I had signed up to run the Marin Ultra Challenge, which would’ve been my first 50K, but it was cancelled due to the storms. I wanted to do one anyway, so I settled on this route and got a ride to the start from my girlfriend (thanks Jen!). Pretty pleased with how it went overall, given that I had never run this far and the conditions were pretty unpleasant.
I probably started a bit too fast but settled in quickly and felt pretty good for the first half. Initially the weather was pretty good (although the trails were pretty wet), but as I got toward the top of the Bolinas Ridge climb, the mist started to get pretty thick. A few miles later just before Pantoll, it started raining pretty hard. I stopped to refill my water, at this point completely drenched. Descended via Dipsea, and still was feeling OK. Morale and the legs started to decline as I started climbing Miwok, and only got worse on the last climb up Marincello. But I realized I was within range of Chris’s time so I pulled it together and managed to finish without falling apart.
Obviously this is nowhere near the overall FKT, but I’m happy with it anyway!