The JFK 50 Mile The JFK 50 Mile
by Jeff Reed

With so many JFK 50 Mile stories on the page that they have to subdivide themselves. I have collected all the stories and placed the links to them here. Here is the offical JFK 50 Mile page, complete with results.

In a search for a new challenge, races reports from the 1996 JFK race from Will Brown and Vic Culp really grabbed me. After a couple summers doing mountain races a nice 50 miler would be a great focus for year in running. Also, and old friend of mine, Mike Spinnler, was the race director of JFK. I always try to run races that my friends direct.

The weekly trail runs in Rock Creek Park were my main training ground. I had taken a page from the low-mileage training book to get ready for JFK. One long, hard trail run per week, some other shorter run during the week, but mainly just recovering from the long one on the weekend. I thought I would be well prepared for the race.

Some worries about the 26.2 mile section of the race on the C&O Towpath, I decoded to run a couple marathon as "training runs". I did Steamtown and Marine Corps marathons with varying success. During JFK I realized that 26.2 miles is still too short to fully prepare for 50 miles. I ended up suffering more than I should have due to major tactical errors and lack of full respect for the distance. This lack of respect lead me to under-prepare for the challenge of the distance.

The 1997 version of JFK had at least four M@Deads, Scott Rafferty, Vic Culp, Laura Nye, and myself. Scott is the grizzled veteran of the ultra scene, while Laura and Vic both had done JFK previously. I was the only ultra-virgin, and it showed.

JFK 50 Links	Official JFK 50 Mile Page & Race Results	JFK 50 Mile Training Tips	The Appalachian Trail Page	The C&O Canal Page	Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC)
M@Dead Reports	Will Brown's 1996 JFK 50 Mile	Vic Culp's 1996 JFK 50 Mile	Vic Culp's 1997 JFK 50 Mile	Laura Nye's 1997 JFK 50 Mile	Jeff Reed's 1997 JFK 50 Mile