Kyle's 1st UltraMarathon!

April 16th was the big day: the Ouachita 50K Trail Race. That converts to 31.07 miles for us Americans.

The race began at 6 am while it was still dark out and there were some re-fueling stations but most people brought there own camel-backs or water bottles for the 6 or so miles in between each station.

Above is a graph of the elevation of the race. The 50 km course has a total of 4175 feet of up and down (and yes, many people got lost at least a time or two on in the middle of the forest).
One leg of the race—at about mile 3—included the dreaded Pinnacle Hill (yes, that part of the graph that quickly escalates from 300 feet elevation to 950 feet elevation). You have to essentially boulder up this mountain of sheer incline up 950+ feet and then climb down the other side. What a nice way to warm up those muscles which still have over a marathon to run!

The video below shows the geography of the race. Its rather unnecessarily long, but check out that mountain!



Here he is receiving his medal by a lady in bunny ears, of course. Such a grueling race but so worth it (so he says) after putting in endless hours of training, running marathons on our treadmill, and fueling like a champ, this man certainly deserved the fabulous long-sleeved technical T-shirt and Arkansas-shaped medal for all of his hard work.

I'm so proud of him! Cutest ultra-marathoner ever! I made him pose at home for this shot so I could get a pic of him in all his gear. Next on his list is the 50-Mile Trail Race. I'm thinking I'll just start with a 25K after our little babe is born and he can sport the "Pro Almira" shirt.