Chris Marion's Staging Area

This is a looped course around Lake Waramaug. If it’s not doable you can bail out easily. The scenery is beautiful and every house on the course seems like they’re outdoing each other for bigger and fancier. Aid stations were full of options from simple snacks to cheese quesadillas, pancakes, sandwiches, etc. Plenty of opportunities to refill your water bottles with water or electrolytes. There is also plenty of room by the start line tho leave a chair and race gear, so you can stop and rest, restock your supplies, change clothes. Parking lot is right there too if you just want to leave your stuff in your vehicle. Only thing that got me was the slope of the road. It’s a counter-clockwise course and the road slopes to the left in a lot of places. This puts extra stress on the left leg. My left calf was so tight after the first lap (13 miles counting the first out and back)that I had to sit and massage it for about 15 minutes, then tape it up, take ibuprofen and hope for the best. It finally worked its way out around mile 18, just in time for absolutely every cloud to disappear and allowing the sun to beat down on the barely shaded course. It was my first 50K, I had very little training due to recovering from and injury, and I still found it manageable…especially with the 12 hour time limit.

Got to run through all of the parks. There were water and Powerade stations every 2 miles. The crowds cheering you on were amazing.

Beautiful course with more than your average elevation. First 5 miles seems easy until you turn this one corner and start having more incline than decline, but the view was worth it.