Three More Weeks Till Badwater

Time is flying. Only three weeks left until the start of the Badwater Ultramarathon. The training has gone well so far. Last Saturday I ran my last race before Badwater – the Niagara Ultra 50k www.ouser.org . Almost 800 runners signed up for all the different distances and nearly 200 were in the 50k. The weather conditions were perfect – hot and humid. The course is an out and back course starting in Niagara-on-the-lake and the turnaround is right next to the Niagara Falls. On the way out I felt quite good and I enjoyed the scenery and the conversation with other ultrarunners. However, on the way back I got some very bad cramps in both of my legs and had to slow down tremendously which was too bad because I still felt strong. I was definitely expecting to run a better time, though at the end I was glad I still finished in less than 5 hours (4:59:38). I’m almost sure the cause for the problem was not taking enough electrolytes – another lesson learned the hard way.