Guys,
Ultrarunning update. Jody
and I ran the Fire on the Mountain 50K on Sunday over in western MD. I struggled through the first half—woefully undertrained
and mostly trying to rely on “muscle memory”—and was seriously considering
dropping at the midpoint. I had fallen 3
times, which I almost never do, and I just wasn’t feeling the mojo.
However, Jody helped me regain my will to live and continue,
and the race actually got easier for me in the second half.
Preliminary results are up here and show us at 88 and 89 of 111 finishers, in a time of 8:10.
In a massive touch of irony, I also note that I would have
won the 60+ age group if they had had one.
Pretty funny, for someone who would have quit except for Jody’s encouragement.
Prior to this race I have always parroted the mantra that in
the race you vow to keep running unless doing so would cause injury. Merely being tired or hitting the wall are
not good enough excuses to drop, if you are physically able to continue your forward
motion. At all points in the race,
physically I could easily walk and even run whenever I chose to, so I certainly
did not meet my criteria for quitting.
My mind was just weak for awhile (unlike Pete, whose mind is weak all the
time!) and it took Jody’s steady presence to remind me of that.
Note that Jody had just run a 50K only 2 weeks prior, so his
effort on not-fully-recovered legs was quite stellar.
Anyway, although I am still hobbling around from the real beating
my legs took, it was a pretty good day. A
great day, actually, spending a day in the woods doing what I love to do.
Still planning to join you all for a perimeter run soon.
Regards/Gary
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