I Just Signed Up for My First 50k. I am Not a Smart Person.

Jason the BFG has gotten into trail running this past season. He’s been on a running roll all year, really — last October, he ran a 2:57 at the Portland Marathon and qualified for Boston, and in the past year he’s podiumed at a few small trail races. He ran his first 50k, Chuckanut, in the spring, and in July he tackled his first ever 50-miler, the White River 50. So as he continues to enjoy tackling the trails, his efforts to bully me into going trail running with him have increased noticeably.

This morning, Jas egged me on to sign up for my first 50k, the Orcas Island race on February 1, 2014. I plunked down the money to register and forgot about it somewhat until it dawned on me that I should check out the actual course description and terrain for this race. So I did. And here’s what I saw:

What, no.

I’ve been reacting like this pretty much ever since I looked at the course and read that it will be the “hardest version of the course” since it used to be 55k years ago:

I’ve made a huge mistake.