Mediocre Miles: Recapping the BPN 50-Mile “Survive the Night” Ultramarathon

On Saturday, November 1st, about 200 runners gathered in the middle of nowhere Texas on Bare Ranch to take on the night.

As dramatic as that sounds… it’s accurate.
Bare Performance Nutrition’s 50-mile ultra started at 6 p.m. and gave us 12 hours to get it done. Since this race came just three short weeks after my Devils Den 12-hour ultra, my only real expectation was to survive the event. Nothing heroic. Nothing spicy. Just get it done.

And I did.

I finished right around the 11-hour mark, but the big effort really came at the start. I set a goal to knock out the first 30 miles in under 6 hours. I managed 5 hours and 40-ish minutes, which gave me plenty of time to text my wife (“still alive”), refill my hydration vest, hit the port-a-potty, and then work through the final 20 miles.

The course was a 5-mile loop — 10 laps total. Because we were truly out in the middle of nowhere, the entire thing was run by headlamp. And honestly? The vibes at ultras are unmatched. It’s you vs. the course, whereas road marathons tend to be you vs. the clock. In an ultra, runners look after one another. Case in point: heading into my final lap, I couldn’t find my tote of supplies, and a couple random guys offered me salt tablets off their own table. That’s ultra energy.

There’s not much drama in this Mediocre Miles since I came in already “conditioned” from Devils Den, but I do want to highlight (again) the importance of staying flexible with your race-day strategy.

I started the BPN 50 with my hydration vest and plenty of liquid calories — because that’s what worked best at Devils Den. But halfway through, things changed. My final five laps were fueled by a simple handheld bottle with 17 ounces of plain water, refilled at the start of each loop and again at the halfway aid station. Add in 200mg of sodium from SaltStick tablets and a BPN Go-Gel that I’d slam at the 2.5-mile mark each loop.

Super simple. Super boring. Zero stomach issues — which seemed to be the main reason behind most of the DNFs out there.

Not much glamour, not much flair. Just a mediocre recap of a long night, a long run, and a strategy that shifted on the fly — and worked.

As 2025 comes to a close I am super glad that I was able to have the year that I did as far as running goes. I’ll probably write a full recap of the year with lessons learned from each race, but I do want to end with this…the ‘Mediocre Miles’ will be staying for 2026. I have 3 more ultra marathons on the docket and I can’t wait to share more of the training preparations and outcomes with everyone!