Lake Perry Rocks! 50k

I’m not 100% sure why I signed up for this race, I think I was under the impression it would be some easy miles and I could use it as my last long training run for the Ozark Trail 100. Not much happened the way I thought and it wasn’t much of a training run when I found myself pushing it hard. I showed up race morning without many expectations, people had told me it was relatively flat so I thought I would average 9 minute miles and be ok, besides that I expected to have fun.
The race started off going a couple hundred yards down a gravel hill. At the start 3 guys took off sprinting, 1 50k runner and 2 half distance runners, I figured I wouldn’t see any of them again and was happy with that. I made it down the road and into the woods rather fast myself and was seemingly content to hold onto second or let people that would be picking up the pace behind me take off. After a couple miles I had reeled in Phil Sheridan who was the 50k runner in front of me and found myself in uncharted first place territory. Basically the rest of the race I was confused and anticipating someone passing me. I made it through the first loop rather fast and had I been running the half I would have been in third, something I would have been more than happy with. Going into the second lap I was feeling okay, but not great. the flat course ended up being almost as hilly as the Psummer Psycho, although the hills were much more gradual, but this began to catch up with the fast pace I had put out the first lap. At the first aid station I popped some salt pills because I felt some cramping might be coming, fortunately they made any feeling of it disappear. The nice volunteers even remarked upon my happy demeanor, but after leaving this aid station my mood took a hit. My legs began to get rather sluggish and I was beginning to walk most of the hills, soon most of the hills became all of the hills and I was sure I was going to get passed. I actually was hoping I would get passed so I could quit worrying about it. The final 5 miles or so were rather slow, but I found out I had built a nice lead and only a cataclysmic meltdown would cause me to lose the lead. The race was fun, the course was really nice, an overall good experience. My legs left a little more beat up than I was hoping they would but that was okay, I managed to win my first 50k!
Oh yeah... Thanks to Mark Carter! I borrowed his car to drive out to the race.