My first Ultra, the Buffalo 50 mile race.

After 4 and a half months of training, 810 miles of running, race day was finally here. I took the day off the evening prior to the race so I could relax. I went to bed around 8:45 and was up at 3 to go meet Laura and her husband who were giving me a ride to Antelope Island. It was around 5:15 when we arrived, placed our drop bags to be delivered to the aid stations, saw many familiar faces, and were given about a 5 minute warning the race was to begin.

6 am on the dot the race started. It was very dark and cool seeing all the lamps of the runners ahead of me spreading out and snaking up the trail on the hillside. I was running with Robin with Jason just behind us and noticed my watch was showing me not keeping up with the virtual partner. It was driving me crazy so I finally stopped on the side, paused my garmin and reset the VP to 14:23, the finish pace I wanted as a goal which would get me across the finish line in 12 hours. I lost track of Robin after doing this. A ways ahead of me I could see runners lights reflecting off a flag that was being carried by three runners from the Red White and Blue group. Turns out Robin was with them.
I was using a hydration pack for the race. In the bladder I had 48 oz of gatorade, and I had a 22 oz bottle of water up front. I figured the gatorade would last the whole race and the bottle would be fast to fill up at the aid stations.
We ran for almost an hour using our headlamps. I had thought I had a pretty good one, but soon discovered mine was pathetic compared to others which totally lit up the trail, creating a shadow of me and made my light look like a dim candle. I need to find out where to get one of those lights!
The sun was coming up and the sky was starting to glow and soon the lights were turned off just before the first aid station at Elephant head just short of 6 miles. From there we had a 3 mile out and back along Elephant head and we had to get a sticker to show we ran to the end. I think I was at about a 13:00/m pace at this time.
I had been fueling on Welsh cakes and skittles and I had a drop bag at the Elephant head aid station and picked up another stash of Welsh cakes to carry with me. On the out and back I saw a lot of people I knew. Laura, Chris Andersen, Dave, Chris Pope, Eric, Jason and I'm sure there were others.
From there we continued south and we had some nice downhill which helped with the pace, but I knew this would all be gone once we were going up the switch backs.
Climbing the switch backs was slow. I would run for short distances but didn't want to spend all my energy going up there so didn't over do it. A girl caught up to me and we visited for a short time as we climbed but she was much stronger than me and quickly added space between us. I also stopped for mother nature around this area behind some rocks. The climb seemed to keep going forever even though in reality its only a 600' climb over less than 2 miles.
When I got to the top I saw the group with the flag and there was a runner on the ground.
It was the girl I had visited with for a short time on the switch backs. They were wrapping her hand and lower arm. Apparently she fell and broke her wrist. Her name was Christine. There was a worker with a walkie talkie with her and after she had a sling set up I asked if anyone was going to walk with her and the volunteer said she was, so I took off down the trail. I hadn't gone very far when I turned around and Christine
was going a pretty good speed down the trail catching up to me. I ended up cleaning her bottle off so she could get a drink and followed her into the Elephant head aid station. I asked her how the volunteer got there so quickly and it just happened she had just come around the corner after it happened.
This would be the last time we'd be at this aid station which was mile 14. A number of people I knew there. The only one I talked to was Kelli who knew me but I didn't recognize her. She took a picture of me, I got some coke and ginger snaps while a volunteer filled up my water bottle.
I also got half a bagel from my drop bag and put the drop bag in the area to show the bag was done with and it could be taken back to the start. From there we dropped back into the lower area. I passed Janet, Heather and Joycelyn doing their races coming up that hill. There was one hill to climb after the one tree as we made our way back to the start/finish which would be mile 19.
It was a nice site to see the start/finish in the distance knowing a good portion of the race was going to be done and I was feeling pretty good. With the pause with the downed runner my pace was around 13:30/m by the time I got to the aid station at the finish line. I stopped for a moment at the aid station which was about a 1/4 mile from the finish, and got some coke. Not realizing they were reusing the cups, I drank and automatically dropped the cup into the garbage. I felt bad about it but I had no idea. I avoided the bathrooms etc there as I didn't want to lose more time.
From the start we crossed over to the east side of the island, its mainly a slow gradual climb and then a short drop down the hill to the aid station. I got some coke, and visited with
Susette and Cory who were about 2 miles ahead of me. They had just finished the out and back to the north point on the island, I then headed north. When I got to the end of the trail, they had a couple of arrows on the ground showing this is where you turn and and run back, which I proceeded to do. I looked for stickers to show we did it, but there were none.
I blew through the aid station this time and kept going south. I was at 22.6 miles at the aid station. From there all the way to the ranch and back was fairly flat rolling terrain with lots of buffalo.
I visited with one guy who said his running partner broke her wrist. I told him I had seen her. He ran ahead and after awhile I passed him on his phone. I gave him a thumbs up and kept going. At mile 25 I called my wife to let her know where I was at. It was 11:40 a.m., which gave me 6 hrs and 50 minutes to do the last 25 miles. I was doing well with an average 13:38/m pace by this point. My goal for the first 25 miles was between 13 and 14:00/m pace so I was inside that goal.
Shortly after the phone call I realized I was getting blisters from my shoes. I had a fresh pair at the Lower Frary aid station with clean socks etc. That aid station I would be passing through at mile 27.5 and mile 38.8. I had thought about having a drop bag at the Garr Ranch but the Lower Frary made much more sense.
I saw one group of buffalo trying to cross the trail, but they were spooked with all the runners, finally they stampeded across leaving one on the west side of the trail, he/she kept hesitating, I kept moving south and all of a sudden it started running, straight towards me. I had no place to go so just stood still. It just ran a short distance and turned itself on a dime and headed the other direction towards the road and the cars. Those things move fast and are sure agile!
It was a pleasant site seeing the aid station as I crested a small hill. I got my bag, put the clean socks and shoes on, had two drinks of coke, visited for a few moments with Chris Pope who told me the wheels had fallen off for his race. He was cramping pretty badly, then I was back out running.
With the blisters and the temperature getting a lot warmer I found one of the toughest parts of the race was between mile 25 and mile 30.
My shirt came off around mile 28 after the aid station. I was hydrating lots and trying my best to ignore the pain in my feet. I had also set myself up for a nice sunburn in the shape of my hydration pack!
Around this time I was getting texts from Angela Castro who was trying to find her way onto the island and meet up with me to pace me from the ranch going north for the last 17 miles. There was a long lineup at the gate which was delaying her. This must be one of the busiest days of the year for the park.
I had been watching my garmin and finally hit mile 30. I was into a distance I had never run before. I had previously done 30 miles on the Jordan River Trail, but its paved which I think is much easier. From there the miles seemed to be easier, or at least I wasn't watching my watch as much maybe. The fresh shoes and socks helped a bit, but the blisters had formed and nothing was going to heal them except not running. I passed so many people heading north, Susette and Cory, Brian Passey, Chris and Annette, Dave and Mimi.
I made it to the ranch which was mile 33. I waited for awhile there. They had run out of coke, so I had some gingerale, plus some boiled potatoes dipped in salt, while I ate and drank, the volunteer filled up my water bottle. I also found out at the ranch that Christine's running partner had left the race to go be with Christine as she was going into surgery and having a plate put in her wrist. The volunteers recorded my bib # and I headed north thinking I might meet Angela at the trail crossing over the road about 1.5 miles north of the ranch. She wasn't able to make it there so the next option was to meet her at the Lower Frary aid station. As I was going north I passed all the runners who were behind me.
Laura wasn't feeling too well, but she was a trooper and just kept moving along. She was worried she wouldn't make the cutoff. There were two cutoffs in that area. 2:30 at the ranch, 3:30 at the Lower Frary aid station. It was about 2:02 when I left the ranch so I was okay with that cutoff. I was a little worried about the second cutoff, but it worked out fine. The race director had also said they weren't hard cutoffs. If the runner wasn't doing a death march they'd let them keep going. Jason was just behind Laura and had been having lots of cramps so he was struggling a bit.  He had offered to run the race with me a few days prior but it didn't work out that way. Leaving the ranch one runner went ahead of me and I tried like crazy to catch up to her but just couldn't. I think having that goal at least kept me going and helped my pace a bit. As I came around one corner I could see the LF aid station about 2 miles ahead and I sent Angela a text saying I see it. She was there waiting for me, but she got on the trail and headed south to meet up with me.

