Moab 50K

Well, the Moab Red Hot 50K++ lived up to it's name. There was a fast field that started, and they stayed fast to the end. Dave Mackey broke last year's course record of 4:03:02 set by Kyle Skaggs, in 3 hours 58 minutes. Tim Parr was right behind him in 3:59 and Karl Meltzer rounded out the top three with his best finish in 4:13. I was there at the finish to watch them and it was inspiring to see them all fly by the 33K runners still coming in. They were moving!
As for my race, definitely not Red Hot. In fact, it was pretty cold. As has been the trend for the last two Moab 50k's, I got a cold the week before the race started. In years past, it lasted a couple days and I was fine by race day. This year, it got worse and worse until Saturday morning I had the aches with gallons of green gunk coming out my nose and lungs. Being a little stubborn, I decided to run anyway. I thought I'd take it easy and enjoy a nice run on real dirt. After 5-6 miles I realized that taking it easy wasn't going to cut it, but I didn't want to stop so soon, so I decided to finish the first big loop and drop at mile 17. I should have just stopped at the first aid station. The only real good thing about the day was enjoying running along with John Wheelwright and Cam Davis for a few miles. Cam kept me entertained with his high energy and it was good to catch up with John a little bit.
I dropped at the same time as Nick Pedatella, winner of last year's Boulder 100. He was having some knee problems. We decided to walk back to the start. Luckily, someone came by and picked us up and saved us from the 5 mile walk backto our cars. Then I drove to the finish in time to watch the winners come through. Kevin Shilling ran a fast 4:39. Not bad for a long run of two hours coming into the race. All in all, it was nice to get on dirt for a few miles, but disappointing to not be able to get out and really run. I look forward to feeling better and to the Buffalo Run in March.