Back from my weekend's adventures. It was a long, hot but mostly enjoyable summer Saturday on the trails in Clinton, MS for the Big Butts 50/100K.

I had the biggest butt out there, and was the last place finisher in the 50K (not sure of my time, a sloth slow 9 hours:50-something minutes), but that's all okay; I kept moving and having fun!

The course was a 6 mile looping Mtn bike trail with lots of quick turns and short, steep ups and downs. The biggest hill we had was maybe 15' but it was almost a complete vertical climb and there were at least 4-5 of those, followed by a downhill of the same type. There were only a few places that were kind of straight to where you could pick up some speed.

Lol...being short legged, i couldn't just hop up a couple of the steep inclines, but had to lean into the hill and reach for support with my hands as well. That's where I got muddy (and from one early slip on my ass, and one late in the game plop in the deepest part of a mud puddle up over my right shoe) Anyway, my white shirt did not stay that way.

There had been a lot of rain the day before, and for the first lap the trail was very muddy. It was also extremely humid, and my glasses kept fogging up which was quite annoying! Most (but not all) of the mud firmed up in the heat as the day went on, but the humidity stuck around. Think the heat index temp got up to about 105 degrees. Luckily, it was mostly shaded trails, and there weren't too many long stretches out in the sun; it was noticeably warmer when you hit certain spots though!

When I finished my first loop, I asked the woman keeping stats & time if I was in last place; she said no, there were a couple out behind me; I joked that I best slow down then or I wouldn't make my goal of being DFL. This got to be a "running joke", with her calling out on the next several laps "NO, you aren't last yet", but by the time I finished up-- I was in last place (the other folks hadn't passed me but had dropped out) Be careful what you ask for? :)

Another lol...if I'd been much slower, the woman who WON the 100K and I could have finished together; twice the distance only took her an hour longer than me. Only a slight exaggeration to say that she was half my weight and twice my pace... Impressive. And congenial every time she lapped me.

Official time: DFL at 9:50:44 a blistering average of 19:03 minute miles. Good enough hiking pace; let's call a spade a spade and a sloth a sloth...

few other notes:
Wore my Hokas again and did not pre-tape my feet. Got small blisters on the outside of both big toes, and did stop to attend to them after lap 4, but that was all. Think that was mostly a result of my feet sliding to the front in my shoes on the downhills; kind of wonder though if I could get by with a 9 instead of 9.5 in the Hokas and still have enough toe room? All in all though, have had much less blistering to worry about with these shoes.

Did not wear my calf sleeves (lol..wanted to show off more of my leg tattoos), and as a result had a bit more aches . Or maybe it was also because I didnt take any tylenol during the race? Still, wasn't too post-race sore or overly creaky the next day.

Even with the heat and humidy, felt ok on hydration and such. Using ice in my water bottle really was nice; kept my hands (holding the bottle) and the liquids cooler than otherwise. Was fine taking S-caps once every 90 minutes or so (seems to work better than more frequently for me).

Missed B fiercely! He's gone with and crewed me at every previous ultra I've done for the last two years, but his new job schedule got in the way this time. I mananged the road trip and race by myself, but I missed him.