Submitted by Rush 2/11/2020 1581428943
Writing this up almost a year after the event. I finally made it back to the Fontandango 50. This race was my first attempt at 50 miles back in 2015, but that year I went out too fast and stopped at 30. As a consolation, I did come in 3rd at the 50K distance, but I'd never DNF'd before and that nagged at me so it was great to come back and knock this 50 miler out.
The race is 5 loops around a 10 mile loop of single track and some road grade. The terrain is mostly rolling with a few short steeper sections and one brutal mother of a hill at mile 8 that feels damn near vertical on the 5th lap. RD Aaron Saft was at the start/finish line every lap cheering runners on, offering encouragement, smiling and telling jokes.
My plan was to start out easy, stay comfortable until 30 and then see if I could push some in the final two laps. The last lap was my fastest of the day. I finished just after darkness fell super elated to have come back and managed the race much better the 2nd time.
In 2015 I got up super early the morning of the race and drove 2.5 hours from my home. This year, I booked a room at the Fontanna Village for Friday and Saturday nights and that made the experience much easier.
I finished in 12:14, 15th out of 51 finishers and 2nd in my age group.
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