FUNdraising

I had no idea how my body was going to feel just a week after rather a long day, but when a friend is throwin' down on a mission to do some good, you show up no matter what.

Bonus if it happens to be a beautiful day!

My friend Rich has been running - quite literally - an annual fundraiser for the Grand River Regional Cancer Centre since 2015, when he lost his father to cancer. He's run 100 miles at Sulphur Springs for donations, and over the past few years he's created his own event where others join him in getting sponsors and running, walking, or wheeling for 24hrs. This year, he decided it would be better to keep it to 12 hours to make things more accessible for people, and also so he could do it all on trails.

On a rather familiar loop in stunning Huron Natural Area

They'd all started at 7am, running laps while Tank and I hit the market and had some brunch. Tanker had a massage appointment at 1:30pm just around the corner, so I dropped him off and then headed over to HNA to see if I could hook up with Rich for a couple of laps. He'd been kind enough to share some time with me both years at Three Days in the Park in Elmira, and I'd always come out to his 24hr fundraisers to lay down some laps in the dark with him, so it seemed only fitting that now we'd share the 1mi lap that had been the basis for the original Three Days in the Park one-man show in 2020.

Rolling up at 1:45pm - it took me ages to find a place to park!
Shannon was manning the aid station the whole time I was there

The unseasonably warm weather - 18c/64f on October 22nd! - had people out in droves to walk the trails and check out the fall colours, which were absolutely gorgeous. 

Just past their peak, but still vibrant and expansive

I lucked out and caught Rich coming in from a lap within minutes after arriving - before I'd even managed to finish my coffee! We headed out right away, and I was grateful to hear that he was mostly just power hiking his way around.

I hadn't run at all since 3DIP and wasn't sure if my legs would co-operate

To be honest, I hadn't even been sure how walking would feel; I'd been going for short walks (up to a mile) throughout the week, but nothing with any elevation and all on sidewalk. I was glad that Rich was using Clay's 1mi loop as it was all groomed trail, so I could wear my cushiest pair of road shoes without worry about technical trails!

I'm grateful that my worries were unfounded

I actually felt great, though, walking along and chatting in the warm sun - I always find that conversation flows very easily with Rich, and my feet and legs seemed happy to hike along at a decent clip. I was sorry when I had to leave after the second lap to pick up Tank, but I knew I'd be right back!

I also ran into my dear friend Nat - also in for the full 12 hours and seen here fueling with a grilled cheese - as I headed out to my car

I might have also made it into the insta posts Shannon was sharing as the day went on

I picked up my sweetheart, and we both cruised back over to HNA for about 3pm. I caught Rich coming in from another lap not long afterward, and off we went again!

Taking some different routes this time, as he was getting a little bored with the standard loop

It turned out that my legs were fine even with some more challenging terrain, and I felt perfectly dressed for the weather; the warm sun on my legs in my skirt, and the sleeves of my light wool shirt pushed up to my elbows so I wouldn't overheat.

We were also pausing here and there to take photos, because why wouldn't we?

There were endless families out getting autumn photo shoots done, and no less than 4 wedding parties as well

We got around the park pretty well, hitting most of the trails both groomed and singletrack.

Even the boardwalk over the decidedly dry-looking swamp

We saw little in the way of wildlife - just too many people about - but there was the occasional glimpse of movement in the woods or the fallen leaves.

Like this bright, beautiful garter snake out soaking up some of the last of the sun

As evening came on - as it does so quickly these days - the sunlight turned that delicious gold, bathing the forest in honey.

Huron is one of my favourite places to run at sunset

..and run I did! Rich broke into a trot to try to change up muscle recruitment a bit, and to my surprise I was able to follow along without discomfort!

Who knew?

As the minutes ticked by, the low sun angle only deepened the jaw-dropping autumnal colours.

Contrasting beautifully with the pure blue sky

The heat of the day began to slip away; a welcome change for the runners and walkers who'd been working hard for so many hours already.

Rich was still in great spirits!

I was still feeling great, and pulling my sleeves back down was enough to ward off a chill as we headed into the final hour.

I'm so grateful to have been able to see such lovely views, and to share them with a good friend

We arrived back at the aid station around 6:05pm, and found Nat there - we invited her and Tank to come out for a lap with us, as well as a gentleman who'd just shown up.

I didn't catch his name, unfortunately

While we were out - and before it got dark - Rich had suggested we pick up the directional signs from the 1mi loop and bring them back to the aid station at the parking lot.

