When we last left our hero and heroine they were quite chippy…
17 miles into their 50k… whistling and having a jolly old time.
Miles 17-24 included a bit more walking… Judi was having some back issues… my "hot spot" was now two blisters on the outside of my left foot.
Remember that shoe on my table?
Yep… new Sauconys… I'd decided to not wear them because while comfortable for running… they are new and not quite so comfortable to walk in… instead I pulled out some 2 year old shoes that I've done literally over 1500 miles in… and these shoes are broken down… you guessed it… on the left side of the left shoe.
Check out the heel… or lack thereof on the left shoe. This caused my foot to roll out a bit more than usual and… blister.
Really… I could run better than I could walk… and would sometimes run ahead of Judi… then stand on one foot until she caught up…
Somewhere along here we passed the marathon distance
The last 7 miles was an exercise in us asking ourselves… as well as asking each other… "What are we doing out here?" "What is it we are trying to prove?"
I realized at some point that our Garmins were set up to auto pause if we were going slower than a 20 minute mile pace… which we were at times.
And I'm just the kind of nerd to stop and fix that so I could get data from a 20:42 mile we clocked…
We did finish… and learned a bit about ourselves… what to do… and what not to do… and most of all gained mental toughness that only 6 plus hours of forward motion brings….
I'll leave you with a nice picture of my blisters on my ugly foot
5 comments:
LOL... not wanting to do 30 miles in new shoes is understandable, but old broken down ones? ACK!
so, you learned a valuable ultra lesson. Relentless forward progress at the best possible speed.
It's all about pace :-)
Ouch! Those blisters look terrible! Throw those shoes away! Good job to both of you for pushing through and keeping it up. I'm super impressed. Great job, guys!
youch!!!
congrats though. i'm still amazed by anyone who finishes and ultra and is still breathing. lol
Running 50 km doesn't even sound remotely fun
ps: you've been tagged. see my blog
Michael...that is one painful looking foot. Congratulations on the Ultra though. I too hope to do one some day (once I complete my first marathon...just planning ahead :-)
By the way, I was tagged by Darlene at My First 5K and More... with The Versatile Blogger Award, so after posting mine I'm in turn tagging you !
The rules are to share 7 things about yourself. Then to tag 15 people. Have fun !
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