I think I kind of just fell into doing America's ultra again this year almost by force of habit. There was one period of time just prior to agreeing to enter and committing funds where I questioned my sanity in doing this again but I knew that when the day arrived, if I wasn't out running, I would regret it. I've been fortunate enough to avoid injuries following my 2 prior JFKs and I continue reflect on the words of our old brit friend Neil Davies who declared at his going away party that doing the JFK was one of the best days of the year for him. I have also found this to be true. The following 2-4 days of recovery don't rate quite as highly but recovery does eventually come about

After a successful summer of training which resulted in a PR at MCM, my remaining concern was whether 2 weeks was sufficient time to recover from an aggressively run marathon before running a 50. But my recovery from MCM went fine and I experienced no problems that I believe were a result of the temporal proximity of the 2 events

Each year to date I have chosen not to spend the night before the race in Hagerstown. Although it does make for a very early morning on the day of the race, I have found this works just fine for me. I have been fortunate enough to find other RRers willing to drive me up. My wife and kids for the 2nd consecutive year agreed to try to meet me at the finish and I could ride back with them. Early Saturday morning Monty picked me up and we drove up to Boonsboro. At that time of day, traffic was light to non-existent and we arrived right on schedule. I changed into running clothes. My experience told me that I should be more concerned about over-dressing than under-dressing. With that and the weather report in mind, I went with just a singlet and running shorts. This turned out to be just fine. Credit that call to experience. I also prefer to run without carrying water

The race. 50 miles. I find it's best not to think about the size of the challenge and better to break it up mentally into a series of smaller milestones. There are 3 main parts preceded by a 3 mile jog-walk on roads to the AT. There is the AT including Crampton's Gap aid station and Weaverton Cliffs which marks the end of the AT part of the race. Then the physically easiest part of the race, a totally flat marathon with little or no traffic concerns AKA the C&O canal towpath, and finally there is "the Hill" which marks the beginning of the gently rolling roads to Williamsport

The road to the trail, 3 miles, somewhat crowded and marked by a long relatively steep uphill to the trail. I stuck with JimA, JimB and Bill V-A during this time. Split time for the start, 27:22. Spirits are high and you see and hear all kinds of funny things in the various conversations as you move among your fellow runners

Next comes the trail. The trail poses the greatest danger to finishing and is physically and mentally demanding. The rocks and terrain comprise the physical challenge, the need for total concentration forms the mental challenge. My prior 2 years, I completed the AT with no falls. I was not able to complete the third attempt as the charm. I took an awkward fall which I initially feared would keep me from finishing but I jumped back up and kept on running and things gradually started to feel better over the next 10 minutes or so. On the trail I saw Al, Bill, Jim A, Jim B, Doug and maybe some others that I can't remember now

I completed the AT portion of the race (not including the short section between the bottom of the cliffs and the beginning of the towpath) in 2:25. One thing I have discovered about running on the trail is my strong preference for not having someone close in front of me. I really like to be able to see and plan my next several steps

I made it to Weaverton and changed shoes and gave up my windbreaker which I had tied around my waist out of concern that once up on the trail things would be chilly. It was then that I fell behind the other Jims. The 3 of us had talked about running together on the towpath. It never came to pass. By changing shoes, I fell too far behind either of them at the start of the trail. I saw Joyce Adams without recognizing her at the start of the towpath. She was dressed for biking. She recognized me and I said hello and asked about the other Jims but she had not remembered. So remembering to hit a split on my watch., I took off down the path. To my surprise, I briefly caught JimB only to have him pass and very quickly drop me. A few times I thought I might have seen JimA's orange shorts way ahead in the distance but I never got close enough to be sure. A couple things happened differently for me on the towpath this year. I hit my mental and physical slump much earlier and I changed my "program" to the one advocated by Bill V-A (and others) which is to run into aid stations and walk out. I found this to work much better. The main problem with this approach is that one must have a very good idea of what pace you can maintain. At this point in the race, transitioning from walking to running is uncomfortable. The run in/walk out program minimizes those uncomfortable transitions. I used a HRM to confirm that I was running appropriately (below my supposed max aerobic rate of about 143). As I mentioned above, I hit my slump earlier in the race than I remember hitting it in years past. This was at least partially remedied by a dose of ibuprofen at the next roundevouz with my support crew. More food and water and sports drink restored my perkiness and things picked up generally from there. The miles passed and I tried to remember what mile marker the end of the towpath portion of the race occurred in. With just a few miles to go on the path I encountered Loretta Melander and she ran with me for half a mile or maybe more. I told her I was out to beat her time of 9:29. She graciously encouraged me. I tried to finish the towpath marathon in under 5 hours and barely missed at 5:01.** When you reach the end of the towpath your spirits lift as the end begins to come into focus and you change from any doubt about whether you'll finish to thinking about what your time might be. From neighboring conversations on the course at this point, I think this is true for many runners. I took the long walk up the "Hill" and headed towards Williamsport. In spite of running steadily on the towpath, I still hadn't seen Jim or Jim in so long it seemed another lifetime but surprise of suprises, at the 6 mile to go mark aid station who do I see but JimmyB. He seemed OK although he was walking. He asked about the birthday celebrant and better half, Anna. I had not seen her since shortly after the start. I pushed on thinking about a couple different times posted by RRers in earlier years: SteveF's 9:39 and LorettaM 9:29. As time and miles passed it became more clear that Loretta's 9:29 was out of reach for me on this day and I focused in on Steve's 9:39. It ended up being very close but I managed to tie that mark but I probably ran close to an 8 minute mile on mile 50 to do it. Was it really me that said, "It's not a race, it's an event."? Had to have been someone else. One of these years I may push for a sub nine JFK but I would like to do a sub 3 marathon as well

Finally it wouldn't be right not to mention my gratitude for the support that I received from my able support team Bonnie and Bill. Without them, it just would not have been possible