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April 30 BB50, 50 miles on road, time 7:01, 2nd of 7 finishers.
Saturday, April 30, was the BB50 in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Here's a first-hand report, with some questions for the more experienced of you at the end.
After almost missing the start, we were off promptly at 6:30 a.m. on a gorgeous day. Clear and cold (about freezing), light frost. The afternoon before it had snowed a couple inches, with lightning and thunder to boot! The Jemez mountains, toward which we were now running, were catching the early morning light on their powdered sugar frosting of snow.
There were perhaps four dozen starters, divided between the BB50, Bandelier Marathon, and marathon and 50-mile relays. I ran the BB50 last year with a hurt knee, and dropped out at 30, so this was the first 50 I expected to finish.
The 50-mile course is twice around the basic marathon loop, all on a paved road. You start with five miles of rolling hills, cutting across the pinyon and juniper covered Pajarito plateau. At five you hit the low point of 6,200-feet elevation. There starts a consistent eight-mile climb alongside Bandelier Nat'l Monument and Wilderness Area, taking you to near the high point of 7,800 feet.
Then three miles of rolling hills through the Ponderosa pines at the base of the Jemez. Finally, a consistent nine-mile downhill (the last three miles is actually pretty level) through Los Alamos National Laboratory back to the start in White Rock, 25 miles. Accounting for all the up and down, there's about a 2,000-feet elevation gain per loop, 4,000 feet total for the 50.
I ran some of the first dozen miles with John Cappis, another local runner who holds the over-50 course record of 7:08. This time he was running the first and last legs of a 50 relay. John had some good advice: to run 7 hours, I should plan on going 3:20 for the first loop, 3:40 for the second.
The aid stations dispensed Cytomax and PowerBars every three miles or more. I settled down to drinking eight ounces of the former and eating half of one of the latter between each station.
I came through the first loop in about 3:15 - a tad fast, but still about 10 minutes behind the leader (the previous year's winner, Rod
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