Eat, Run, Love!: Dragon Ultra Trail

The Dragon Ultra Trail wasn't like any race I've done before. I woke up early on Saturday so that I could drive an hour away to pick up ultra marathoner Gabi K and drive the rest of the way to a town close to Bonn. Gabi and I crossed the Keufelskopf Ultratrail finish line at the same time last year for 1st place. Since then, we have kept in contact through Facebook. She has been doing really well and running a lot. Since she lives only about an hour from me, I asked her if she knew of any runs or races that I could take part in. That is when she told me about the DUT 50km that would take place on the 15th of March.

The "race" was put on by a man they call Hexer, started in a town called Bad Honnef. We all met at a youth hostel for coffee and conversation. The race began at 11am but it was really cool because there was no gun, no official time-keeping system, it was just runners, their watches and GPS devices.

We started climbing soon after the start and even though we never reached super high elevation, the climbs were pretty steep at times. The course was beautiful and interesting. Since there were no markers to tell the runners where to go, they had to heavily rely on their GPS devices. I probably should have had a handheld GPS but since I didn't I made it a point to stay with the other runners throughout the course. I totally would have been lost if I didn't stay with the lead pack. There were times when they would pull away a little and I would rush to catch up so that I wasn't left behind. I didn't want to have to wait for the runners behind me to catch up, so I just stayed with the group of guys and Gabi. Even the Race Director Hexer got a little lost at one point. I met some very nice people along the way and since it wasn't so competitive and more of a run, we were able to talk and have a little fun. The course took us up and down all the little peaks in the area. I was happy to see a new part of Deutschland, meet lots of new ultra runners and take part in such a wonderful race!

I finished with the same group of guys that I had started with in exactly 6 hours. Thanks to Gabi, Sven, Torsten, Stefan, Birger, Fabian and Mats for being so kind and making it a great memory!

After the race, I didn't feel very well. My stomach was upset and I had a bad headache but I contribute it all to not getting enough nutrition. I drank my Tailwind the whole time but I also feel like I should have eaten something too.