Feeling and Feeding the Fifty

We had an amazing day out on the trail yesterday but I cannot quite put the experience into words yet. I flew out to San Francisco after the race for a week at the RSA Conference and I am still in a blissful glow from such a irreplaceable passage. Pulling my luggage around the streets of San Francisco may not be the best recovery from my first ultra but I am glad that I can do it injury free. I am tired but so stoked and so proud of Monique who with little training decided the night before to run as far as she could and ended up completing the full 50K course. I can’t think of a better way of running the race than to spend the day with Monique on the trials.

I thought that it would be interesting to take a look at some stats since this was our first ultra and we were well feed and hydrated.

Food Monique ate during the run:
-3 gels
-half a banana
-two hand fulls of gummy bears
-two pretzels
-a few chocolate covered expresso beans
-four advil and two ECAP(electrolyte replacements)

Food I ate during the run:
-5 GU gels (vanilla w/ CAFFEINE)
-half PB&J sandwich
-handful of Mrs Mays Sunflower crunch (complements of zombierunner)
-two handfuls of chocolate covered espresso beans
-half a banana
-hand full of M&M's
-four advil and one ECAP

Things we carried the entire 50K and didnt need to use:
-slice of pizza
-brownie
-toliet paper(good thing!)
-two power bars
-our jackets & fleece shirt
-Swiss army knife

According to our Polar watches we both burned over 4200 calories each in the seven plus hours on the trail. While Monique ran with a higher heart rate average, my weight and age leveled us out to about the same burn rate. If we were eating out wheaties, we would have to consume over three boxes each to get our calories back. I guess running ultras can get expensive!

Monique’s HR Stats
Max zone 5hrs
High zone 2hrs

My HR Stats
Max zone 3min
High zone 4hrs
Med zone 3hrs

It was amazing to watch Monique push herself so much(and not complain) and her heart rate shows the details. While I averaged a heart rate of 134 bpm(beats per min) and a high of 165bpm, Monique was pushing an average of 176 and a high of 197bpm. Amazing! I married one tough girl (and she is so cute too)