Would be very surprised to see the local authorities call it. No way the race director calls it off. If it comes it’d have to come from the county level and considering every other decision they have made/ been pressured into I just don’t see it being called off.
JFK 50 Mile 2020
Report Thread
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Preview is up from the local newspaper:
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/sports/jfk-50-marches-on-with-fast-field/article_03dff54c-2aa5-11eb-a49f-ebc0c4235e7c.html
Camille Herron looks to be targeting the course record (6:12) or lower. Looking forward to seeing if she has the trail speed to dip under it. -
No irunfar preview? What am I missing? Are those guys out of business?
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irunfar has not done any race recaps/results or previews since COVID started.
While i understand that perspective, this is their bread and butter. It's time to get back to at least doing SOME of the work they were doing pre COVID. -
cow man wrote:
irunfar has not done any race recaps/results or previews since COVID started.
While i understand that perspective, this is their bread and butter. It's time to get back to at least doing SOME of the work they were doing pre COVID.
they probably disapprove of races being held so they're not gonna hold previews. -
cow man wrote:
irunfar has not done any race recaps/results or previews since COVID started.
While i understand that perspective, this is their bread and butter. It's time to get back to at least doing SOME of the work they were doing pre COVID.
Eh, I disagree. It's their business, and maybe they don't want to use their platform to get people excited about doing something they see as irresponsible. You can disagree about whether racing right now is a good idea or not, but it's hard to argue that irunfar shouldn't be allowed to make their own decisions on this. -
mount in man wrote:
No irunfar preview? What am I missing? Are those guys out of business?
What kind of business they were in, in the first place? -
Hayden Hawks smashes the field AND Walmsley's CR. Big day for him. Videos made it look like he was wearing a mask too?? Anyone there to confirm?
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nino cowboy wrote:
Hayden Hawks smashes the field AND Walmsley's CR. Big day for him. Videos made it look like he was wearing a mask too?? Anyone there to confirm?
I think he had the mask on only for the finish. I saw one video with Hayden running without a mask. -
JFK runner wrote:
Preview is up from the local newspaper:
https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/sports/jfk-50-marches-on-with-fast-field/article_03dff54c-2aa5-11eb-a49f-ebc0c4235e7c.html
Camille Herron looks to be targeting the course record (6:12) or lower. Looking forward to seeing if she has the trail speed to dip under it.
She ran 6:31 for 11th overall but beat Hazen, Cabada and beat Goggins by over half an hour. -
Impressive results today, with three of the top 6 all time best performances in a 50 plus year old race. Even while intermittently masked. Clearly carbon fiber has a major impact in ultras just like other distances. Always exciting to see a new record and fast times but with old records run in old shoes it seems like it’s becoming a bit of an apples and oranges sort of comparison.
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From the pics it appears Hayden Hawks won and set the course record in the new Hoka One One Rocket X. He ran a great CR time and race!
And that is a fast shoe. Remember Hayden also has some serious 5k/10km speed from his NCAA days (and super high mileage weeks to boot). I don't know JFK50 course details exactly (haven't run it), but there is a pretty long stretch on the towpath (basically like a road) and then the finishing miles are on pavement. Only the AT section at the start (first 12-15 miles or so?) would be more technical and tricky in a "pure road shoe", but obviously it can be done.
I think they had really nice weather today too (basically no wind to slight tailwind perhaps at times...course does a "U-shape" so hard to say with the wind shift over time?)...maybe someone there can comment?). Also it appears it wasn't super freezing cold (temps in the 50s maybe?) so that was probably pretty nice. It also appears the lead pack (Men's race) paced themselves really well with not a crazy fast start on the AT section, but then Hayden really opened up in the second half (at least on Jim's previous CR split). I'm just going off info I've seen online as obviously I wasn't there though.
As far as carbon fiber plates helping in ultras, I can't see this working so well on single track trail ultras (with uneven and soft terrain or technical trails). But for sure for the road ultras and buffed out trails (like JFK50 mostly is). Also there is a big difference running low 6-min mile or high 5-min mile splits on a relatively flat and uniform surface vs the 7-9-min (or slower) splits usually seen in trail-mountain ultras. -
Race rules only required mask in certain areas of the course.
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And that included getting stopped and waiting at a train crossing.
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I think he might have done a shoe swap for the final road section, as the winner did last year, but not positive yet.
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There's video footage of him wearing that shoe around the 30-mile mark I believe.
