Dizzy Fifties race report

1st place. 50.25 miles 6:38 (7:55 pace). Previous course record was Dink Taylor's 6:45.
This was the most fun I've ever had in a running race. The course was sick technical for the first 4 miles of each loop (5 loops) and I fell or tripped 7 times total. Extremely rocky with a steep technical descent then a steep climb with switchbacks (3500ft total gain on the course) with anywhere from sharp jagged points to baseball size loose rocks... and they were lying nicely under a layer of leaves. I now know 2 more things- what the rock plates in running shoes are for and that Lunar Trainers with 1000+ miles on them make for crappy trail shoes. I wore my GPS for the first 11 miles and it was so completely distracting I wasn't thinking about anything else. At 11 miles I took it off and from that moment (literally) onward I felt unbelievably good. I held back quite a bit at the start and averaged 7:50 pace for the first 11, then never really pushed the whole race until the last 5. I haven't seen any splits but I think (by looking at the finish line clock which we passed by on every loop) that my last 5 miles was the fastest 5 of my race. The only discomfort I felt all day was my feet from the thin soled shoes on sharp rocks. I tried to envision running 100 miles and even at sub 8 pace I could have slowed a bit and still run 20 more miles if I could have switched shoes. I can see now that 100 is getting closer to being believable to me. Today I feel great and surprisingly, my feet don't hurt at all? A little soreness in my knee from falling on it a few times.
This was crazy fun!