2017 Speedgoat 50k

2017 Speedgoat 50k
Snowbird, Utah
11th Place Overall 6:18:59

Hidden Peak 11,000 ft. 

Im a couple months behind but better late than never on making an entry for my Speedboat 50k race this past July. Id be remiss to not write some sort of race report. This was quite the race and quite the experience and to not recall on the happenings of the cross country journey would be unfortunate.

My journey began in the Midwest with an 03' Xterra, a bag full of running clothes and a cooler full of food. I had the week off leading up to the race so I decided to drive out to Utah. I broke up the drive to make it a bit more tolerable. I went from Springfield -> KC, KC -> Boulder, Boulder -> SLC. I stayed with friends at each stop which made the trip much better. I'd never driven I-70 through Kansas or CO before so I finally got the chance and enjoyed every minute of it...CO I-70 that is not Kansas I-70 that sucked. It was a beautiful day to drive through CO so I made frequent stops at rest stops snuggled in between the mountains. I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I just wanted to climb every peak I saw. I got out to SLC a day before the race and opted to post up in a hotel bed instead of the back of the Xterra. The day before the race I found my hotel and checked in but the room wasn't ready yet. I decided to kill some time and jog around and see the mountain a bit. Snowbird was absolutely beautiful. Typically a hub for skiing and winter sports the resort was transformed into a mid summers outdoor playground.

I had my eye on this race since last year. I had done a few 50k trail races in the past in the midwest but I told myself I wanted the toughest one out there this year. This race did not disappoint. I had never done a race at altitude let alone a 50k mountain race. I feel I trained smart and trained adequately for this event given its grandeur and given what Im accessible to terrain wise. I feel the altitude never really got me because I was able to get there the day before, before my body knew what was going on. I also was smart about my pacing at such an altitude and stayed within myself never going above that redline. I also was able to train in the stairs and on the treadmill at incline quite a bit in order to prepare for such mountainous climbing.

The race itself went perfect. My pacing, food and water intake were spot on. The first 9 miles were straight up to Hidden Peak. Climbing for 9 miles straight right out of the gates made it tough to find a rhythm. For that matter it was hard to find any sort of rhythm at all because you were either bombing down a mountain or climbing it, no in-between. I put myself into the top 15 in the opening miles and once I got to the top of Hidden Peak the first time I felt really good. After that we went down the back side of the mountain and did a loop that took us through fields of flowers, down river beds across streams and back up ridiculous climbs that brought me to a power hike. After the loop out to Pacific Mine we made another tough climb up the ass end of Mt. Baldy to the Tunnel aid station. This climb was ridiculous. It was literally a power march up the back side. So slow my watch wasn't registering mile splits. I wish that was the last climb but it wasn't. We still had to make a long grueling climb up this spine of rock to the top of Hidden Peak once more. I was able to pick off a few runners on the loop and some of the other climbs which was nice but I got passed by the eventual female winner after the top of Hidden Peak #2. I was able to just stride out the remaining miles which were downhill. But those downhills are sneaky in the mountains because their able to sneak in those small steep uphills that by the end of a 30 mile run in the mountains you just want to be done with. None the less I made it back down the resort feeling amazing. It was such an amazing feeling coming out of that race in a new top 10 finish. I felt that much more excited about my result because of where I come from. I was competing with some of the best MUT runners in the sport and to represent from the Midwest was a great feeling.

After the race I went back to hotel to stretch, take a shower and get a bite to eat and just like that I was back in the Xterra and heading back home. I decided to take I-80 on the way back home through Wyoming and Nebraska. I drove for as long as I could that night and stopped in a hotel parking lot in Cheyenne and slept for about 5 hours. Woke up grabbed some breakfast, gas and a coffee and made a final 14 hour push home. It was a rough trip and I was glad to be home sleeping in my own bed and showering in my own shower but the trip itself was also a real adventure. One that led me to places to places I'd never seen and been before. Running has taken me to places I never though Id ever be. Ive gotten to see and experience things Im truly grateful for being able to experience.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/1107643100

Results: https://ultrasignup.com/results_participant.aspx?fname=Justin&lname=Stewart&age=29