Capon 50K

The short story: I finished! Not only did Mandy and I finish the 50k, but we finished well within the 8 hour cutoff and crossed the finish line in 6 hours 50 minutes and change.

The long story: The pre-race briefing scheduled for 6:30am didn't start until 6:45am. The gist of the briefing was:

• Follow the blue and white, striped ribbon
• The course was marked on horseback, so be sure to look up if you don't see ribbon
• It's raining
• Good luck

Pretty anti-climactic in my opinion, but that's okay since I just wanted to start running. We finally hit the gravel road at 7am. By now, the drizzle had turned into a steady rain and the clouds seemed to be getting darker. About a half mile into the course, we were in the woods and already starting to cross streams. There were so many within the first 2 miles that I lost track around the 16th stream crossing. The first aid station was about 3.5 miles into the run and in an old barn. For a small race they had everything you could need: water, Gatorade, Coke, Band-aids, Vaseline, aspirin, M&Ms, and more. The volunteers warned us that the next aid station wasn't for about 7 more miles.

We trekked on and found ourselves walking quite a bit since there seemed to be one hill after another. All this walking was starting to worry me a bit since it meant our pace was slower than if we had been running. I tried to not worry about meeting the 8 hour cutoff for now and just kept going. Around mile 9 we made our way downhill toward the water and I managed to plunge my right foot into a puddle. My big splash covered the back of my right leg with stinky, nasty mud that continued to drip down my leg as we made our way up this really steep hill. You know a hill is steep when (a) you have no choice but to walk hunched over because standing up straight would send you toppling down the hill, (b) your heart is beating just as hard walking as it would be if you were sprinting, and (c) if you did attempt to run, you'd be moving the same speed as you would be walking.


Not soon after this steep hill we got to a stream that was about 20' wide. Up until this point I had been trying to step across the streams on rocks or logs to postpone the inevitable wet feet. This stream was too wide to attempt that so in I went. The water was frigid, but at least I got most of the muddy gunk off of my leg. Steve and my parents were at aid station 2 to cheer us on. Spectators aren't allowed to drive on the course since it's all on private property so they had to hitch a ride to and fro with volunteers. After a quick drink, we left the aid station. By this time the rain had stopped but the winds had picked up. It was as if we were in a snow globe except the snow was pollen; lots of nasty pollen getting into our eyes and lungs. It seemed that all of us were choking on that crap.

We ran through some grassy areas, up some gravel roads, over more streams, up and down through the woods, and ended up near the power lines. We ran down, down, and down some more. As much as I would have loved to let gravity help me pick up some speed, the downhills were brutal on my quads and toes.


We ducked back into the woods, eventually made our way to the next aid station, and then on to a low area that was uber-squishy before finally getting to the longest climb of the day around mile 15. We saw some interesting sites along the way including a few trailers, some on cinder blocks others with their own port-o-john. The most memorable was a wooden home that had every imaginable household item on their front porch (cue Dueling Banjos from Deliverance). We're talking rocking chair, fridgerator, dishes, TV, and so much more. This same place also had about 20 beat up cars in their backyard; beat up as in completely rusted. I wanted to take a picture of the place, but I honestly was afraid that the owners would come out with a shotgun if they saw me.

We trekked on and got to a stretch where it was just Mandy and I in the woods. It was probably around mile 21 and the loneliness was really starting to get to me; not to mention I probably should have been taking in more calories during the run so I was feeling a bit tired. We finally had another group of runners catch up with us and that helped. We crossed a few more streams including the one below.

We got to the last aid station and realized that we might be able to finish in under 7 hours. I personally didn't care if we made it under 7 (I just wanted to finish before the cutoff), but I could tell Mandy wanted to get in sooner.

If you're thinking about running an ultra, this is a great one for first timers. The course is really well-marked and runnable (walkable). The volunteers are great and the post-race BBQ dinner was much appreciated by this hungry runner. My biggest piece of advice would be to do your hill workouts. Here's the elevation profile from my Garmin:

More pictures from the weekend in the 2010 Capon Valley 50K album here.