Of course Tank was a good sport about carrying them - he's just that kind of wonderful!

As we walked along we also hooked up with Merlin, who'd already done more than 75km on the day! We lost Nat and the other gent somewhere along the way, and dropped Tank off with the signs at the aid station as we finished a lap. Then it was just myself, Merlin, and Rich to finish things off!

An amazing effort by these two gents!

We were rapidly running out of time and daylight - I was grateful I'd had the presence of mind to suggest picking up headlamps - but we found a route that took us just about exactly to the 12 hour mark.

We got to see most of the park throughout the course of the afternoon and evening

When we approached the aid station for the final time, Merlin suggested that we should run it in, so off we trotted to end an amazing day!

What a great show of strength at the end of a long day for these lads!

Finish line high five!

To make things even better, Rich and his team were able to more than double their fundraising goal of five thousand dollars, bringing in more than $12,400 in total!

All to support life-saving research and treatments -
you can still donate by clicking here if you like!

I am honoured to have played a tiny part in this amazing event, and so proud of my friends for their incredible efforts!

I may be in the photo, but they absolutely deserve all the recognition for their hard work!

I'm grateful my body was strong enough to carry me through - who would have thought that 4+ hrs and a little more than 22km of trails would feel so good less than a week after finishing 24hrs?

Though I may have been distracted by the gorgeous surroundings, not to mention the excellent company!

I have actually started doing some gentle walk-runs around my own neighbourhood this week, and the damage from all of my recent exertions seems to be fading nicely. 

Thought it was only appropriate to wear the shirt from a prior year's fundraiser for one of them

It's great to feel a bit of strength returning, especially since I have some shenanigans planned with friends for tomorrow - happy Halloween, all!

Fall-ing in love again

 For someone who hates being cold, it seems a bit odd I'd be happy about the demise of the warm weather.

..though it comes with some lovely perks

The older I get, the more I come to realize that summer isn't really my favourite season after all. As much as I adore not needing a jacket for days or weeks on end, and fun on the water that usually only happens in summer, it's really autumn that steals the show each year.

..and there are still some chances to get out on the water, if you've got the kit to keep you warm!

I adore the flare of the sugar maples as they trade their green coats for flashy red raiments.

A local stunner

I love the low sun angle, which seems to cast golden hues over everything it touches, especially as the days draw in.

This? This is perfection.

I do find it difficult to adjust to the shorter days, but the sunsets can be so spectacular.

Even if it's just on the way home from a paddle

..or the same old view from the neighbourhood, with 10,000% more colour

Frankly, the colours even look spectacular in the dark.

Which is a good thing when there's so much more dark

I'm kind of torn about the change in the weather - we certainly had a couple of very warm days left, and I was glad to take advantage!

Especially since some of my skully stuff is definitely better suited to a hot day

..but it's also nice to snuggle into sweaters again, and pull out some of my cozy cooler weather running kit.

Partly so I can move a little slower, and drink in all the beauty

The falling leaves can make things a little more treacherous on the trails - hiding roots and rocks that could damage an ankle or send me sprawling - but once again, that's just another excuse to slow down and look!

As if I need an excuse to stop and admire this!

Autumn is also the season when I try to make a bit of a difference: next Saturday (October 15th), I'll be running for 24 hours around a 1.019 mile loop in Sandy hills Regional Forest outside Elmira, Ontario as part of the Mood Disorders Society of Canada's Move For Mental Health campaign - a little event called Three Days in the Park that you may recall I did last year as well.

Hoping I'm able to run for more than the first 8 hours this time..

I'd be so grateful if you could make a donation - which you can do securely via THIS LINK - toward their efforts to defeat depression. $25 and up gets you a tax receipt, but any amount is appreciated! I'll be running the whole thing in costume this year, and my getup has crossed the line from epic into absolutely ridiculous, so beware that one of the sillier race reports of all time will be coming soon!

And the bar is already set pretty high in that regard...or perhaps low?

In the meantime, have yourself an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving weekend - I know I have so much to be thankful for!

Including this guy right here!

Horror Trail Run 6-hour - Saturday, October 26th, 2019

Some days are easy and effortless.

This was not one of those.

Though it did have its moments - this was our arrival at Camp Heidelberg

A total of 25hrs of sleep in the 5 days before a race is generally not ideal, especially when you can feel a chest cold from a week of damp, chilly camping trying to work its way through your immune defenses. I had the best of intentions to get a good night's rest on Friday, but then realised that the costume I'd decided on would probably be fine for Saturday's predicted high of 10c/50f, but less ideal for the -4c/25f they were calling for at the start. Not having anything theme-appropriate to keep me warm, I spent from 8pm (when we finally got home) until 10pm inhaling chalk dust and Sharpie fumes trying to produce something that would work.

