Notes
Stone Cat 50 Miler.
Went off course for about .5 then .5 back and ran 51. Needed a bathroom break. Then messed up getting back on course. Ran out to a dead end then turned. See mile 8 on Map. Tried to make up for the time lost by running a bit harder after that.
Got 2 loops on GPS. Switched to foot pod only for second half so watch would not die.
Twisted ankle at mile 3. Hurts.
Fell twice.
Except for the very beginning this is a totally different course than we ran in 2011.
Michelle and I talked to the guys from GAC after and their intent was to make it harder. Success.
Course now has 3324 feet of total elevation gain(that is from Strava which is usually much more accurate with that).
Some of it has portions of the old course in reverse but they said there are lots of new trails added.
They wanted to shave off some of the straight away sections and replace them with new technical stull.
This started a couple years ago.
The last 3 miles of each loop are brutal.
Qualified for VT100
Although almost an hour slower than 2011 very happy with my time.
Worked really hard to get this one done. This course beat me up today.
I'm hurting. I may not even run tomorrow.
Made a choice to change shoes at the halfway mark and it probably saved this for me.
As always the GAC folks are awesome and the aid stations and overall stonecat vibe was great.
I don't think marathon training translated very well to this course. To do better I really think I would need lots more technical trail work. Lots more.
Got some good info regarding Vermont. I hear it is a very runnable course. The person we spoke to said he ran faster at VT than GT.
May write a report later. May not.