Silver Rush 50

Sean and I's first 50 mile race!!!  Actually, it wasn't quite 50 miles, the website says that it was 46.2 miles but people running said that their Garmin said 47.5-48 miles. As true Leadville style, the course was ridiculously beautiful. There was some overlap of the course between the marathon and the 50 miler. The Silver Rush wasn't as rocky as the Marathon.  The marathon felt and looked like we were climbing a 14er, but the Silver Rush felt like we were back on the Colorado trail. The Silver Rush course traveled mainly on jeep roads through the aspens, pine trees, fields of wildflowers, along a river, and by abandoned mines.  It is rumored that the course is much easier than the marathon and I think they might be correct due to not having to run down a  13er covered with large loose rocks. My knees will tell you that it also had some rocky downhills, but the recovery period after the 50 has been much easier.  I am not sure if my knee is still sore from chipping my tibia at Colfax or if the pain is in my head, but running downhills hurts these days. 

http://www.leadvilleraceseries.com/page/show/312299-silver-rush-50-run

http://www.leadvilleraceseries.com/page/show/312299-silver-rush-50-run

I am still working on learning to eat and drink while running.  I am getting much better and didn't bonk this time like I did at the Greenland 50K.   I drank gatorade and Gu Brew through the entire race and ate either a gel or some kind of chew every hour on the hour.  I ended up drinking 16 oz. of Gatorade and 96 oz. of Gu Brew and eating 2 Gu Chomps, 1 pack of honey stinger lime chews, 7 Gu gels, and 8 salt tabs. I am not sure exactly what I will do for the Leadville 100, because I hate the texture and flavor of  gels with a passion and solid food was not even the littlest bit appealing. 

My only complaint about the course is that there were no mile markers.  I forgot about one of the aid stations and thought that I was only 13 miles from the finish which sounded very doable.  It was much later that I found out that I was really only at mile 30.  I actually didn't feel that bad, but I kept thinking I was close to the finish and the course kept going and going.  To make matters worse, you can hear the finish from about 7 miles away, so you think you are close, but really you have a while left to run.  I talked to someone running and they said that we were at mile 45, so I figured that I really was close to the 46.2 miles the website described, but the course kept going until mile 48ish.  I definitely slowed down because I was so frustrated. 

Photo by Dave Manthey of Runner's Edge of the Rockies.

Photo by Dave Manthey of Runner's Edge of the Rockies.

Photo by Dave Manthey of Runner's Edge of the Rockies.

Photo by Dave Manthey of Runner's Edge of the Rockies.

Photo by Dave Manthey of Runner's Edge of the Rockies.

The best thing about running with the Runner's Roost run club or in Sean's case being on the Runner's Roost Ultra/Mountain team is the amazing friends who are out there either running the race with you or are along the course cheering you along.  The favorite parts of the race was the time I spent running with Sean, Creepy Fil, Ben, Nick, and Oza and cheering for all of our other Roost friends along the course.  As always, the Klanjsek family was out there cheering us along prepared to give me anything from nutritional support, high fives, hugs, dry clothes, or popsicles.  Dave Manthey was also out there taking pictures, cheering, and happy to get me anything I needed.

Sean had a great day.  He thought it was the prettiest race he ever ran, the longest race he ever ran, the most friends he ever made in a race, and  the most he ever talked during a race.

Finisher bracelet and bracelet from Scott Jurek.