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Everyone has to help me out with this one. Next time I talk about me doing something really stupid, someone reach out through your modems and slap some sense into me. I'll never learn.
It was a long day. I did many things wrong, made bad decisions, tactical errors, and experienced extended mental lapses, but I had a good time doing it. I took a couple falls in the woods along the Appalachian Trail, one was not all that hard, but was a slow, twisting fall. I was well on the way to doing the splits when I bounced into the ground. I think that one haunted me for the next nine hours or so. (Actually, it still haunts me with the leftover pain.) The fall, I think, caused hip problems once I got off the trails. I got cramps, and later spasm's in my hips that made any lifting of either leg extremely painful. That puts a definite crimp in your running. Raceday became a really long, slow walk, with occasional jogging mixed in. Making forward progress was tough, and I did not do well with the mental games needed to keep moving at an acceptable pace. I had no plan or structure to my movements, and stayed on the course longer because of that. The lessons? Many, many things were learned during the day. I was unprepared for the challenge of the event. I needed more runs that covered a long time period. Running for 5+ hours, regardless of speed, would have better prepared me for the race. My normal trail runs ranged from 1:30 to 3:37. While, during that 3:37 I covered 27-28 miles, it was not enough to get me ready for 50 miles. The pain? I can now lift my legs off the ground. Getting in and out of the car still requires me to use my hands to lift my legs in the door. While standing, or sitting, there is little that hurts, but the transitions between standing and sitting are really bad. I have some blisters that keep filling after being popped. I think they are a couple layers deep and expand to fill the void of the popped area. Getting shoes on is hard because my feet are wide with blisters. I did have incorrect goals for JFK. My theory on goals is that you should have 3
Would I do the race again? Yep. Next time I will be much more prepared though. The race was a lot of fun, and a true challenge. My time? I was 330th overall out of 719 finishers, in 10:16:56. Not the 8:15 I hoped for, but I'll take it, for now. Did I learn anything deep and meaningful about myself during the race? Nope, besides that 50 miles is a long, long way! |
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