by Guillermo Borges

Woo-hoo! What a blast! My first of many more damn runs!

LESSONS:
I now understand the level of training required to get under 6 hours. I also learned not to attempt to camp out the night before. I got about 2 hours' sleep and held up the bus along Rt. 30 while I partially emptied my bladder. I got a rousing applause for that. I will also try to use the lake water (with purification tablets) along the way, rather than starting with 15 lbs. of added weight. Finally, I will follow my plan to walk 5-10 mins every hour so that I don't burn out too early.

TRAIL:
The section of the Northville-Lake Placid trail we ran was just beautiful. The trail was mostly well marked, except for 2 small areas of confusion that took me only a minute to figure out. The steep sections were not as difficult and numerous as I had imagined, and the muddy parts were not too bad considering the previous days' rain.

Most importantly, RD Jim and his crew put on a great event and my fellow masochists were a good bunch of people to run with. Mother nature was generous too, cool and dry. A very wonderful start to future ultrarunning adventures. In the words of Will Smith, (Wakely) Damn!!

One final note, I will definitely camp out or bring a designated driver after next year's race; I could barely stay awake on my trip back home. Thank God for Stewart's coffee.