Punxsutawney 50k Race Report

• Paul, Dave, e-speed and I carpooled to Punxsutawney on Friday.
• We met up with more SERC runners in there, including Judge McGinty, Carson, Suzanne and Bob Pokorny, Tim H.
  
• I am not positive, but I think the pre-race spaghetti dinner may have actually been Ramen noodles with ketchup. Below is a photo of Dave, me, Paul, and s-speed at the dinner.
  

• For dessert, there were groundhog cookies. I know you think I'm going to say they were made with real groundhog, and that would have been funny, but no. They were made of polystyrene, with a Crisco icing.
  
• We met Punxsutawney Phil at the pre-race dinner. He's a fat rodent with a beautiful coat, and no sense of humor.
• I forgot to have my coffee on race morning. (More on this later.)
  
• The Punxsy trails starts out hilly, gets worse, then get ridiculous already. The hills have funny names. There is nothing else funny about the hills. Because much of the course is a loop which you have to run twice, you get to climb most of the worst hills twice.
  

THE HILLS:  Seatree's  Two Beers   Yellow Bus   Cry Baby  Buck Run

• There was a photographer waiting at the top of Yellow Bus. Here are photos of e-speed, Paul, and I which he took. I could not find a shot of Dave, but that may be because he was moving too fast to be photographed.

• I ran a slow first half, around 2 hours 35 minutes by my estimate. I didn't feel bad, just not as energetic as usual. (Remember the comment about missing my morning coffee?)
• I rebounded in the back half of the race. (More on this to follow)
  
• I LOVE Endurolyte Capsules. I took one every half hour, and never felt even a twinge of the leg cramps that made my Buckeye Trail 50k so frustrating.
  
• I finished strong, actually feeling better as the day worn on. The last three miles were may fastest of the day, by far. I crossed the finish line at 4 hours and 59 minutes. That's right, I got my sub-5 hour 50k. Crossing that finish line, with about 15 people cheering, felt as good as crossing the line at Boston. That's the thing about ultras. You gotta run one to understand.
  
• Our team, representing Vertical Runner, took first place, and we all won Montrail trail running shoes. Here are the complete race results. Bob P. came in 4th overall, Dave was 7th, e-speed and Carson were 13th and 14th, and I was 18th. Paul had a terrible day, with stomach problems followed by leg cramps. Despite that, he fought threw it and finished 33rd overall. Way to tough it out, Paul.
  

If you want to see all photos from Punxsy, click here. (The first 25 are from Punxsy; the rest are various SERC photos.) I might (will) have more to say later, but please accept this executive summary for now. I need to get to bed.