I am 5 days away from my first ultra marathon and I’m feeling pretty good about it.  Four weeks ago I ran my fastest full marathon ever PRing on a trail marathon that had me climbing over trees and crossing deep chasms where the dirt had been washed away by water using two six inch wide boards as a makeshift bridge. Good times. Last week I ran a half marathon at my alma mater, Purdue University, and while I didn’t earn a PR I did run my fastest half for 2012 which was within 00:02:30 minutes of my Half PR time so a good effort on a hilly course!

I put quotes around the “50K” in the title because a true 50K is a race just over 31 miles (31.068 to be exact). So a 50K means a runner would go just under an extra 5 miles. Having ran 5 marathons to date I know an extra five miles would be a challenge. But this course isn’t laid out on city streets hence the quotes around the “50K”.  This course is made up of two loops through the owen Putnam State Forest.  The first loop is 5.25 miles and the second loop is 14.1 miles so by the time I’m finished with my “50K” I will have run about 33.45 miles for an extra 2.5 miles as compared to a standard 50K race.

Regardless of the distance I am concerned with two things. Finishing and having fun!