Sage Burner 50K in Gunnison CO

Drove from Durango, to Gunnison CO. this weekend for the Sage Burner 50K trail run. Passed Silverton, Ouray, and Montrose on the way. If there is a more spectacular drive in the country I would be astounded! The jagged cliffs driving from Silverton to Ouray are truly majestic.
Also Ridgeway, CO has a restaurant that should not be missed called Thai paradise. My boyfriend recently returned from Thailand and said that the food at Thai Paradise was better than or as good as anything he had in Thailand! Try it out - 146 North Cora Street Ridgway, CO 81432.
OK now to the Sage Burner 50K - Started at 7:3o a.m. with about 250 other runners. It was already sleeveless weather before the race which was great because I didn't need to carry any base layers and tie them on later in the race. The overall mood was upbeat and it was fun to look at all of the new minimalist shoes people are wearing. Some had old Adidas flats with just a bit of tape on their ankle instead of socks, some had Vibram Five Fingers, and than there were the Keens which look like the most comfortable option.
I was a bit concerned about my footwear considering I hadn't run in my shoes a single time before the race. My old shoes started to give me shin splints right before race day so I had to make a tough decision between some painful shin splints for 31 miles or possibly debilitating blisters. I sided with the potential blisters and ended up being graced with unscathed tootsies in the end yay running gods!
The course is a bear! The first 3 miles are a steep and somewhat technical singletrack which is fun when you are doing 6 miles and easily will kill your race if your not cautious when running more than 20.
By mile 7 I could feel the lactic acid from the steep ups and downs in my thighs and had a really hard time trying to overcome the fear that I would be running for another 5-7 hours and another 24 miles.
Luckily the exhaustion set in a little and made me relax into a good pace where my mind could wonder and my breathing was steady.
By mile 17 (half way) I started to feel pretty challenged again and decided to change my i-pod from Radio Lab http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/to the Gotan Project www.gotanproject.com/ to give me a little boost. It worked!
Mile 17 - 24 was a test of not letting my mind go to when I would be finished but rather sink into believing that I would just continue running for days. The thought of a finish line at that point was just to far out and when I let my mind go there it was easy to really start to freak out and believe there is no way.
Finally with 2 miles to go I let myself start thinking about the end. I still had a little juice left and decided to kick it up a notch. I ran hard the last 2 miles and came in at 6 hours 19 minutes, 3rd place in my age and 8th for women.
I have to say, although it was a really tough race and there were certainly times I felt like I wanted to kick the race directors in the shins for making the terrain so hilly, I love ultra running! The feeling that you can really manage your thoughts and get over "the wall" again and again and again, and again is an awesome thing to know and have in your mind.
Running is such an amazing tool to give you perspective. To let you know how very capable you really are. To fill your soul!