If I had it to do over again I'd take a different approach, but I'm still pretty pleased with the result..
..even if it meant dinner wasn't ready 'til almost 11pm.

Awoke exhausted to a thick layer of frost on everything, and rather failed to account for a) time to do my makeup (which is not a thing I ever have to think about outside the few days surrounding Halloween) and b) the 50k now starting at 8am, and Tanker needing to be there to help set up the aid station before then. It's been a 9am start for the last 9 years, so my miscalculation was perhaps forgivable.

There was also the process of tape → calf sleeve → running sock → over-the-knee sock → gaiter → shoe to negotiate.
I actually got it all in the right order BOTH times, before I'd even had a cup of coffee!

Finally got myself all together, then it was off to the local T.Ho's under a spectacular morning sky for much-needed caffeination.

Almost worth leaving my nice, warm bed.
Almost.

Coffee that would wake the dead...hopefully.

We sped through the quiet morning as the sun rose and sparkled on the frost-laden fields.

Lovely but ccccooooooollllllddddd.

We managed to arrive 2mins before the 8am start of the 50k, and I immediately dispatched Tank to go start his volunteer duties while I hauled my bag and the UltraCooler™ into the Rehkopf Building to get ready. All the usual greetings and chatting with friends, race kit pickup, bib pinning for the first half hour or so; finally remembering to pick up my timing chip on my way out for a portajohn stop (as the building's washrooms have inadequate water flow to cope with hundreds of runners trying to "get down to race weight"); then my usual awkward, flaily warm-up in an attempt to make my tired, cold body get used to the idea of moving.

There was some resistance to the concept.

Regardless, at a few minutes to 9am I meandered out into the blinding sun to line up at the start, which was done away from the actual course so the 5k, 10k, 25k and 6-hour runners would not trigger the timing mat with their chips as the clock was already running for the 50k runners.

Lined up on the grass to the left of the driveway, instead of on it.

Feeling a little gutless, but willing to give it a go.

At 9am sharp we all set off down the grass, merged onto the driveway, and then back onto the grass over toward the pavilion where Tanker awaited at the aid station..

Everybody conga!

.and I dropped my phone off with him, because I didn't really want to have it with me for the first lap. 

Chubbiest skeleton ever.

Still feeling quite sluggish, I decided to push the pace on my first lap, running basically everything except the main hill in an effort to open up my legs a bit and wake up my cardiovascular system. It felt unreasonably difficult, though, and my time for my first round of the course - 17m44s - was definitely not indicative of the effort I'd put in. When I'm healthy, that's a 2+-hours-in lap time, not an opening minutes one. I knew then that I was in for a long day - sometimes you just don't have it, and there's nothing you can do but press on as best you're able.

"HEY WAIT FOR MEEEEE"
Robin in bright blue with blonde ponytail kicking arse in the 25k!

At least it was a beautiful day in the woods - the sun shone down through the multihued leaves, which fell like snow all over the course in the sub-freezing air.

Sunshine is not a thing to be taken for granted at this race.

Frost looking like snow on the wild grasses down by the pond

The fall colours were about at their peak at Camp Heidelberg

Knowing it wasn't going to be a PR day, I just tried to settle in and focus on getting solid nutrition and hydration into me to make the best of what I had to give. The hydration wasn't a problem - though I definitely found myself drinking more water than I'd have expected for such a chilly day - but getting calories became more complicated than I expected as I attempted to navigate some teething issues with a new gel flask.

The Hydrapak SoftFlask 150

It's half an hour in and I've been carrying this thing in the leg pocket of my skirt, then whip it out to try to get a slurp of EFS Liquid Shot. I ignore the fact the flexible material feels disturbingly like cold human flesh when filled with gel, and try to open the valve...which of course turns in the same direction as unscrewing the cap, which it seems is much easier to do than opening the valve. I screw it back down tight, then hold the base of the cap and open the valve with my other hand...and it barfs sticky gel all over my fingers in my gloves.

Not awesome.

I squeeze some gel out of the flask into my mouth, close the valve, then try to slurp as much as I can off my gloves...and try to forget that I don't think they've been washed since I wore them to go scrambling over mossy, leaf-strewn rocks and climbing through damp crevices at Bruce's Caves. 

