First Ultra Glacial Trail 50K

I was nervous the day before the race. Because the race was over 1.5 hours from my house, I decided to camp out at Mauthe Lake State Park friday night. I packed up the Henry Shire Tarptent to be used on the PCT, and the Western Mountaineering Alpinlite Down bag to be used on the same, and drove to the campground.

The colors were beautiful and the weather nice. I had arranged for my buddy Scott to save me one of the two last spots when I found out he was up there already. He stayed for a while after I arrived and then headed back to Brookfield.

I cooked a light meal, had a couple beers (for carb loading of course) and stoked a fire before kicking back to read a book. I miss the days of solo camping and this was a nice mellow night before what was surely to be one hell of a tomorrow. After a couple hours I let the fire die and crawled into my bag for the night.

I want to take a moment to talk about carb loading before a race. I believe you should run your own run so don't take this as pontification. Take it for what it is, that which works for me. When running long distances, we need to rely more and more on stored energy, rather than immediate simple sugars. Without the stored energy, we'd bonk after 10-15 miles. Stored energy comes in various forms, but complex carbs are most important for runs under 50 miles. So, yes, we must carb load before a race. When, though, becomes the question.

Previous knowledge has taught me that carb loading the night before a race is the way to go. Hence the popular pasta dinners we hear so much about the night before a marathon or other long race. I have found that this does not work for me. Because the race starts early, I do not want a big plate of pasta in my digestive tract minutes prior to the race. Even if you do manage a good "movement" that morning, I still feel heavy. It's the same with water. If you are trying to hydrate the morning of the race, it's too late. I taper the water and food off before the race, replying on the days prior to prepare my energy stores. Water I drink though out the race to replace what I'm losing.

My advice to budding long distance runners is to hydrate and carb load 2-4 days prior to the race. Have a light meal the night before, and keep drinking lots of water until the morning of the race. That morning, if the race starts at 7am like the Glacial 50K does, get up at 5am, have some coffee or tea and a light breakfast. i had pop tarts and a banana. Drink small amounts of water until one hour before the start and then taper to little or no water until the gun goes off. Now you have an empty digestive tract, empty bladder and are ready to go.

During the race, make sure to drink often and eat often. Since you are burning calories and water, you need to replenish. This will not add any weight, rather just keep you even. That's the ticket.

That's just what I did and it worked great.

Up next, the race.