The Managed Bonk

A little over a year since I finished my last ultra, Tarawera 102k, I’ve finally finished another - Tinajas 50k. Julie and I both love Colorado Bend state park - they have some of the more technical and challenging trails you can find in Texas, deep in the heart of the hill country.  I ran this race 2 years ago in its inaugural year there, and won it with a 4:15.  Yesterday, I pulled off the win again. With a 4:15. This year I was a lot less confident in my fitness level. I took it out responsibly and easy, but found myself in first place pretty quickly.  In general, I was still pretty gun shy about actually racing.  I let myself stretch out the legs on some of the wide-open downhills but mostly kept it at what I’d call an anti-bonk effort level. I did get passed by a relay team around mile 13, but other than that, my biggest challenge was GI-related.  Despite several fruitful trips to the toilet before the race, I had a sneaky fart that I should not have trusted which led to a trip of