Catalina Island is very hilly.  It is also very dark in the hills early in the morning in January.  The race began at 5:00am.  It was very cold, windy and, immediately outside of town, very dark. I had to laugh at myself because it was so me to show up for a 50 mile run in the hills of Catalina pre-sunrise without any sort of a light.  What a rookie.  No problem I figured...I'll just stay with the leaders since obviously they all have lights.  Well, the leaders all run like gazelles up and down these hills so I needless to say I was pushing it quite a bit early on in the race.  The sun finally came up and I could now run my own race!  Up and down...up and down.  Yes, hill training would have been good for this one.  I'm thinking around mile 30, what am I doing here?...running in the dark, up and down these hills, what's next?  Just then I met up with a runner who asks me, "Seen any buffalo today?"  "No, I haven't" I replied.  "Well, whatever you do if you see one don't look it in the eyes...it will charge you!"  Whether true or not, it certainly got me a bit more alert!  It was a great day on the Island.  I highly recommend the race to any ultrarunner.  Just remember to bring a light. 

Race results: http://planetultramarathon.wordpress.com/2007/01/17/corrected-avalon-50-results/