Frisco 50k: Aftermath of the dream

The first several minutes after the race are kind of a blur.  It felt really, really nice to stop running, but my legs didn't feel pounded/beat up like they do after road marathons.  My main feeling was depletion!  My family found me soon after I finished and I went from holding onto Derek to holding onto Jon.  I revived pretty quickly, and I spotted a photo backdrop and was determined that me, Colin, and Andrew needed a photoshoot by it, so Jon and Derek pulled Andrew off the ground and we took some fun photos.

Physically, I've recovered faster from this race than any road marathon I've ever raced.  I hypothesized that my soreness level would be similar to what it is after a marathon afterward - with the trauma from the extra distance being canceled out by the dirt terrain - but I ended up not even getting sore!  I felt like I'd done a hard long run workout, and a lot like I did after running the T-Town Half plus 10 miles after for a 25.7 mile day; a state of fatigue and depletion that I knew would take me several days to come back from, but none of that I-can't-handle-stairs post-marathon stuff.

I think I'm still processing the race and the exciting aftermath, but my biggest take-away so far is that ignorance was bliss!  In my naivety, I thought that running 6-something pace for a 50k seemed reasonable, but it really was more of an undertaking than I thought and apparently not something many people do.  I was aware of the Missouri state record, but I didn't know about the North America ultra rankings list or really what any times meant.  For so long I had this very, very specific marathon goal that I was very, very aware of when running marathons, but this experience was so different.  I kind of didn't know what I was doing or any of the implications of it, and I think that was a really good thing!

I hope to run another 50k, but I still have some scores to settle with the marathon.  My current plan is to run two fall marathons in 2021, then run a 50k on a fast course in spring 2022.  As per usual, after finishing this race, I knew that I could do it again, faster. ;-)  But, wow, am I thankful for the experience and all of the gifts God gave me along the way!  My heart is so full.