Black Warrior 50K Recon - Saturday February 6th

A lot of mud and wet feet. Slogged up and down rolling hills. There were stream crossings also some ankle deep. I got a nasty blister, but it feels better today. I was told that it was as muddy as they had ever seen the trails. Met up with the 3 Erics (Patterson, Fritz, and Charette). It was nice meeting these runners in person. My friend Miles Powel ran with me. Jim Barnett and Miles kept me on course and from getting lost. They out paced me but waited at the junctions to make sure I stayed on track. Jim gave me a lot of information about the race course.
With Saturday's run my Black Warrior checklist is complete.

Completed 16 miles in 2:57:20 (around an 11:00 minute mile)

1. Fuel belt works great (I barely know I have it on)
2. GU Gels Lime Sublime (seems to agree with me)
3. Nike Alvord (seem to provide plenty of traction with out gumming up)
4. 20 Milers equal 2 (some 18 milers thrown in for good measure)
5. Actual visit to racecourse equals one (no substitute for boots on the ground)

My quest to complete a 50K has been done with minimal amounts of preparations.
I will definitely build my base for the next 50K, but you have to start somewhere.

Ready or not I will be running the Black Warrior 50K the 20th.