I'd work out later that the best method was to hold the base of the cap and open the valve with my teeth, so it just blurped gel into my mouth.

It was also less than stellar that the now-partially-empty flask became much floppier than it had been in its full state, and kind of wanted to fall out of the pocket of my skirt. I'd manage to get it lodged in there such that it didn't fall out, but it certainly never really felt secure. Instead of my usual approach of interspersing EFS Liquid Shot with real food at half-hour intervals (gel on the 30's and solids on the top of the hour), I ran the whole first 2.5hrs on gel just to try to empty the flask as soon as possible so I could ditch it.

With this hill to contend with each lap I didn't need any additional worries.

I grabbed my phone from Tanker at the aid station for my 3rd lap, just so I could capture some photos of the frost and morning light.

Dat sunshine doe!

The trail was in amazing condition - nice and hardpacked throughout, and someone had even been through to spray fluorescent pink paint on some of the more prominent roots and rocks. It was rather frustrating that I wasn't able to take advantage of the perfect running conditions: the cool weather and ideal trail should have made for a fast day, but my body just wasn't having it. 

The race director had even raked the leaves off the trail.

That did leave me free to just enjoy the day as best I could, though, and try to help other runners if I could. I saw a fellow down on the side of the trail massaging his lower leg and asked if he was ok - he said he was, and had just rolled his ankle. I asked if he wanted a hand up and out, but he refused. Later on, I also tried to stay with another runner - a lady I've known for a few years now - as she struggled a bit in the 50k, walking with her after she stumbled and seemed in rough shape. She, too, shooed me on though...so I had Tanker check up on her when she came through the aid station, and he was able to give her some broth that got her feeling more like her badass self again. Perhaps it was the chill air that had brought her low?

With her running the 50k, it would have been even colder when she started.

The cold definitely had one thing running well though: I was one snot-nosed punk! Can we talk for just a moment about how finicky it is to wipe your schnozz or blow a snot rocket without disturbing your skully makeup? 

Definitely first world ultra dork problems there.

*sniffle*... *SNORT*

The major complaints, really, were my left hamstrings (with which I've had trouble since the spring, then did some additional damage to about a week before race day, 'cause I'm smart like that) and my right ankle - they were grouchy from the start. Apart from that, it was really just a total lack of oomph; I found myself walking sections that I have been able to run consistently in the past, and my energy was already beginning to fade by the 2-hour mark. I tried a chunk of banana and one of my homemade salted maple crisp rice squares for some extra calories on top of the gel, but to no effect.

This should have been runnable. It was not.

I did manage the run-up out of the woods a couple of times, but ONLY a couple of times.

I'd had to hit the portajohn on my 6th lap - around 1h45m in - and it seemed I had some weight to lose along with needing a wee. Perhaps the late dinner was haunting me a bit? I usually try to have my pre-race chicken fried rice 12hrs before gun time to allow the lower decks to clear (apart from the bowl of oatmeal I have 3hrs prior to the start), but my arts'n'crafts project had delayed things. I was still staying on top of hydration and electrolytes (via drinking a 600ml bottle of water about every 45mins - which was odd, as I usually go closer to an hour per bottle - and taking an S!cap every hour on the :30 starting right from a half-hour in), keeping the nutrition coming at around 200cal per hour, not experiencing any GI distress, and urinating, so it didn't seem I needed to adjust anything. Heck, I was still able to run up the long, gentle slope of the driveway each lap, so things couldn't be that bad.

Just keep on truckin'

By the halfway point, though, I was starting to wonder if I'd even make my default goal of "make it an ultra", which requires 17 laps of the 2.5km course to equal 42.5km (an ultramarathon being defined as anything longer than a marathon at 42.2km). I had managed 10 laps for 25km by 3h13m, but my split times had faded to around 20mins and I was starting to struggle. The weather had finally warmed up enough for me to take off my sweater - which required a couple of minutes to change from the short, full-finger stretchy gloves to a pair of elbow-length fingerless gloves as it wasn't quite warm enough for just a sleeveless shirt - but my legs were sore and my stride mechanics were starting to fall into that horrible, flat-footed ultra shuffle that is the mark of suffering. 

Definitely feeling a little dead.

