Darkside "50K:

So for the 8 people that randomly run across this blog and have actually wasted two hours of their life reading each post (THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH)! I have hinted at this fun run 50K. So here it is my first unofficial 50K race review:

Darkside, Pine Mountain Georgia (insert dark ominous music).

Friday December 23^rd at 730PM a group of 13 runners bound together at the local Ihope restaurants preparing for what was supposed to be a evening of fellowship, good cheer, and a holiday fun run. Our departure was slightly delayed due to the nature of runners (somewhat spacey, constantly doing something, no concept of time IE always having to bano at the start line) but we all made it to our secret start location with high moral.  A quick photo, potty break (in the dark and woods) gear check and we were off. Operation Darkside 2011 was ready to go our motto “No Man Left Behind”. One person knew the route for certain, one person sorta knew the route, 8 people attempted to pay attention and figure it out, one person said well I’ll stick with the leader so I’m not listening (spoiler: this will be his down fall).

Talk about reflective gear!! This cracked me up!

Crazy?? Lets go run 50K Christmas weekend?? NAAAAAaa...

We ran the first seven miles on a easy trail/water mixture that did not offer that many challenges other than trying to keep our feet dry early on and keeping the group together. A guy reminded me of Scuba Steve from his running gear.. apparently his nickname was angry bird, but he and the marine so desperately wanted to push the pace we had some trouble keeping everyone together. The water seemed to slow everyone down.. oh and the fact that we had NO idea where we were nor where we were going to end up. It felt a lot colder when we started and I was a little worried about my choice of gear but when we stopped I felt the cold and around 2am the wind really picked up = BRRRRRR.

After the trail 7 we hit the road and ended up at our first aid station at the Country Store in Pine Mountain. To this day I have no idea where that trail is. A GU (auctine), a couple SCaps, half a banana, and a Gatorade mixture, and we were off again… this time to the Pine Mountain trail for about 4-6 miles, I can’t really remember. The trail was nice, I much prefer hard inclines and covered rocks over the road ANY day.

And thennnn

Once we left the trail we ended up at the start of the Calloway Gardens holiday lights. It’s ironic because two days before I thought someone should have a run through the lights rather than driving. Well you ask and you shall receive. We ran what seemed to be the distance of the Calloway Half Marathon.. oh and BTWWWW we def weren’t supposed to be there so this was completely in the dark. I like running at night with my head lamp (on) but when fatigue is starting to set in complete darkness plays ticks. I will admit it was my fault the pace picked up. I felt like we were going in circles, up and down round and round, the once astonishing sites were dirving me nuts.. like how many times were we going to see a lake?? I was about to lose it so the fastest way to get out of a situation is to go faster.

So in the dark and at night we thought these guys were coming to life, ok slightly thought that... all I know is the Nutcracker scared me when I as a kid and these guys freaked me out a bit as a adult running at around 12 or 1am.

At the end of creepy Calloway we took about a 5 min sit and rest, oh it got cold when we stopped.. big BIG time and it was another mile to the aid station. And we were off again. When we got to aid station 3, mile 24, there was no more waiting for a response to who wants the other half of my banana, “here” rang out without hesitation. We were sucking down Gus (Roctane), and my favorite Piky bars.

These are awesome!! Everything from the packaging to the content of the bar is amazing. These are easy to swallow and really are filling. Downside: 2.95 each so use them wisely (I'm bad about wanting these on every long run).

I stopped using GU and changed to Hammer products but a buddy turned me back onto these after I PR at the Savannah Half. I usually Don't eat a lot sugar so when I use these I feel like I change gears, I'm sure it's more mental.

After fueling up, about 5 min later we were off again for the last 7 miles on the trail (YAY).

The first 3 of the 7 miles I was hurting. I was paying for my get out of doge 13 miles of speed. When all I know we had a 5K left yeah I picked it up and finished at a 10 min pace. I felt really strong and happy to have ran the furthest I have ever ran in my life. 6 hours and 31 miles later I could not ask for a better Christmas gift. Christmas weekend was spent sleeping, eating, drinking, repeating. I ran a two mile recovery EASY run on the 24^th and felt OK with another runner that ran Darkside. My right knee hurt a little but that’s just from the long distance on the road. I also started to chafe a little around mile 24 (I think due to the two bano breaks) but other than that I was good. I ran again a couple days later and the body was up to par.

Now.. I stayed with the group that knew where we were going (with the one person who kinda knew the route). Two guys ended up getting completely separated and found their way back a hour or so after the entire group by play Marco Polo or something with the leader. The guy that wasn’t paying attention to the route defiantly ended up alone for a portion of the run wondering around yelling out names. Ok so I’m cracking up typing this but I’m sure it’s a “you had to be there” experience.  I have to say this was such a great group of people that had me laughing about 90% of the time. I am so thankful I was included on the email to run.. I guess the word is out I'm really just crazy (not). So much for “no Man left behind” it was more like

Afterwards, we made our way to the Ihop for some early morning Christmas eve morning breakfast said our goodbyes and headed home. I finally laid down at 7:45. A quick message to Bob about how awesome I felt and I was out.

Darkside 2012 is all ready on the calendar and I can’t wait!