2021 Cry Me a River 50k

2021 Cry Me a River 50k (CMAR)

July 9th, 2021

1st OA, 5:16:00 (CR)

Cry Me a River or commonly know as 'CMAR' is, in my opinion, one of best hidden gems of a race in the midwest. It has 4 distance options in the 1/2 marathon, 50k, 100k and 100 mile. The 100 mile has 23,500 vert ft of climbing...in the Midwest!!! Ive done 2 out of the 4 distances and its my goal to do all 4 at some point in the years to come. This year I was able to do the 50k and boy was it a doozy. For one it was my first running race back in close to a year and it boasts a solid 6,900 vertical ft. of climbing. The course packs a powerful punch by any standard but for Illinois standards thats almost unbelievable around hear. 

In mid April I finally said enough of babying these nagging injuries and I just started slowly building miles and I scheduled the CMAR 50k as the goal race to shoot for to keep me focused and on track. Sure enough I got ready enough for it and had a great day. I knew the endless hills would be tough but I was up for the challenge and just told myself to work through the race. I knew where on the course I could run run and knew where itd be pretty difficult. At the beginning I ran pretty gingerly on the downhills nervous that Id aggrevate a past injury. As the race went on I felt more and more comfortable and started to open things up. I felt especially good on the flatter sections through Robinson. It was my climbing legs that werent all there for the majority of the run. Which was understandable with the buildup I had. Sleep and recovery has been tough this year with a newborn in the house as well. So I’m grateful just to be able to string a somewhat solid training block and race. I’ve done the half here twice and been itching to do the 50k for a while. Love this course. So many stairs and hills. Course is broken up nicely, which helps mentally and aid station wise. Took a Maurten gel every hour or so. Drank a 12oz. handheld filled

with Maurten/ electrolyte mix/ reg water depending what they had. Took 2 salt tablets early on and 2 organic fruit rolls here and there. Went through ~16 in ~2:30. Went through 20 in ~3:01. It was nice mentally running through the Detwiller section knowing I did t have to do that again. Ran most of the hills and power hiked some of the stairs on the second out & back. Second out and back to Green Valley was tough. Early on I was apprehensive on the downhills but opened it up slowly towards the end on the downs as confidence increased. Robinson is a blessing on this course. Every time on that flat section I opened it up and peaked at my watch and would see ~7:00 mile pace. Uphills felt meh today. Overall body felt great. Nutrition was spot on I think. I typically don’t try something new on race day but I did really like the Maurten gels and drink. Another thing I love about this course is all the race distances and seeing everybody out and back. Congrats to all those who battled the course, elements and themselves!

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5606568020

Results:  https://ultrasignup.com/results_participant.aspx?fname=Justin&lname=Stewart