To make matters worse, I was feeling a bit lightheaded, and my vision was a bit wonky - it felt difficult to focus, like it often does when I'm in need of an electrolyte tab. I was still taking in an S!cap per hour, though, and my fingers weren't getting sausage-y - I just felt incredibly tired. Even my right eye started to twitch on and off, which happens whenever I'm really sleep deprived, but I've never had occur during a race before. Just weird. To top it all off, I had "Radar Love" stuck in my head for hours - it's a pretty cool track, and it could have been a lot worse, but I barely knew any of the lyrics and that was irritating me. How can I sing along to my internal soundtrack when I don't know the words? I'm sure everyone on course was much happier with me staying silent, though.

Blue skies and golden leaves are much more pleasant than me caterwauling. 

It certainly was a beautiful morning, if a bit cool.

Of course after I took my sweater off, the wind picked up as it blew across the cornfields to the northeast - it was right in our faces as we came out of the upper woods in the shade of the trees, and it was certainly not warm after the morning's frost.

One very chilly shady patch

Course map - I've made an edit in red to show the actual 2-way traffic on the driveway.
I believe the original map as posted to the race's facebook page led to some 50k runners coming up the grass beside the driveway in their opening laps.

While I no longer had to deal with the annoyance of the soft flask - I'd ditched it with Tanker at the aid station after polishing off the last swig at 2.5hrs - that meant I no longer had a multiple-shot source of calories with me. I had to wander back to the aid station a few steps on at least 4 separate occasions because I'd forgotten to pull nutrition that I'd need on that lap from the UltraCooler™. I had an Endurance Tap gel at 3hrs, then a freakin' delicious chocolate chip cookie at 3.5hrs. The eye twitch and blurry vision was getting worse by 4hrs, though, so I tried adding some extra salt in the form of a single tortilla chip and a piece of back bacon, plus another chunk of banana. Knowing those wouldn't really be enough calories, I also had another Endurance Tap to keep me going.

Also some skully smooches from my sweetie.

Some new issues started to crop up as I passed the 4-hour mark - not sure if it's due to my crap stride mechanics or some weirdness that's been going on with my left glutes, but the inside of the top of my calf, passing through my knee and into my lower inner thigh got quite sore when climbing hills. Since there are one or two of those on the course, it was a bit of a bother. I was also just feeling generally beat up in a way I haven't during a 6-hour race in some years; I heard some other people were feeling a bit more battered than usual as well, and I wonder if the sub-freezing temperatures might have had a hand in that. The midsole of my shoes - which provides their cushioning - may have firmed up more than usual in the chill, which was starting to get worse again. 

Some cloud cover was moving in, too, in advance of a massive rainstorm predicted for the evening.

Passing the aid station around 4h20m in and munching back another crisp rice square, I mentioned it was cooling off and got wholehearted agreement from Tanker, Barb and Moe - knowing it wasn't just my inability to move with any sort of energy sealed the deal, and I let Tanker know I'd need my sweater again when I came back through the aid station. I stopped to put it on - which meant taking another minute to doff the elbow-length gloves again - around 4h40m (after my 14th lap, for 35km total), then needed the portajohn again...and not just for a wee. Still no GI distress, but another round of "weight loss". SO WEIRD; maybe too much fibre in the days leading up to the race? I don't know, but at least I was staying hydrated, too, partly due to Tank's amazing efforts - I'd yell his name and show my bottle when I came out of the woods, and he'd take it from me and have it filled by the time I ran up around the building, through the upper woods, and back down to the aid station. Super efficient and time-saving, that - I appreciate him so much, as well as the efforts of the other volunteers. 

Tanker, Barb and Moe at the aid station.

All the wardrobe and portajohn fussing made for my slowest lap of the day (24m5s), though, and I really wished that I'd brought more than 1 caffeinated gel with me as I felt in desperate need of a boost. I was in rough shape: my hamstrings on both legs were creaking unpleasantly, my right ankle had settled down a bit but then came back to painful life when I stepped on a rock, and even my right shoulder was killing me for some reason (despite being entirely used to carrying a bottle around for hours on end). I was feeling so mithered I actually thought to myself at one point that I could just...stop. There wasn't really any reason to continue. But, I tend to finish what I start, and it was still a fairly nice day in the woods, so the rogue thought passed fairly quickly and I pressed on.

I was still managing to run some, but not much.

At least I was more comfortable with my sweater back on, and coming through lap 15 for 37.5km in 5 hours and 2 minutes gave me a pretty comfortable cushion to get in the other 2 laps I wanted to make my default goal of 42.5km. With only an hour left I did knock back my sole sea salt chocolate caffeinated Gu Roctane gel, hoping it would keep me sharp enough to stay upright and un-damaged. I'd made it through so far with only one minor toe catch on a root (without even a stumble!), and aspired to keep it that way. 

