More Sweet than Bitter

My friend Serena and I at the awards ceremony, Sunday noon. Lisa and Jason were too busy paying attention to the ceremony:) Everyone got called up to receive their award. This race does an excellent job of recognizing everyone, from first to last.

A bittersweet race...more sweet than bitter. I spent a lot of time this morning responding to congratulatory emails. I also wrote an email to one of my coaches...this letter is the one I'm sharing with ya'll, it pretty much sums up my race this past weekend. No worries though, proper race report and images to follow.


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Michael,

Your Spin class helped tremendously with the heat training. I didn't believe you when you first said it would but it proved itself out in the end. It was 101 on race day and I was not the least bit bothered by the heat. At the medical checkpoints I was consistently 1-2 pounds over my normal weight - I drank like a fish and ate. My fluid intake was comparable to the fluid intake in your class, about 60-65 ounces per hour.

It turned out to be a tough day and a lot of folks had problems, about 45% of the field dropped out. Of the 400 starters only 211 made it to the finish at Auburn. A lot of us who did finish, finished slower than expected.

It was a bittersweet race for me. It was everything I thought it would be and I had an amazing crew. However I had problems with blisters from mile 48 and it just got worse from there. By the time I finished I had 10 blisters on my left food and 6 on my right. From 70 miles onwards there was no step that I took that didn't illicit pain. Every rock, root and pebble just killed me out there. The beginning of the race saw us running through snow, mud, puddles and throughout the race we ran through streams. The moisture separated the duct tape that I used for protection and it was all downhill from there. By mile 70 I had blisters from toe to heel on both feet and I was forced to give up the 24 hour mark. The last 10 was pure torture, I have never suffered so much in an ultra. I was able to persevere and finished 27:31. I was very disappointed with my race until I found out how bad it was for everyone else.

Body feels fine. Blisters that slowed me down ensured a fast recovery. I wasn't able to reach my full potential, I've had training days harder than this. Let me put it this way, today I was able to run up the stairs to my apartment blisters and all. Don't be surprised to see me at track on Tuesday, frankly there's nothing to rest.

I sure hope the new spin studio will be just as hot. I'm just blown away how well prepared my body was for the heat, that has never been the case for me in the past.

Thanks Michael.

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