Racing on the second week of a training block is highly unusual. My original plan had been to do a full 16-week training plan ahead of the Kodiak 50K race, but that idea was foiled by a toe injury. Once I was finally able to get back to running, I was close enough to the beginning of the 20-week block for Black Canyons that I decided to just jump to it directly. The idea had always been to run Kodiak 50K at an easy pace so that it wouldn’t disrupt the training for Black Canyons.

It turns out to be difficult to run Kodiak 50K at an easy pace, for two reasons. First, the race takes place at over 2000 metres of elevation, so any pace tends to feel difficult. Second, the trails are challenging. By that I don’t mean steep or technical. Rather, I mean that they are the kinds of trail where it’s difficult to find any sustained rhythm. If the trails of, say, Canyons 50K are flow trails, the trails of Kodiak 50K are anti-flow trails. No doubt there are people who love this type of terrain, but personally I found it all a little bit jarring.

What about the main goal, which was to remain injury free? I’m happy to report that I’ve been feeling great since pretty much immediately after the race. I find it much easier to recover from trail ultras than, say, a road marathon, which in my case is largely due to the fact that trail running has more variety of movement. In the specific case of Kodiak 50K, the course is also easy to recover from because there isn’t a lot of sustained downhill running–especially if your stomach is cramping in the final descent towards the finish line, as mine did. In fact, I’m just about to head to my first jog after the event and have zero soreness in my legs.