement, maybe provide people with salt tablets to help when the cramp sets in.

I can't say enough for the volunteers who are fantastic and really help motivate you when they must see you could be struggling.

Kudo's also to the event team, as this was a fantastic experience and looking forward to next year but it depends on my plans on what races I want to do, and really hope this one fits in.

For this one I had my nutrition spot on as at the end I had plenty or room for doing more miles and felt really good.

And here we are after completing our races...............Looking forward for whats next!