Greenland 50K

The Greenland 50K went okay. I arrived a bit later than I wanted. I didn't take any photos, I wasted what few extra minutes I had waiting in line to use the portapotty, and barely had time to pin my bib before the race. I didn't even have time for my grab-bag.
I met several freinds. Nearly all of them ran either the 8-mile or the 25K distances.
Anita F. and Elizabeth C. ran the 50K.
At the tail-end of a 70-mile week, I didn't have a lot of "oomph" in me. I still thought I could do it under 5 hours. Wrong - 5:21 and change. Not proud of that, but not ashamed either. From the start, I could feel the lactic acid that Wednesday's fast lactate run produced. I hadn't massaged my quads the way I had planned on Thrusday and Friday, so what could I expect? But I ran hard the last couple of miles. It was nice at the 29-mile mark to still have power in me. I new if I had to pass anyone, I could have sprinted if necessary (but it wasn't). I blew past two runners.

The race was basically 4 laps on rolling terrain. Everyone ran one lap. The 25K runners did 2 laps. The 50K did all 4.
Even though the terrain is simple and easy, bikes and horses had churned mud into a lumpy-bumpy trail which was mostly frozen. There were no rocks - none. The course thawed as time went on. There was a little ice the first lap. Everyone jammed into the right-hand trail. I passed about 10 people by running on the ice (pays to train on ice sometimes). But mostly there was mud. Lots of mud. About 1/3 of the course was difficult mud. you had to try to stay on the snow, but then that too often was slush. So you'd squash the slush, which would splatter, and your trailing foot would catch it coming forward. So we got soaked and muddy.

On my 3rd lap, at mile 20, I passed the 25K DFL (Dead F***ing Last). For a couple of minutes I felt like a stud - then the 50K leader zipped by ME! Okay, puts things back into perspective. The world is right and I suck.

Anita F. finished 11 minutes behind me and won her age-group. Me, I had probably half a dozen guys in my age-group ahead of me. Typical.
Elizabeth C., though, totally kicked BUTT!!! She's done a couple of marathons in the past, but this was her first 50K. She finished in 4:49! Considering the footing, this is astounding. And she wasn't even hobbling afterwards. She's a "studdette".

Co-race director, Derek Griffiths, gave me a certificate for some free LaSportiva shoes. This was partly because I worked so many of their races in the past 14 months. Finally - I actually ran one of their races!

Funny-bones:
I was pinning my bib on and Anita F. comes up. I had an openned safety-pin (unsafety-pin?) in my fingers and we hug and I say, "Watch it - I don't want to poke you." Which sounded like maybe I meant something different!
At about mile 27, at the aid station, I stopped long enough to ham-it-up. One aid-station guy says, "Well, you look okay." The other aid-station guy says, "I feel FINE - it hasn't affected me at all!" I said, "You look good." He quips, "I work out." I say, "I can tell."
Okay, you had to be there, but the funniest thing was the timing. None of us missed a beat - it was so fast, natural, and deadpan.