50 Miles TRAVESIA EN LAS SIERRAS

50 Miles TRAVESIA EN LAS SIERRAS
By El Yuca Descalzo


June 7 2014

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The race was setup for 4 ultra-distances almost at the same 100 and 50 miles and 100 and 50 km, the race started at the 6 am (except for the 50k, it started at 8am), it was a rainy day with a lot of fog in Villa del Carbon, a small town at about 2 hours from Mexico city, around 80 runners were ready at the start line, the race director gave the final instructions and we were good to go!

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I was going to run the 50 mile race (80 km, and from this point I will refer only in Km) along with two partners from my training trail team, at this point I’ve only ran a 50 and a 59km ultras in the past months so I decided it was time…

The race was a circuit of 50 km, first you had to run 25K, reach the supply point, then return to the city, and depending of the distance you sign up was the distance of your next circuit, for me it was a 15k and another 15k to return to the city.

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My plan was to wear the VFF KSO EVO for 50 km and at that point and after I look at the trail I will decide if I keep the shoes or not, obviously when you are all excited you think you can run to the end of the world, but I knew the reality was going to be different so I packed up my pair of homemade custom sandals, and the light Puma faas Foam 200, just in case something could go wrong.

Due to the rain the trail was all soft and at some places you could find big puddles of mud, no problem for the VFF, this time (and based on the experience of older races) I decided to wear some toe socks, that way I will eliminate the possibility of blisters.

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The plan was ok during the first 25k, I reach the point without problems and decided to wear the sandals, I started running even more comfortable that with the VFF, I ran 10k on them until I reach a difficult descent, full of mud… I started to glide all the way down, (without brakes) until at some point the cheap sole broke, no problem I could always go barefoot or with the vibram, I decided BF, at least for 2 K until decided that may be wasn’t such a good idea if I wanted to finish the race, after all, I wasn’t even at the middle (I went back to the VFF).

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At the 50k I was already tired of the VFF so I put the Puma’s on, they are quite comfortable but since a few months ago they feel a bit narrow for my feet.

I got my second charge of energy at the 58K, I was flying like the wind (as fast as a slow runner can be jeje), my second charge of energy was at the 73K at this point I passed 4 runners who were quite ahead of me and finally I reach the finish line with a lot of energy and feeling good, (at least for 1 hour until I started to feel really tired).

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My final time, 14 hrs and 40 minutes. No blisters, No knee pain, only a bit of pain in both arches, I’m guessing because of the long distance.

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This is my report.


Next ultra-challenge: 100k trail in October…
 
Awesome. So inspiring thank you :)
 
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