South Carolina 50k

I have read over the last several weeks the controversy of wither a 50k is really a ulramarathon. I would have to say it is but of course not by much, just about 5 miles after the first 26.
A couple weekends ago, I ran a trail 50k in South Carolina and a pretty good time doing it. The trail had plenty of dips and rises with fair amount of hills. I would definitely not call it a hard 50k but it is all I wanted at the time. I have had very limited training over the last several weeks, with the start of school, driving a bus almost everyday, Eds. class, and trying to be a good Husband and Dad.
We started the weekend on delay as I had to change oil in the car before we left. We could not leave on Friday because I had a game Friday night. The drive down was good we got to the trail and scouted the area for a few minutes, then we went to find a campsite. This did not go as planned, we went to the campground and found out that it was closed. I then I thought I could drive and find a new campground, well after an hour of driving I decide to go ask a local. We were given great directions to a new campground.

We arrived out our new campground with limited light to check the place out. We quickly found our site and started to have a great time. We were camping beside Strom Thurmond Lake, we had beach front and views of a Bald Eagle. http://www.sas.usace.army.mil/lakes/thurmond/camping.htm I would recommend this area to anyone that likes the outdoors. We got early on Sunday morning, broke town the tent, cleaned up in the nice bathhouse and headed back over the dam to South Carolina.

The race had about 100 people registered with about 90 of those showing up. The race was well organized and the start was uneventful. I ran the first hour very slow behind a large pack of people. Myself and another runner passed the pack and took off. We talked just a little and set a pretty good pace. About 30 minutes or so and we were finished with the first 7.5 miles. It was nice to come by the same aid station as Jennifer and Elizabeth were waiting on me. The went well, as I did not get lost and only fail twice. I finish a couple minutes short of 6 and half hours. http://ultrasontrails.com/history/FATSresults2010.html
Not sure if I will run this one next year but I had a good time.

Jennifer drove us home and I thin we all had fairly good time together. Jennifer and I were really tired because I did not get the air mattress out for our night of camping. Next time it will be in the tent. O I would say that a 50k is a ultramarathon just not a long one.

Till next time,
David