Some people were less lucky - at least one brought down by the almost-invisible, foot-size hole in the wood here.

A 21min lap to put me at 40k, and I picked up my bag of beads coming through the start/finish with a number that would correspond to my bib number - I'd drop it wherever I was when the horn sounded to end the race, and that would give me credit for however much of a partial final lap I managed to complete. I hit the aid station one last time for a banana chunk and swallowed my last S!cap (of 6 total) around 5h25m, dropping the flip-top container I keep them in off in the UltraCooler™ so I wouldn't have to carry any excess weight.

Leaving me free to concentrate on not dying.

With 35mins to go I ended up falling in step with a nice fellow named Savvas who had been killing it out there all day, but said he was done and on his last lap. We walked a lot and chatted, only running occasionally as we had no interest in thrashing ourselves. When he told me his average lap times, though, as we were coming down the hill and moving toward the exit of the lower woods, I said I knew he had time for one more full lap as long as he didn't let me slow him down. He decided it was on, and took off running - good for him!

That's him in blue, running up the driveway while ultra legend Ron Gehl heads across the grass toward the aid station.

Coming through my 17th lap with 14mins left on the clock, I had an idea. At my very first Horror Trail 6-hour 10 years previous (called Horror Hill back then) I'd managed to run 44.1km - if I pushed in the last 14mins, I could probably make a mile to equal my 2010 total.

Of course, that meant I'd have to run.

Not to mention climb the big stinkin' hill one more time.
THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS.

I pushed myself harder than I had since the first hour, whipping myself to run up slopes and ignore the angry protest coming from just about everything south of my neck. I was passed by a lady around the 1,200m mark but had nothing with which to answer; I was already at my limit, and knew I needed to be careful about picking up my feet lest I go sprawling. The point was rather emphasized when another fellow passed me, then caught a root in his haste and went down - I made sure he was ok before pressing onward, making it to the 1,600m marker with a minute and a half to go.

Can't stop now - why not see if I can make it to the next marker?

Yep.

With 15 seconds left I passed the 1,800m sign, then dropped my bag of red beads with #23 right on top of two pink-painted rocks in the middle of the trail. I honestly couldn't remember the last time 6 hours felt so long and difficult, or beat me up so badly.

My makeup survived the race much better than the rest of me.

Official distance: 44.26km @ 8:08/km

1/2 W40-49 - 2/7 Women - 13/19 O/A

(Full official results are here)

(Garmin workout data is here)

Splits with notes - amusingly enough, my tourist lap was my fastest of the day!

So there you have it: in 10 years, I've managed to improve my distance by a whole 160 metres.

I knew there weren't very many women in the 6-hour, and based on what I'd seen I actually stood a decent chance of a podium finish. As it turned out, it was a good thing I'd kept going for that final partial lap - another lady had stopped at 42.5km as she'd never run a marathon before and was quite happy to have surpassed one. I could, however, have not dawdled quite so much along the way - when all was said and done, I missed 1st place woman overall by a grand total of 50 metres.

The lady who passed me on my final partial lap was the overall women's winner.

Please don't think I'm not grateful for a 2nd place woman overall finish, though, particularly on a day on which my body had led me to abandon all expectations. I was happy simply to finish upright and not really any worse for wear than I'd been when I started - a place on the podium was an unexpected and flattering cherry on top!

Not bad for a dead chick!

Oh, and Savvas? He beat out another guy by less than a minute for 3rd place overall - so glad I kicked his butt a little to get him running again!

The really weird part is that I was way less sore than I'd have expected in the days afterward. I mean, I had a sore spot on the inside of my left leg at about mid-thigh, my hamstrings were super tight and stiff, and both ankles were a little tender, but there was no trouble walking up and down stairs or post-race penguin waddling. The fatigue was crushing for a couple of days - who knew pushing an already-exhausted body through 6 hours of chilly activity could wear you out? - but even that has faded fairly quickly, and by Wednesday I was running again. I suspect hormones and bad timing had something to do with all this, and either the lack of soreness was due to being unable to push hard during the race itself, or maybe some increased resilience from the pounding my legs took at Falling Water the month before.

Either way, it's now officially my off-season! For a little bit, anyway - not only is the 100 runs in 100 days starting a month early this year, I've also signed up for something really stupid in early December. So, shot myself in the foot for a nice recovery month in November, but I'm still taking it easy for a bit.

And hoping to spend some fun time with this guy right here.

Now to take full advantage of that extra hour of sleep on Saturday night..