There's no reason to go out and run 31 miles with more than a mile of elevation gain just to see how fast you can do it.

Except that sometimes I just want to see how fast I can do it...

I ran the FOURmidable 50k this weekend in Auburn – it's a solid test to see where I am in my training for the Western States 100 in June.

As always, I found some lessons to apply back to running and growing a startup.

1/ Do hard things.

Find challenges to do that will push you to your limits – that's how you know what your limits are.

2/ Know when to attack, and when to lay back.

Parts of the course had some heavy downhill sections where I knew I could bank some time. A few of the climbs flat sections where I could run for 3040 strides at a time.

3/ Sh&t will happen – what matters is how you respond to it.

I took a hard fall with eight miles to go that shredded my left forearm and gave me a nasty bruise on my hip. My calves cramped while I was laying the dust and I could barely get back up to my feet. But I keep moving forward. I knew if I could get moving, I had 34 miles of downhill to make up time.

Relentless forward progress.

4/ Leave it all out there.

When I hit No Hands Bridge with four miles to go up a mostly uphill trail, I still had a shot at hitting my time goal.

With 2.5 miles to go, moving up a short climb to Robie Point, my entire body seized up – I was frozen in pain as my calves, quads and glutes all locked up.

I found a way to wobble for a few hundred yards, then eventually find something resembling a running stride.