Success and a GREAT time at the New River Trail 50 km

With Tristan and Gilligan at the start of the New River Trail 50 km. This was my first time running this race, but it certainly will not be my last. I loved the eco-friendly theme (including choice of handmade cup or hand held bottle), super friendly volunteers and lovely course.
Here I am with the Race Director Annette Bednosky before the race. She is an accomplished ultra athlete as well as an excellent RD who took excellent care of the runners!

My Friend Anita Finakle was running the 50 km which was a real treat. She was quite far ahead of me during the race, however, after the race was finished she and her husband Jay stayed and hung out while enjoying the tasty soup, bread and cookies. I met Anita volunteering at the Old Dominion 100 miler when I was just starting my "ultra career". She told me about Umstead 100 and all the rest after that 100 miler is history.

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Before the beginning of the race I was fortunate to meet Joe (pictured here after the race). He was really nice and was running his first 50 km race! We chatted about races, ultra's and I tried to give him helpful advice for the race (enjoy the experience is pretty much all I can suggest to anyone because I am not a very good runner...but I sure do have a good time!). I will see Joe in just over a month at the Richmond Marathon and hope to see him at many more ultra's!

After 3 weeks of miserable failure and miserable conditions (for 2 of the 3 events: Tails for Trails 40 miler, VT50 50 km and New Hampshire Marathon), I finally had a breakout performance at the New River Trail 50 km. In fact I PR'd by nearly 1 hour with a time of 6 hours and 6 minutes. And during this race I had a GREAT time.

Everyone was so friendly, the course was beautiful and overall even with a few sprinkles of rain I had a wonderful time. This race will definitely be on my calendar for many years to come! In addition to having a great time running was fortunate to reconnect with several friends including Anita Finkle who alerted me to Umstead 100 many years ago (for which I will always be grateful as I have enjoyed it so much!) And I met Joe a really nice gentleman running his first 50 km from Richmond. I am looking forward to seeing Joe at Richmond Marathon and hope he enjoyed this experience enough to become a ultra-convert like me:-)

I will write a comprehensive report and include lots of pictures later but in the meantime I wanted to send a huge THANKS to Annette Bednosky and all the super volunteers at the New River Trails 50 km. It was great fun!