Molkie Takes it Up to a New Level Down in Jersey

As most of you know, our pal Dave Molk headed South this fall to do smaht guy stuff. Well, he's definitely being smaaht about his running too, finishing his first 50K this weekend at the Mountain Madness 50K on a monstrous course down in NJ. Here's his report:

"I just finished my first 50k down here in Jersey and I'll start by saying that in my experience so far, the trails in MA are vastly superior to the ones down here. Take advantage of them. The race was Mountain Madness and claims around 5000' of elevation gain but luckily most of that is rolling, rather than steep scrambles. The terrain reminded me a lot of the Blue Hills, minus the Skyline trail. I ended up running the whole thing with a really nice guy who had ample ultra experience, so he definitely helped me more than I helped him.

I had tweaked something in my leg the week before the race (everyone's nightmare), so was considering not doing it at all rather than get into trouble mid-race. Luckily, we had good drop points for the first 10 miles and everything felt ok, so I kept going. Nutrition became a bit of a problem later in the race, as I got really tired of Clif Shots, which in turn led me to reject pretty much anything I tried to eat. I think Hammer shots are the worst product I've ever tried (stocked at the aid stations).

Other than that, I stayed hydrated, blister, cramp, and chafe-free, and tried to look at it as a fun adventure/hike in the woods. I had a few mental lapses but the body stayed strong and the legs were good up to the last mile and a half, which was downhill and beat up my quads more than I expected. Still, things are feeling good today. Course marking was similar to Oxford, so I got some extra mileage in, but luckily not too much. We had a gorgeous day, starting in the low 50s and ending in the 60s, with sun for most of the time (although we had a lot of tree-cover).

I finished with 6:29 for 13th place."

Big congrats Molkie! Way to make us proud!