Saturday, April 30th was the BB50 in Los Alamos, NM.  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 6:30am 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 5 miles of rolling hills, cutting across
the pinyon and juniper covered Pajarito plateau.  At 5 you hit the low
point of 6200' elevation.  There starts a consistent 8 mile climb
alongside Bandelier Nat'l Monument and Wilderness Area, taking you to
near the high point of 7800'.  Then 3 miles of rolling hills through
the Ponderosa pines at the base of the Jemez.  Finally, a consistent 9
mile downhill (the last 3 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 2000' elevation gain
per loop, 4000' 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 3+ miles.  I
settled down to drinking 8 oz 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
Scharberg).  We were weighed at the start, 25, and 37.5 miles - I was
down four pounds to 144, not too bad.  After changing to a T-shirt, I
took off after Rod, knowing that his second loop last year was slow,
and closed to about 6 minutes someone told him I was coming, and he
poured on the steam.  I ended up 10 minutes back at the finish.

The second loop was a lot harder than the first (surprise!), but I
made it up the long hill to 37.5 before walking short sections of the
rolling hills between 38 and 41.  The snow had melted off since the
first loop.  Still 144 at the weigh-in.  At this point I finally
tossed my bag of remaining PowerBars to my wife (Rebecca) - I simply
couldn't choke them down anymore (probably a mistake).  Rebecca did
the first leg of a 50 relay, so she drove along with me and kept me
posted about where the runners in 1st and 3rd were.  Earlier in the
race we'd chatted about I felt, later I simply grunted "good" or
"tired", now I was only nodding.

The last three miles were really tough.  I didn't have a watch, but
figured I was pretty close to my goal of 7 hours, so I was pushing
hard.  It seemed as much a mental challenge as a physical one.  It
felt like I was running through waist deep water - no matter how hard
I forced it, I just couldn't seem to make my legs go any faster.  I
came to what I thought was the finish, only to find that I still had
the 200 yard out-and-back that we'd done at the end of the first loop.
That was the longest 200 yards I'd ever done.  I finished in second
place in 7:01:54.  Kirk Apt closed a lot on me over the second loop,
finishing 2 minutes behind.

It was interesting to compare how I felt at the end of this race with
two years ago when I won the marathon on the same course in 2:57.  The
marathon hurt far more - I remember rocking back and forth for an
hour, massaging my aching legs.  After the 50, nothing at all hurt, I
was just more tired than I'd ever been before.  After laying down for
15 minutes, I felt pretty good.  Is this typical of long races?  If
I'd continued eating PowerBars on the second loop (I did keep up my
Cytomax intake), would I have felt stronger at the end?  Two years
earlier, after I had hung around for 2.5 hours for the awards
ceremony, it suddenly occurred to me "My God! The 50 milers are still
out there!"  This time I was amazed by how quickly the second loop
went by.  Is this typical, or more specifically, will this extrapolate
out to a 100 mile race as well?

I thought this was a well-organized, well-administered race.  Kudos to
Rene LeClaire, the RD.  The final results were:

BB50:

1. Rod Scharberg, 33	6:52:06
2. Blake Wood, 35	7:01:54
3. Kirk Apt, 31		7:03:50
4. Richard Harris, 53	8:33:56
5. Bobby Keogh, 45	8:44:56
6. Bob Wilson, 48	8:50:11
7. Peter Romero, 41	9:36:49

Bandelier Marathon:

1. Duncan Hammon, 39	3:03:38
2. Ralf Ksciuk, 29	3:05:26
3. Ernest Cata, 40	3:24:50
4. Becky Swartz, 35	3:26:14
23 marathon finishers