The North Face Endurance Challenge #ECSWI 50K

Over the last few years I have got into running where I started road running, and then did some of my running on a local trail called "Ice Age Trail" in Wisconsin. From doing this a few times I started to look at different events in the area which I could participate in and at the end of 2016 I can across the "The North Face Endurance Challenge" which happened to have an event in Wisconsin that was in September 2017, and I decided to sign up for the 50k race. Now at this point I had not run further that half marathons. I believed that as long as I find a plan, and stick to it this would be fine.

Here is a link to the event (from 2018), so you can an idea of what this is like:

https://www.thenorthface.com/get-outdoors/endurance-challenge/wisconsin.html

So it is finally here the week before the 50k run, I have been training for 12 weeks for this run. Where I have been doing weekly mileage building up to 56 miles a week.

My smaller runs have been 10 miles, and my longer runs have been from 18 to 24 miles. This makes me laugh as only 3 years ago you would never have seen me run, more of having a beer and a smoke in my hand. However, last week was only a total of 38 miles which seemed odd, and then this week I have done a total of 9 miles. It does feel like my body needed this taper and my legs are feeling refreshed and ready to go.

Now it is the night before and I am feel a bit apprehensive of what to expect, where to go, will I get there on time, will I get lost all these crazy thoughts going through my head. What I can say Is I am really excited to do this run, and really hope that I finish.

I am not bothered by my time I just want to complete this event. At the moment I am in the Perkins next to the America Inn Hotel, looking forward to dinner then back to the hotel for triple checking of my gear to make sure I am ready for tomorrow. Which it feels like I have done a thousand times.

Get to sleep, where I wake every hour from the excitement and anticipation. When I wake at 4am I get ready, have breakfast and start to prepare. Leave the hotel at 5am, checkout where the hotel reception desk have prepared a breakfast bag for the runners to take (this was a nice gesture).

Arrive early which is normal for me but gives me time to prepare, and also relax and take in the atmosphere. Music is playing in the North Face village, and more people are gathering. They had sun tan lotion, and bug spray out for people that didn't bring any. This was useful as today was going to have a high of 91 degrees, and the mosquitos were out in full force.

The racers went out in three waves, two minutes apart - this was due to the narrow trails in the beginning and to stop congestion. The start was good, and got into an early rhythm and made sure to slow myself down and run at an easy pace. Once I got through the first aid station I was feeling good and tagged a long with a group of runners, where looking back my pace increased for a large amount of time, and then a few of us fell nothing serious just a few scraps and stubbed toes. This seems to take the wind out of you for a while so I slowed my pace and continued to get back into the earlier rhythm.

There were a lot of horse trails through the run and this is where there were sandy trails, and a lot of sand making for tough running. There was also a lot of hills, and high elevation which sometimes seemed to go on forever, but when finally at the top you would have great views of the countryside and then some nice downward stretches. You just needed to be careful of the rocks and branches on the way down. After running for about three hours this is where the sun was getting really hot, and the trail was going out into the meadows so no over head cover.

This really drained the body, and things would start to slow down. But when you go to the aid stations they had everything you needed, from ice water, there were towels in ice water buckets to put on your neck, head and face. These really helped cool you down. From the snacks available my favorite was the oranges, and bananas. Tried the peanut butter, and jelly sandwiches but didn't sit well on the stomach.

Overall my nutrition plan worked out well for the run, came close to running out of water leading up to one aid station but nothing else. Reaching the marathon stage of 26.2 felt good, and helped me keep pushing on as now there was only five miles to go. But the sun of relentless and really pushed everything you had left in you. There were a lot of walking stages during the race where you had the really steep hills, it was more of power walking which was my first attempt at this and really helps conserve energy.

When you reach the stage of the last three miles you start to feel really good mentally that you've got this and just need to complete this 5K and you are done. This felt like the longest part of the race, the next two miles was all up hill and really tough, and when you get to the last mile the first part of down hill which really took a lot out of you to keep from falling, making sure you didn't trip on rocks and keeping you balance. The last 1/2 mile seemed to last forever. But when you come to the finish chute and the music is playing, people are cheering and they call you name - it makes it all worthwhile and finally you are an Ultra runner.

What I can say is that all of the volunteers, and supporters and the North Face team made this event fantastic. All of you rock!

Now it is time to recover and then prepare for what's next!