Yeah 49.b6! looks much better but was afraid of stalemating tricks and wanted to use opposition since the king clearly has enough space to escape the pawn but didn't look past "Oh crap that gives him the opposition!"
49.Kc7,Ka7 50.b5,Ka8 51.Kb6,Kb8 could have worked too off the same principle: 52.Ka6,Ka8 53.b6,Kb8 54.b7,Kc7 55.Ka7 queens as black is out of stalemating possibilities and would be my move with no g-pawn, but liked the fancy winning the pawn race :)Elbowing out that king is key and drawing tricks lurk around every corner. Since my king is in front of the pawn it maximizes winning chances.
Thanks it helped.
hope that helped, I have spent hundreds of hours studying endgames, and pawn endgames are my favorite so far... (or at least the endgame I am best at...)