The "towpath" is most of the course and basically like a hard dirt/gravel road (or at least double track it appears). No doubt carbon fiber shoes work well on this type of course I'd say (minus the first AT actual trail section).
Standard Setter wrote:
I think he might have done a shoe swap for the final road section, as the winner did last year, but not positive yet. -
S. Canaday wrote:
From the pics it appears Hayden Hawks won and set the course record in the new Hoka One One Rocket X. He ran a great CR time and race!
And that is a fast shoe. Remember Hayden also has some serious 5k/10km speed from his NCAA days (and super high mileage weeks to boot). I don't know JFK50 course details exactly (haven't run it), but there is a pretty long stretch on the towpath (basically like a road) and then the finishing miles are on pavement. Only the AT section at the start (first 12-15 miles or so?) would be more technical and tricky in a "pure road shoe", but obviously it can be done.
I think they had really nice weather today too (basically no wind to slight tailwind perhaps at times...course does a "U-shape" so hard to say with the wind shift over time?)...maybe someone there can comment?). Also it appears it wasn't super freezing cold (temps in the 50s maybe?) so that was probably pretty nice. It also appears the lead pack (Men's race) paced themselves really well with not a crazy fast start on the AT section, but then Hayden really opened up in the second half (at least on Jim's previous CR split). I'm just going off info I've seen online as obviously I wasn't there though.
As far as carbon fiber plates helping in ultras, I can't see this working so well on single track trail ultras (with uneven and soft terrain or technical trails). But for sure for the road ultras and buffed out trails (like JFK50 mostly is). Also there is a big difference running low 6-min mile or high 5-min mile splits on a relatively flat and uniform surface vs the 7-9-min (or slower) splits usually seen in trail-mountain ultras.
Sage: you need to run this course at some point. Lot of local support and felt like a low-key kind of race despite being one of the more well-known ultras given it's history. I would say though it was kind of strange having virtually no race markings. Came to a few dead stops when the runner in front didn't know where to go. (Easy to figure out since you just follow the white marks on the trees as per typical AT standards.) I wouldn't say I'm that impressed or at least not surprised that Hawks got the CR. Great conditions and he had Jared and Matt to push him although, it was somewhat warm (mid to high 50s) but the move with carbon plated shoes definitely makes JFK something like a hybrid road ultra. The AT is rocky, but I wouldn't consider it technical. With carbon plated shoes you can just bounce off the rocks. The only issue with the trail (besides no course markings) is there were a lot of leaves on the trail so you would find out if there was a rock underfoot by feel and perhaps that requires some trail skill. The leaves were also mildly slippery and the course has had snow and rain on it before. One classic example of the road marathoner-to-ultra transition was Raj (I think he's like a 2:16 guy) was literally tip-toeing around the rocks when I passed him. I assumed he had blown up already or had a bad ankle roll. But he caught up and crushed the road segment though in Hoka Carbon X. Overall, I wanna say hands down easiest ultra with legend status. The one thing that really caught me off guard was that there is a train crossing at the end of the AT segment right before you get onto the Chesepeake Ohio Canal Trail (flat as a pancake) and the volunteers stopped letting people cross even when the train was like 200-300m away. That ate up at least 5 minutes. So the fact that Camille Herron still thought she had a shot at the CR after that just goes to show how much time you can make up on the ChO trail even with a slow AT run. Also to note: tons of top runners did a shoe switch after the AT, swapping trail shoe for a carbon plated shoe of some kind aka Vapor Fly's, Next %, Alpha Fly's, and Carbon X. Another critique of the race is if you got 10th place the prize money is $250 when the price of the race can be like $300 for a late sign-up. It's also like the ChO towpath isn't blocked off for the race itself so there's decent activity from locals on bikes, walking, and even camping out. Despite the lack of markings and such the course has got excellent race atmosphere and you can pretty much guarantee that you are getting a fast 50 mile time. I pr'ed by almost 2 hours and had a real shart day. I'd like to see more gold in the pot and for some legit marathoners to test their mettle at this distance. -
Hayden wore the Clifton then swapped to the Rocket X for the final 20+ miles
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Sounds like he wore Rincon 2 then switched to the Rocket X...
JFK50 wrote:
Hayden wore the Clifton then swapped to the Rocket X for the final 20+ miles -
Clifton (not Rincon2) for the first 27 then Rocket X