She was super excited to see me which sure helps the moral. We went through the aid station together. I had been running for 9.5 hours by this time and done 38.8 miles. More coke. The miles clicked by after that, albeit slowly. I was watching my average pace get slower and slower. By mile 40 I was at a 14:46 pace.
Just before 5 pm we made it to the Mountain View Aid station. Its around mile 43.6. We had just over 6 miles to go, 2 miles to the final aid station where I knew Christy was volunteering, then 4 miles around the north end of the island and we would be done. From that aid station its a climb up to the road, then more of a climb heading towards the finish but the signs directed us north. We could see lots of cars up on top of the hillside and thought at first the aid station was up there. Fortunately it wasn't. There was no more long climbs, just a fairly flat obstacle type course with boulders everywhere with the trail snaking around them.
At one point we came across some buffalo that was very close to the road. Angela picked up her pace passing them, and I didn't blame her!
I was struggling to keep my legs running and it was painful running down a small hill towards the last aid station. I heard Christy calling my name and she came running up to give me a great big hug before I got to the station. More coke and potatoes with salt and we were gone again.
As we circled the northern most mountain on the Island we expected to see the finish line tent around each corner. It finally did show but seemed to take forever. I told Angela that I thought the course would be a bit short and I said, if its less than 2 tenths of a mile I'd run after the finish line to make up the difference to 50 miles. If it was more, forget it, I'd just change the info in connect.garmin. By this time I knew we weren't going to cross the finish line before 6:30pm. With one mile to go it was 6:30.
Heading down a dirt road, Angela said, lets run at least as far as the porta potty. We did that, but we kept running instead of walking after it. I can't remember if we took a walk break between there and the finish line, but it seemed like we at least put on the appearance that I was running. We turned left and we could hear the cow bells and cheering at the finish line. The end was near!
The feeling of finally crossing the finish line was like a load taken off my shoulders. 50 miles were done! Seeing familiar faces was incredible.
We have such a close friendship in our running groups and each one is so very supportive of the others. I had my finishers mug which I will protect with my life. I checked my watch, 49.88 miles. I gripped my mug tightly and took off and did that last 0.12 miles. Much better, the watch now showed 50.01 miles.

My name is Robert, and I am an Ultra Runner!

It was beautiful seeing Laura cross the finish line, she was so emotional and I believe this picture sums up the race totally.