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Keep Coming Back – Blues Cruise 50K Race Report

Keep Coming Back – Blues Cruise 50K Race Report

Published by Patrick Durante on October 8, 2025

If your race didn’t go as expected, that’s OK; it doesn’t matter much. Whether you DNF’d, PR’d, finished DFL, or just got it done, in the end, they’re all just outcomes—they’re not who you are. 12 years of Blues Cruise, and I can tell you with certainty, that while each race plays out slightly different, they all had one underlying theme.  That’s what I plan to cover in this post.

I charted my performances over time… NERD!

This photo shows data points of each year.  That’s what all races are. They are just data points toward the person you want to become. Snapshots of a single day in your life.  Neither good, nor bad, it’s what life allowed for you on that day. Training, weather, mental preparedness, etc, course conditions, are never the same. If I showed you a picture of yourself year after year, it wouldn’t tell the full story of your life, let alone your training. Well, I am slowing down, that’s obvious.  What isn’t shown is everything going on in a person’s life, or how they coped with the stress on race day. Each runner’s experience—and their finish time—is shaped by countless factors: genetics, training, heat acclimation, nutrition, and so many more.

The biggest change I’ve seen in myself over the years is that today, I’ve stopped comparing myself to others—and especially to my past self. Yes, I know I graphed my times, but it was to prove a point. The numbers never tell a full story, like one of my favorite quotes:

“No person ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and they’re not the same person.”

Every year I come back things are so different from the previous year, I can never compare with a past performance. I may think I have control over how the race plays out, but more often than not it feels as though I am at a slot machine each year. Pulling the handle to see what the day brings. I care less about the clock, and more about how the training felt. Was I eager to get out of bed? Did I enjoy the process? Because if that starts to become an issue I will never even make it to the starting line the following year. The race is always the dessert, when it comes to running.  It’s that bonus you GET if you built your fitness AND remained injury free to toe the line. From experience, trying to have a perfect execution on “that” day is a tough, if not near impossible for most unless you have no other commitments. As I age, I care more about just getting to the start vs if I “win”. Winning in ultras is being able to do them, as long as you can, as often as your life allows.

Enjoying the process. Weekly vert over 5K for multiple weeks

In the graph above, my best races were always shared with others. I wrote about race day where I ran with 3 very fast females. I wrote about “Damn the Torpedoes” where I met my first athlete Zach I coached. When you get lost in conversation and focus on something other than yourself, you can transcend time, and surprisingly do your best. I had breakout performances where I shared more miles with people vs alone, I was focused on others vs self rumination.

Damn the Torpedoes with Zach (BC 2022)

The weather wasn’t on my side for a perfect execution this year, and that was OK.  What I was thrilled about was putting everything on the line. I went out hard, and enjoyed every moment. The old me cared about time, the new me cares about process and giving each race everything you can.   The races are a point in time on a given day, and truly anything can and DOES happen. You need to take risk, and be OK with failure to see what you are capable of. Like a magical wizard trying to cast a spell, where the incantation has to be perfect to summon the beast. If one word, or ingredient is off, you summon an abomination of a race filled with pain, cramping, blisters, and suffering. Even with all the training, nutrition, and gear, you can still have things fall apart. That’s what coming back each year has taught me, that things go sideways, reality doesn’t always meet expectation, and you need to adjust.

Race day friends – 3 Fast Ladies Race (BC 2019)

So take your data point and move on, evaluate what happened BUT come back next year! That’s what is critical, its not a representation of you, but a snapshot in time where maybe some years the stars aligned. Some runners get it 100% right 100% of the time.  Good for them! I keep signing up because its the process that keeps me motivated, happy, and a better person.  A patient father, and better husband.  Excellence is the ability to endure hardships. Ultras teach you that life isn’t fair, this is hard, and that nobody is coming to save you—except YOU! Well maybe that bean burrito at AS4 was your savior?? 😆

I carried 2 bottles and a bladder?!? WTF? (BC 2015)

While Blues Cruise was my race I came back to each year, it could have been any event. Fall in love with some activity, some race, and just keep doing it. Try to master something silly, as that’s what most people think of ultras. That’s what I love. I’ll NEVER master this race, or anything in the short time I’m here.  I’ll never master ultras, but it doesn’t stop me from trying. I have no choice!

“My dear, Find what you love and let it kill you. Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains. For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover”

“Beating the clock” – AI Generated of 2025 BC finish

Thanks for reading! This isn’t your typical race report; it’s more of a reflection on why I came back the twelve times. I hope you enjoyed it.

Philadelphia Trail Marathon – Race Report 2025

Philadelphia Trail Marathon – Race Report 2025

Published by Patrick Durante on April 24, 2025

What went right

Mindset is the hardest aspect to train for in running. It’s the focus of most of my posts here. I constantly have to remind myself why I do it. Why do I get out there, explore new trails, participate in new races, and keep showing up? This was my mindset going into the Philadelphia Trail Marathon.

