Bridle Trails 50K

Yes, my shirt is on inside out on purpose. I'm not into advertising for free. In principle anyway.

The more I run off road the closer I find to coming what I'm looking for - that perfect event or activity - the one that makes you feel like, "This is what I want to do!" I know of many people that have a career which gives them that sensation, but not me, I have a job that pays the bills that allows me to play outside; definitely not a career. Sure, I was in Kirkland, the anti of playing outside to get away from everything, but deep in the woods in the pitch black, with no other runners around, ducking from yet another bat swooping at my head, I almost forgot I was so close to civilization. The tunnel vision of my headlamp trying to locate every thick mud bog played tricks on my mind. With the ground such a dark chocolate it was hard to tell if you were going to step in something stable or soupy. After a while I got sick of trying to figure it out and just ran straight. Each lap was more and more peaceful as the night sounds slowly increased and the traffic on the nearby roads slowly dissipated. I'm really starting to get into the ultra off road crap, it is so nice to run with either a few people you know, or solo and enjoy being outside. The older I get the less I care about my time or place in the "race," and the more I enjoy still being able to get out and enjoy a 31 mile run through the muddy woods. Glen and I were going to run together for the most part, but he became a bit impatient with the early traffic from the shorter races and went into race mode disappearing in the woods ahead of me.. I hung back, ran with Terry Sentinella for a while since he is also running the 100 in TX next month, and enjoyed the ride. I just ticked off each lap and stayed consistent, my last 5 laps were within 1 minute of each other. Somehow I passed Glen, but neither one of us could figure how since the run is all single track. Another 30+ mile training run checked off and now less than 4 weeks before TX. I don't know if I should be getting excited or scared...
I finished - 8th in 4:31
Glen - 19th in 4:50