Badger Mountain Challenge 50K

I took care of some unfinished business at this year’s Badger Mountain Challenge 50K. I attempted this race 2 years ago, hurt my knee around mile 20, and dropped. This time, I decided to take the early start to give me plenty of time. I decided to wear the Altra Olympus for this run. I met up with my friend Tiffany who I was running with and headed to the start. While walking to the start we found our friend Shir had come out to the start to cheer people on and our friend Chad happened to be in town from Bellingham and came out the cheer on the start as well.

The race director gave us some instructions, including a last minute course change. I only half heard it, so I verified what I had heard. A few minutes later we were off. Just up the hill a bit from the start we see another friend Jill cheering us on. Jill promised us cake at the finish line too, extra incentive to finish! Good thing I clarified the course change, I get to the top of Badger and 4 people ahead of us are lost, luckily I know where we're going.

Between Badger and Candy, we see a random guy walking a dog. Soon we realize it’s Chad, looking for a friend who's running the 100 miler. We head up Candy Mountain; unfortunately I didn't find the cigarette trees.

After Candy, we cross Kennedy Road, and head by the gravel pit on the way to the demoralizing Hill (aka a cliff, which I made sure to correct the RD when he called it a hill earlier.) As soon as we cross the road, Jake Puzey comes flying by. I look at the Garmin, and we're just over 8 miles, and 2 hours into this. Since we took an hour early start, that means he's gone through 8 miles, including two significant hills in about an hour. He went on to win even after taking some wrong turns that added about 5K to his distance.

Heading up Red mountain, a guy wearing just shorts and shoes passes us. For the rest of the run he was known as naked man. This gave me the great idea to go with the new trend of taking selfies with hot guys.

Running along the ridge we cross paths with naked man again, I take a selfie with him in the background this time (you can barely see him in the background, but he’s there

Down the other side of red, heading to the turnaround, of course the RD had to add a couple of ups and downs along the base of the mountain before we turn around to go back up. After the turn around I see my friend Chris. I take a selfie and inform him I'm taking selfies of myself with hot guys and Chris.

 

On the way back up red, we got some motivation from a shot of fireball, which always helps.

Heading back towards the demoralizing hill, we see a truck with some guys heading out to hunt rabbits. We talk to them for a few minutes about the race, and Tiffany tells them to watch out for runners looking like zombies. They comment about being glad they have their guns. Right before the hill there are a bunch of kids riding dirt bikes, Tiffany is sure we're going to get run over, but somehow we survive which means we have to climb up demoralizing hill. After that it's some nice trails for a couple miles until we get to climb candy again, by this time there is a pretty nice breeze at the top. We make it to the top, only 6 miles to go!

Down candy, and back up badger, leads us to our final descent to the finish. I'm a faster downhill runner than Tiffany, so she suggests I go ahead. I figure after all this, there's no way I'm ditching her, so I try to run behind and let her set the pace to the finish. At the bottom, we make the U-turn for the uphill finish. My wife and kids are waiting for me at the finish line. I'm pretty sure we cross the line together, but the official time says she beat me by 1 second. I'm told that it's payback for sprinting past her at the finish of a recent 10K. Fair enough.

Now it’s time for Cake and Beer (in Starbucks cups). 50K done, now time to start training for the marathon next weekend.