Badass 50K 2011

Badass 50K - Nov 12, 2011

Well, it gets better every week!

Without really trying, I finished the Bad Ass 50K in 5:10, 4th overall, 3^rd male. 

According to the Ultrasignup ( http://ultrasignup.com/results_participant.aspx?fname=George&lname=Themelis&age=0 ) my rating for this race is 94.5%, the highest of any trail race for me so far!

The 3rd Annual Bad Ass 50K is organized by two local runners through facebook. Here is a picture of Chef Bill Bailey, one of the race organizers, giving the race instructions.

Picture of the registration:

Just before the start, a guy was shoving Newton Figs in his mouth, like there is no tomorrow.  Talking about last minute carbo-loading!  But, I think he won the race, so I should be careful about that I say J

The course is a 5 mile loop at the Cuyahoga Valley (total of 6 loops) plus an extra mile. The first loop felt the hardest. After that, I went to autopilot and the loops went by easily. The last loop was definitely the easiest. I could have done a few more :)

The weather was nice, starting at 35F and warming nicely to 55F and sunny. I started with shorts and a jacket and at loop #3 I took the jacket off to run in a short sleeve T-shirt.

Here are my times for each loop:

1 - 46:07

2 - 49:32
3 - 50:20
4 - 51:49
5 - 51:42
6 - 50:20

After the 1st loop I was in 8th place and worked my way to 4th. The last guy that I passed in the last loop told me that he ran the NY marathon last week. "How did it go?" I asked. "Not good", he said, "I fell apart in the 2nd half". "What was your time?" I asked. "3:05," he said! Wow, here I am running with an under 3 hour marathon guy and I am beating him :) To be fair, this was his first trail race and he did not even carry a water bottle.

Here is a picture of Brad Polman (with Heidi Finniff), a local racer with whom I have a friendly competition in these trail races.  He is younger and faster in road races, but I think I give him a run for his money in trail races. J

And a picture of facebook friend, Julie Curtis, with a cute little dog!

I hope I will continue running strong. I have a half marathon next week and then another 50K in 3 weeks. My "Final Destination" is Burning River 100 next summer.

Here is a picture of me and the second race director, (wild) Bill Wagner, the guy that made the shirts (he has a T-shirt company) after the finish. I like this simple shirt with "Bad Ass" in the front :)