RACE REPORT – Surf the Murph 2020 50k
This was my first 50k, and I completed it with my sister Gretchen. I was supposed to run the Dublin Marathon on Oct 25th, 2020, but that didn’t happen for some reason. (Could have been COVID-19).
When I saw this race come up I was excited to have a real race in 2020. They limited the field to 25 people, no support, no spectators, just a timing mat at the start and finish.
We started at 7 am, very dark, very cold with a temp of 26f and light snow. It was supposed to stop snowing and warm to 30f by 10 am. It didn’t stop snowing and maybe it warmed up? The course advertises 4200ft of evaluation and most of that comes in the first 6 miles of the loop. I ran with my sister who had done this race previously and we had done 27 miles of the same course a couple of weeks prior.
What I didn’t expect was the ice and the uneven surface because of all the snow and ice. Regardless after my first loop, I was soaking wet and changed both my top layers. I was feeling good except the top of my left foot was giving me some bother. The second loop on the prairie was winding and cold and my hands really froze. I also had brought 2 bagels and a ton of bars and gels. I ended up eating half of a Larabar and a quarter of a bagel. The rest was all Tailwind Nutrition. The snow only picked up in the second half which made it quite beautiful. We were at 3:27 for the first half, slower than we had expected. In the end, we finished at 7:38. We spent about 20 minutes changing clothes and eating potato chips. (Not sure why I didn’t eat a bagel at that point??)This was such a great event and even better to spend 7.5 hours with my sister. Now maybe my sister Gwen will want to do one as a family-run.
