By popular demand – less words, more pictures!
This was my first year running Tussey, which had been on my bucket list for quite some time. I read up about the race as much as possible, however still had a couple gear decisions that I was unsure about. The first was whether or not to use a headlamp. I decided not to go with one and that was the right decision for me as it was light enough at the start not to need one. I was fairly confident I would be done inside of 11 hours so didn’t have to worry about one for the finish. It was pitch black not too long after 6pm though so I’d highly recommend one for the very back of the pack runners.
My second decision was whether or not to wear gaiters. I didn’t want to stop every couple miles to pick gravel out of my shoes so decided to wear them. I don’t remember seeing any other runners wearing them so they’re probably not necessary. They don’t impact your running though so maybe slot this one into the better safe than sorry category.
This is a fast course. The one problem with fast courses is starting out too fast. I was targeting a 10 hour finish, which had more to do with my love of round numbers than anything else. It also made the time math very easy since it works out to an even 12 minute pace. Needless to say, I went out much, much faster than this. Lots of 9 and 10 minute miles early on. And I will neither confirm nor deny the existence of several 8:30 minute splits mixed in as well. I rolled into mile 20 with 35 minutes in the bank on a 10 hour finish. At mile 30 I had given back 2 minutes of this buffer. The next 10 miles ended up costing another 2 minutes. Then amazingly the last 10 miles only another 3 minutes. I never quite made it onto the struggle bus, but I was most assuredly in the same parking lot.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed myself on Sunday. My only nit to pick is the course ended up measuring right at 50 miles. Not 50.17 or even 50.04 miles mind you. I’m talking 50.00 miles. I’m used to ultras having an extra 1-3 miles. Honestly, I feel a little cheated by a wheel measured course. Like I didn’t quite get my money’s worth. Not that I went and ran a couple laps around the parking lot afterwards. It’s more the principal of the thing. Hopefully, this minor failing won’t keep you from singing up for this amazing race.
