Question from Wayne, Pennsylvania, USA:

In the past year, I have run three 50K trail races and two marathons and I would like to go for a 50 Mile race this year. I haven’t had any problems in my previous races but, my wife is worried about the longer distance.

For the 50Ks, I have been cutting my morning NPH in half (to three units) and not taking any Humalog at all (I normally take 14 units/day) until after the race and I eat about 50 g of carbohydrates/hour during the race. The longest 50K took me almost eight hours and I would expect a 50 miler to take about 11 hours.

Is there anything I should be worried about, other than what other long distance runners are worried about? I would like to put my wife at ease.