2017 JW Corbett 50K

I've run the JW Corbett 50 aka "The Easiest 50 in Florida" twice before.  The first time I got a big fat DNF in the 50 miler, the second time got a personal worst in the 50K.  After deciding not to do any ultras in 2017 then receiving an invite to run the Lake 2 Ocean 100K in June, Corbett seemed like the right thing to do as the longest run leading up to L2O.  Rewinding a bit, in 2016 I ended up spraining my ankle pretty bad at the skatepark with my kids, which ended all racing after October.  After taking a 4 month running break, it was time to get back and see how things would work.  In March, I started with a new coach and got back into running some.  While injured, I had been doing some strength training at my Crossfit gym, but bypassed the normal classes for non-impact workouts, and when feeling stronger, began to add some deadlifting, rope climbing and other things in because I had also signed up for and did a really short Spartan Race in March.



The race plan was to go out easy for a while, and then find a comfortable but runnable pace, and see how long I could hang on there.  At the start, I went out at the very back of the pack and did a run walk keeping the heart rate very low for the first 5 miles to the un-manned aid station.  After that it popped in my head that this is a race and I should treat it like one, and actually see what type of shape I was in for L2O, so started running.  The comfortable but not dying pace turned out to be around 9:40, and I ended up maintaining that through the turnarount point.  I started to catch some people and the race leader passed me on the way back about 3 miles before the halfway point and was flying.


At the halfway point I caught up with one of my buddies who we had a friendly pre-race banter back and forth and he flew out of the aid station when he saw me pulling in.  After quickly refilling my bottles, I took off heading back to the start.  It began to get hot and I slowed down a bit but still caught my buddy.  He told me he was out of gas, and congratulated me on having a good race so I kept on going.  A few miles up I caught up with another runner who usually kills me at about every race.  It's not that she kills me, it's that I go out faster, and later on blow up, and she passes me on the trail half passed out.  We ran together for a bit, and I tried to pick it up a little more and eventually got past her.  The same thing happened with a few other runners.  I'd catch them, and settle in to a 9:30-9:40 and they'd fall back eventually.

About mile 26 I caught up with these 2 guys and was running with them for a bit, and they told me to go ahead, so I passed, and one of them just wouldn't leave and it seemed impossible to drop him.  It was getting hotter, and I decided I was going to keep it under 9:40 for that mile, and was running and when my watch split went off, I took a short walk break to look back and he had dropped back by about 30 yards and was walking.  At this point I figured if he saw me walking he'd just take off and drop me so I ran until I was well out of site, took about 10 steps to catch my breath and ran some more.  Finally felt like I caught a break for a second!


At mile 29 I caught up with the guy who was leading the race when he came past me prior to the halfway point.  I saw him up ahead walking, and I didn't realize that he blew up and was in really bad shape.  I took a second to pull myself together and then passed him again at a pretty good pace worried that he would just take off and drop me if he sensed any weakness.  It was at this point in the race that I realized there was only one male in front of me.  As is common in Florida ultras, there were 3 fast females who got 1st-3rd place.  I really didn't care about catching the girls but thought if the previous race leader blew up, maybe the other guy was having a rough time as well, so I tried to push it hard going in, but began getting some cramping in my right calf from kicking a small stump, so slowed down a bit and just tried to get in a reasonable time without anyone passing.

I finally ended up crossing in a 50K PR for me on a course that is a non-PR type course and had one of the better races that I've had to date.