Mt. Tam 50k Race Recap

The Eat for Endurance Podcast

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Welcome to Episode 55 of the Eat for Endurance Podcast! Today I have a short recap for you on my Mt Tam 50k trail race this past Saturday, November 12th. It was a gorgeous, challenging course that went through Mt. Tamalpais State Park, Muir Woods National Monument, and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We had absolutely perfect weather, and although it was a tough run, I had such a joyful experience (minus stubbing my toe so hard on a root I thought it was broken and nearly face planting countless times in the last ten miles, but that’s all part of the Type 2 fun, isn’t it?!).

Inside Trail Racing put this event on (the same group that organized the Rodeo Valley 50k that I did in August), and they did a great job, once again. We had actually signed up for this one last year, but DNS because the timing ended up being bad with our move. Grateful we finally made it to the start (and finish) - I already want to do this event next year!
My recap will give you ALLLLL the details, including my nutrition (what went really well, and what I’m still tweaking). In the meantime, here’s the short version.
We left Santa Cruz around 4:30am for the long drive up North. The day before, my stomach was feeling super off and I’m frustrated to report that it also carried over into race morning. I’m still not sure what went wrong - I practiced various strategies in training and had switched things up since my last 50k, but my body was still not happy with what I was eating. My only guess is that I had been trying to increase my total carb intake to be closer to recommended guidelines and my body still wasn’t into it. So the 2+ hour ride was not a fun one for me, esp with that 30-min crazy, super windy road down to Stinson Beach!
I was convinced that my stomach would be a mess for this race but somehow, everything went away just before the race started. I had zero GI issues and felt super strong the rest of the day! So grateful.
The course was really hard, which is exactly what I expected given the elevation profile and my sub-par training (I only got up to about 3.5 hours on the trails, and had taken some weeks off due to illness). But I paced myself well and chatted with some new trail buddies along the way to help the miles go by quickly. I ended up finishing the 50k with 6800 ft of climbing in 6:54 and won 3rd in my age group, and am feeling great about that all things considered. I didn't get lost and I didn't fall - so all in all, a successful day!
Recovery has been going pretty well! Low appetite has been an issue (not helped by sick kiddos and lack of sleep) but I’ve managed to get consistent meals and snacks in. I was super sore for a couple days of course, but got some nice gentle walks in and a short run in on Wednesday. Planning to take it super easy the next couple of weeks and then we shall see what’s next.
Give the episode a listen for all the other details! And stay tuned for more athlete and RD interviews.
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• Music Credit: Joseph McDade
• Photo Credit: Let’s Wander Photography
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