What do you get...

For running 31.4 miles and 6700 feet of elevation on muddy trails?

Beer, of course! With a matching pilsner glass

Oh, and a nice long sleeve t-shirt (not pictured).

And sore muscles (also not pictured).

Yesterday I ran the 2011 McDonald Forest 50k trail run. It's Oregon's largest Ultramarathon event, and one of the tougher ones around due to the difficult terrain and crazy elevation gain/loss of the course.

Up to this point, I'd never run an official event longer than a half marathon, but I decided to go right past a "normal" marathon distance and go right for an ultra. Since I live here in Corvallis I got to train on the actual trails the event is on, so I knew what to expect from the event. It went well, I actually had fun -- yes, running for 6 hours and 49 minutes can be fun, if you're crazy enough -- and I beat my goal time of 7 hours. That was my secondary goal after just finishing the damn thing -- plenty of the entrants don't manage to finish.

I had lots of help -- Tracie was patient with my long hours of training, and she and the fam were a great support crew during the race. My brother-in-law Stafford was a great training partner, and it was great to see him kicking ass out on the course.

This is what exhaustion, endorphins and relief look like:

Will I do it again next year? If you'd asked me before yesterday, I'd have said, "No, once will be enough" but today...? Today my answer would be more of a "hmm, maybe..."

I should probably write up a more detailed account of the nearly-seven-hours of running for posterity while the memories are still fresh. Maybe tomorrow...