There's Always A Plan:

The JFK 50 was truly a mystery to the Ultra Runners with Sole. They surfed the net looking for stories about the course to glean some morsel of insight into it's terrain and difficulty. Basically, here's what they learned:

There were two start times:

(1) 5:00 AM was designated for a limited field of 300 who didn't believe they could start at 7:00 AM and complete the course within it's 12-hour cutoff; and,

(2) a 7:00 AM start for 1000 runners.

The (huge) disadvantage to the 5:00 AM start was the 2 hours of darkness one would endure over a rocky, hilly and dangerous 13-mile section of the Appalachian Trail.

The Course (unconfirmed by race date):

(1) The race began with 2.5 miles of 2-lane road. Followed by
(2) a treacherous, 13+-mile section of the AT which claims runners every year. Then,
(3) the rumored, 26+-mile, flat-as-a-pancake tow path that meandered along side the Potomac River. And finally,
(4) 8-miles of country road to the finish. Oh, yea... with a huge hill at the end!

Fast John's Training Strategy:
Fast John only had 2 months to train for the JFK. The challenge would be to rapidly increase his weekend long runs and complete his first 37 mile run 5-weeks before race date. Week day runs would carefully rack up weekly miles between 40 and 50 miles. To accomplish this carefully, Fast John often broke his runs into morning and evening runs. Long runs would be deliberately slow. There wasn't much room for training error or injury in this plan! He kept to his training schedule like skin on a grape! For example, due to severe weather restrictions on his scheduled date for 37 miles, Fast John ran indoors on his treadmill while watching 4 movies on DVD. Yikes!

Fast John's Race Day Strategy:
Being dreadfully careful to not injure himself, Fast John planned to run a 12 minute mile pace on the AT's 13+ mile leg because of it's treacherous, rock-ridden course. He would then make up for a slow AT run by running the 26 mile tow path at marathon speed. The final 8 miles on paved road would have enough time-cushion to allow for a slower pace and a finish time of 10 hours.

"g's" Training Strategy:
"g" had been racking up consistent weekend long runs of 20-30 miles for 9 months before the JFK. The strategy being, to build up his endurance on long runs, and keep his week day runs to, 3-4 recovery runs of 5-9 miles each. His long runs had an average pace of 10-12 minutes - his 37 mile run clocked in at 7-hrs/35-minutes with a 12 mile average pace.

"g's" Race Day Strategy:
"g" planned to maintain an overall average pace of 12 minute miles. He had a realistic finish time of 10.5 hours, and a dream time of 10 hours! He would cruise faster (10-11 min. per mile average pace) along the first 2.5 mile stretch at the beginning, slow to a 13-14 mile pace along the AT, and run a consistent 11-12 mile pace along the tow path leaving some end-of-the-course cushion for a much slower 8 miles at the end of the race.

RB, Fast John and "g" arrived just in time to hear the RD's race instructions and warnings. Even as the Boys headed out to the start line with 1000 other pairs of running shoes, they were still shedding and donning clothing to get the right, minimal combination!		"g": Into the dark!	The procession to the start line in down town Boonsborrow. Don't be late for the mass departure... you'll never find the start line!