Challenging the Body: North Face Endurance Challenge 50K

I cannot hide my "love" for ultras and for trails so trail ultras and me are just mean to be together!! I have been a runner for almost 3 years but before that I used to be a hiker. Unfortunately between work and running, I haven't had much time to ralso keep hiking, weekends are just not long enough for both hobbies but I think that now with trail running I can just do the two together!!

We ran up that mountain!!

It was a very early start, a friend picked me up at 4:45 AM ( yeah...that early!! which means I woke up at 3:30AM to get ready!!!) and we drove to Bear Mountain. The race started at 7AM but the parking lot was not in the starting line so we needed to arrive on time to take one of the school buses from the parking lot to the place where the race started. It was a cloudy morning and it was expected to rain but fortunately for us they weather forecast was again wrong and the day ended up being sunny and nice. For me it was a perfect running day. We were running on the woods so even though you could see the sun it wasn't really warm and I didn't get any sunburn this time!!

In general I am not nervous about the races, I guess I have a lot of condidence but jsut 5 minutes before starting I always feel these butterflies in my stomach...and this time wasn't different. I wondered What was I doing there and repeating to myself "you are going to start this and you won't be done for at least 9 hours, do you understand ?? are you sure you want to do this? To calm myself down I kept thinking that it was a short ultra, 50K....you have already run 50 miles ...you can do this!!!

Soon after arriving we met some friends and we all started running together in the back. And when I say in the back...it was really the back!! we were the last ones...once again as in my previous ultra my strategy was to start slow and pick up the pace in the second half.

By the time we arrived to the first aid station we were not the last one anymore. I didn't feel great during the first half of the race so I decided to slow down my pace for some miles. I was now behind my friends.

I just ran my own pace and started to focus trying to recover my energy. In the next aid station I met them again. At this point I was felling energy less so I ate some chicken soup!!! I have never eaten soup in a race before but I thought the salt and something warm could help me...and wow it did!! not sure what that soup had but I started running a completely different race!!

I was feeling so good!! After that everyhting was different. I was feeling really well and focus in my goal (yes I had a very specific and competitive goal!! I always do!! I need a motivation...but sorry can't share it!!).

My stops in the following aid stations were very brief, I just didn't want to lose the moment !! Some people stop a lot in the aid stations and also to take many pictures but I don't....I am in and out as soon as possible. This might be an ultra and we might run slow but for me it is still a race and I still care about time so aid stations are just to refill my water, grab some food and keep going as soon as possible!! Also if I stop for a long time then it is tough to start running again.

I remember the last 2 aid stations because the people there were particularly friendly and they all told me how good and strong I was looking (we all say this when volunteering right? LOL). The truth is that I was feeling really strong!!!

The last couple of miles were pretty runable and I was really excited and happy about the race so I ran it as fast I could considering the rocks and mud :).

I finished felling strong and when I asked myself " Do you think you can keep running??" the answer was YES!!! and that was the moment when I finally felt that I am ready for the next big challenge!!!