The Zen of Ultra Running

Great race. great course. great volunteers. Youngstown Ultra Trail Classic 50K is an old school ultra marathon event in Youngstown, OH. It's a club race put together by NEO trail running club. It's so old school that they only accept paper registration (you have to send in the paper registration form and a check). I wanted to run the race last year but I ended up in a boot after the CC100. This year I sent in my registration fee early as I did not want to miss the event. I know NEO trail club because they run one of the aid stations at the CC100. Great group of people. There are 2 distances - 25K and 50K. Of course, I signed up for the 50K. Who knew I would roll my ankle 2 weeks prior to the race? *sigh A week leading up to the race day, I did minimal running but instead did a lot of cross training to save my ankle. I was pretty bummed that no matter how much I tried to rest and do the ankle exercises, the bad ankle still hurt a bit when I walked. On the race day, I s...