Except from the book “Do hard things”:

Lower the bar. Raise the floor. When trying to improve, most of us go for the lift-the-ceiling approach, judging ourselves by our best performance ever. In track, we would define ourselves by our personal best for an event. To get better meant running faster than we ever had before. Brian Barraza, a professional runner, sees performance in a different light. “My goal is to raise the floor. Being confident that whenever I step out on the track, I’m going to be able to run a certain time.” Instead of going all in for the massive breakthrough, Barraza sets a minimum expectation. “When you raise the floor, it allows for those days when everything is clicking to exceed expectations. It’s not that we are lowering our ceiling or playing it safe; it’s that we’ve developed the confidence to know that X performance is repeatable. That as long as we do what’s in our control, we can achieve a certain standard, no matter the circumstances,” Barraza told me one day after practice. As I watched this idea percolate through the athletes, I came to notice a trend. Those who raised their floors had an inner confidence about them. What once seemed crazy to contemplate was now the norm. Brian Zuleger, a sports psychologist out of Adams State University, taught me an exercise to reframe expectations. Instead of aiming for our best performance, something that we can only accomplish rarely, shoot for improving your best average. When we judge ourselves against our all-time best, we inevitably fall short more often than not. Instead, averaging out our five most recent performances gives us a still tricky but achievable goal. The aim is first to be consistent. Don’t lower your expectations just so you can become confident. Understand what you are capable of, and set a standard that falls within that realm or just a touch outside of it. Embrace reality. Understand that a breakthrough doesn’t come from creating a false sense of confidence; by developing the belief that you can achieve a certain standard, you free yourself up to take risks when the opportunity presents itself.

I would not try for my BEST performance, but one in the top 10-20% of what I was capable.  I realized that running a PR can’t happen every single time, but that’s what our minds want.  I had a 3:53 and a 4:13 in previous years.  Goal was 4:03, but I felt that my training, weather, and nutrition warranted a sub 4 performance. That’s what I had set as my target, but would have been happy with a 4:05. Note, the big change this year was I haven’t had any alcohol, but that’s a post for another day.

Clothing

I tested shorts with large pockets that can hold poles! They allowed me to skip all but 1 aid station. They held my phone, 8 SIS gels and 8 mint Oreos.  The downfall is no support for men, so I wore a compression under them.  

The secret weapon! Shorts with MASSIVE pockets in the waist.

Nutrition

Constant fueling and WAAAY more carbs than in training.  When intensity goes up, so does nutrition.  I was hitting around 60-70 carbs per hour and that seemed to be a sweet spot with the cold weather. If it was hot, it could have been higher. I carried no water and didn’t take any on the course. I used only isotonic gels and only 1 cup of soda near the end. DISCLAIMER: This was tested in a half marathon a few weeks before so I knew this would work. Please don’t go and run a marathon with NO hydration except a 1 cup of soda.

Photo Credit: Doug Rafalski

MORE gels and More cookies next time!  I could have had more Oreos and SIS gels per hour. They went down easy. I had zero GI distress. Will that same thing happen if I ate them for 24 hours?  No idea, but for 4 hours they worked well.  My test for the upper limit for fuel consumption has still not been hit. 

Shout out to Alex Takacs and John Berry, they cheered me on at the start, and its amazing how much a small act like that can make a difference in your performance and mental state.  

What went wrong?

I took the first half too fast, but it was a risk I knew I was taking.  I was eating WAY more than I normally do in a race and I intentionally pushed intensity.  While I would say this worked to a point, I would have run an even faster time had I ran a negative split. If you negative split then you tend to run your fastest time capable that day. At least that’s what I have found with my training in the past.

Pacing – The race kicked off, and I went out too hard.  I met Bill Durante, no relation, when my running group, the EYB runners, decided to meet up with Bud Wilson and his crew.  He was going HARD off the start and we went back and forth all race.  Bill was having a tough run, he said he didn’t have any contacts left, and resorted to wearing glasses in the race that kept fogging. The dude fell 5 or more times, but he still kept pushing the pace.  That in turn triggered me to push the pace, I do know better and still ran my own race, but it was a plus to run with him.

I was pumped to be running this race for the 3rd time.

What would I do differently:  

More food, slower first lap, and letting my ankle heal properly after I had injured it.  I was so concerned about missing training that I kept running on an injured ankle.  I did a lot to rehab, but didn’t give it enough time to heal.  There wasn’t that much I would change with this event.

There was a shift in mindset about anyone who passed me. I just finished the book “Let them” by Mel Robbins, and I will say that I kept repeating that to myself. Let them pass you, and LET ME focus on my feet, fuel, and breathing. I can’t control others in a race, and 99% of pain in life is caused trying to control what we can’t.

When we lack control, our stress spikes. When we have sense that we can impact the situation, our cortisol response is dampened. Control doesn’t alter just our hormonal response but also the experience that accompanies the stress response.

I can’t control who shows up on race day, how much they train, and how much of a natural athlete they are. I can control my thoughts, barely, but most of the time as I have written about automatic negative thoughts. I can keep repeating to myself core principles when I race, that the current moment may feel tough, but it will pass. Races are a huge reminder of that topic. When you are surrounded by hundreds of people with the same goal, but wildly different backgrounds and how they got there. No single person comes to trail running with the same goals, or training. Each one of them is trying to run “the best they ever could”, but how ridiculously is that? Stop thinking you will run your best, and try for something that’s more attainable. Raise the floor, shoot for a performance in the top 20 or even 30%. Have a hard look at your training and see if it matches your expectations. Did you put int he work to warrant the performance you expect? That’s where most people shoot themselves in the foot, unmatched expectations.

Each race this year will be a different mindset that won’t put as much stress on this idea to perform “better than I ever”. That’s an idea that no longer serves me. I hit my 44th birthday tomorrow. I am getting older, and not to say that my best days are behind me, I know that I need more compassion for myself and my expectations. That’s a question I would put out to anyone who ran this race. Did you goals align with the performance you achieved, or were they mismatched? If so, you might have been fighting an uphill battle the entire race. Thanks for reading!