Mudlands follow-up

The official results are now posted here for Grasslands 2010.  I was in good company with my DNF.  There were only 7 official finishers out of about 70 starters of the 50 mile race.  The DNF percentage was lower for the marathon and half marathon, but both of those races had a much higher DNS (did not show) percentage.  I guess there is an inverse rule of racing: the lower the mileage of the race, the higher the likelihood that the runner is reasonable enough to know when to stay home. 

Immediately after the race, I felt like a loser, a quitter, a failure.  There is still some of that lingering, but it does make me feel a lot less bad knowing how many other people dropped out.  One experienced ultrarunner I heard from came from Lubbock but didn't even get out of the car!  He knew better than to get out in that cold and mud.

The worst thing about dropping out is I can't complete the 50 mile grand slam.  There's always next year.  On Monday I got an e-mail from the Palo Duro race organizers announcing that registration is now open for that race in October.  It's the first in the grand slam series.  Maybe I'll give it another shot. . . . .

Here are some more pictures (from the NTTR race site) to give you an idea of conditions.

This is Don Rice, who paced me for a few minutes at Cross Timbers (while pacing his wife).  He finished the course at Grasslands, but came in a few minutes past the cutoff, so got a DNF.  Stink!

I have no idea whose feet these are, but love the picture of the trail.

Imagine running on this for 50 miles!