YUTC 50K

So my second ultra is in the books...actually has been for a while, I just  haven't written about it yet. Here goes:
On Sept. 17th my good friend Matt and I took a trip east to Youngstown to run in the Youngstown Ultra Trail Classic - YUTC race.  I ran 50k, he did 25k.  Overall, it was a great day, great race.  Some things could have gone a little better.  You'll see what I mean.
First off, the weather was beautiful.  Couldn't ask for better running weather.  It was in the low 50s when we started, not a cloud in the sky.  The high for the day was right around 70 and we were running under tree cover for most of the race.  It was perfect, perfect, perfect weather for running. 
The course was really nice too.  It wasn't as much rugged trail as Mohican (since that was my first ultra I can't help but compare) but still mostly trails, and it was nice to have a little more variety in the terrain.  The course went around two narrow lakes that are stacked.  The best way to picture it is like a figure 8, going around an upper lake and a lower lake.  It was gorgeous running right along the water for much of the race.
I was feeling pretty good going into this race.  I ran the Mohican 50 mile race in June and tried to basically just keep my training continuous for this race.  31 miles is still a very long way to run and I was expecting it would take me at least 6  hours, so I was trying not to be too optimistic...but still, I felt confident.

Start/Finish Area

Matt and I drove to Youngstown together the morning of the race.  It was kind of a funny setup because the parking lot was at the end of a dead-end street and we couldn't find the starting line.  When we asked someone they told us to "just go down the hill."  The "hill" was pretty much a drop-off with switchbacks to get down.  I'm learning that the ultra-running crowd has a hard time understanding words like "hill."  As we were shuffling down I couldn't help but think about how fun it would be to climb back up after the race... 
8:00am came and we were off.  Matt's training hadn't been quite what he was hoping for so we bid each other good racing and he stayed back while I moved up.  Less than a mile into the race we came to a huge set of stairs that we had to go up single file.  Bottle necks like that near the beginning of the race always slow things down but its part of ultra-running so I can't complain too much.  Soon, we hit the trails and I was happy.  The course had two aid stations that you came through multiple times - one at the start/finish line at the top of the figure 8, and another right in the middle of the figure 8, where the two loops crossed.  Coming up on the first aid station the course changed to these boardwalks with railings and stairs every so often.  So you would run on these planks for 50 yards or so then go up or down a few stairs, then run some more, then more stairs, etc; that went on for probably a half mile. Another guy I was running with said, "Why do I feel like I'm in a video game?"  I laughed out loud because if you've ever played those old-school video games, that's exactly what it felt like.
The aid stations were stocked well enough for me.  At the first one I decided to try a Hammer carbohydrate gel (my first one) and I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.  Of course, it was "mountain huckleberry" flavor so that probably had something to do with it...
Onto the lower loop of the figure 8. This section because it was quite a bit easier - and faster - than the first part.  There was almost a mile of road and more awesome trails.  Throughout the race I had a several people ask me about my shoes, Merrell's minimalist Trail Glove shoes.  They all asked if my feet were sore, and actually they were a little sore.  The trail had lots of little pebbles that my left second metatarsal head didn't get along with.  But the pain peaked after 8-10 miles and never really got any worse so I didn't worry about it too much. After all, it's not a good ultra if you're comfortable the whole time, right?
The rest of the race was smooth sailing until I came back to the lower aid station the third time.  I was feeling good, but knew that if I slowed down at all I wouldn't make my goal time of 6 hours.  I snagged some sugar and salt and started the lower loop for the third time.  Oops.

This is where things get hairy...See, when I looked over the course map, I saw how everyone would run the 25k together, first.  You ran half of the top loop, hit the lower aid station, ran the bottom loop twice, then went up and did the other half of the top loop to finish back at the start/finish line.  That made total sense to me.  No problem.  So if I'm running the 50k I just do that twice, right???  Easier for the runners, easier for the organizers to measure, better for everyone, right???  WRONG.  The correct answer is, after the 50k runners finish the 25k course you just run the full TOP loop two more times and you're done.  No more lower loops.  So you actually end up doing the lower loop only twice...  And I was informed of that when I came into the aid station after finishing the lower loop for the third time.  As I came in, a volunteer asked if I ran the lower loop three times.  I thought he was joking...  He wasn't.  Apparently I had taken so long to check back in at the top aid station that they sent someone down to see where I was.
To make a long story short, I assumed too much with the course directions and ended up running an extra 4 miles.  You can imagine how I felt when I came to that realization.  If something like that had happened at Mohican, I probably would have quit because I don't think I could have handled an extra 4 miles there.  Here, I was...shall we say...disheartened.  And, of course, I was mad - mad at myself for not understanding the directions and mad at them for not telling me the right way to go.  There were like 4 guys standing around doing nothing and I was one of the only runners.  How hard would it have been to say, "hey, you know where you're going now?"  But I can't blame them because it was me who went the wrong way, not them.  I was mad that I wouldn't get my goal when I had been so close - I ran that extra loop at a killer pace, too.  I felt like a balloon that had just been deflated, like a boat that just took on a lot of water.  I signed up to run 31 miles, not 35.
BUT, I knew that I could run 35 and I also knew that if I wanted finish the race, I had no choice but to run 35.  So 35 it was.  I figured griping the rest of the way wasn't going to make it any shorter...  So I mustered the best attitude I could and finished the course as it was designed.  It wasn't easy, and it was a lot less fun after that...but I finished.
I knew my official finishing time would be pathetic but I still wanted to finish strong.  When I hit the final stretch of pavement, I turned up the jets.  With Jenny snapping pictures and Grace clapping for me I "sprinted" to the finish.  All the race volunteers congratulated me on winning the YUTC 35 mile race...because I was the only one who ran that far.

All in all, it was a pretty good race.  My official finish time was around 6:49, but I'm pretty sure that without the extra distance I would've been right around 6:00.  I guess I'll never really know.  I was happy that I was strong enough to run 35 miles and not feel like I'd been bulldozed at the end.  I was happy with my min/mile pace.  Most of all, I was happy to see Jenny and Grace at the end.  Honestly, that is one of my favorite things about these two ultras that I've run - meeting my family at the finish line.  There couldn't be a better prize for finishing.

So considering all that went on, what is my overall opinion of the YUTC 50K?  I think it's a great, low-budget ultra.  The entry fee was only $40, the T-shirt was nothing fancy, there was no fanfare, no big-time sponsors or anything like that.  But it was an awesome course, great location, great people, and a good time.

I wish I could say that I'll avenge myself by smoking the YUTC 50k next year...but I'll be in OKC for an externship next September.  So if you know of any good September races in Oklahoma let me know.