Bitterly Frozen 50K: Man, what hills!

On Saturday, February 23, 2013, I took a drive to Blue Mound State Park about 20 miles west of Madison to take part in the Bitterly Frozen 25/50K.  This was a Fat Ass event put together by Jason Penticoff of Madison and he found us an unforgettable road course.

http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=465282

The 15.7 mile loop course began at the top of Blue Mound in the state park and it was about 20 degrees at the start.  Most of the runners wore trail shoes due to the recent snow that fell in the 36 hours before the race.  However, it turned out that after the first loop, road shoes would have been sufficient, as the Sun came out and by the end of the race, it was closer to 32 degrees.  Joining me from Chicago was fellow New Leaf Ultrarunner, Scott W. Kummer, and his canine friend, Dovi.  I also finally got to meet Craig Haynie, a Facebook friend, for the first time in person.  Scott and Dovi are on the right of the picture, I'm to the left of Scott in black with yellow mittens, Jason Penticoff is wearing the blue Cubs beanie in the middle, Brenda Bland (who ran 45K and took female honors) is between me and Jason.  Craig Haynie is wearing the yellow jacket in the back row.

The course began with a downhill out of the park and then leaving it, continued going largely downhill with some rolling hills in the meantime to the 7 mile or so point.  After going past the first unmanned Aid Station (water, gummy bears and pretzels), you began a fairly consistent up hill climb.  For most of the last two miles on the first loop and the final 3 on the second loop, it was a constant uphill.  All in all, 2,800 feet of elevation change which amazed me for a Midwestern course.   Most of the runners did one loop, Scott and Dovi got lost and did 21 miles or so.  There were only four male finishers of the 50K, and I was fourth (and last, too) in 6:21.  I was quite happy as this turned out to be great training for my upcoming races.

I am certainly hoping to visit Blue Mound State Park again this Summer to run the trails and hope to get more friends up for this Fat Ass next year.

As Jason kindly put it afterwards,

I want to thank everyone for coming. It was great to see you out there and run with everyone for a little bit. Please help spread the word. IMO this is one of the most challenging events in our area and I would love to see it grow! Congrats to Andrew Herberg for winning the event with a 4:35. Dwight Meyer finished right behind him and Kevin Radel finished in an astonishing 448. Keith Daniels showed a lot of guts out there finishing strong up the final climb! Thanks for coming out and can't wait to see you next year!