So I had just finished my 6 mile treadmill run on Friday morning and was walking my cool down period when I thought, "hey... the 100k doesn't start until midnight tonight, so I could help with the roofing of my house all day, go to church, and STILL go and do the run!"
Of course I wasn't really prepared. I had not really been running as of late; by this I mean my monthly mileage from March to the present was about 25 miles TOTAL. And I had not replaced the miles I was not running with anything else other than television watching and some very casual weight lifting. I was REALLY not prepared.
But I made the drive and gave it a go.
Starting at the finish, I stopped at 27.7 miles, which is approximately 44.7% of the 100k. 27.7 miles is what happens when one does a complete loop, plan on stopping, but then feel like one may as well do the easy first section to not look completely foolish. I think it was about 7:20a when I reached the start/finish aid station and dropped, but quite frankly I wasn't wearing a watch so it might have been 7:40a.
I felt pretty darn good when I stopped. My knees and hips were definitely sore at the time, and I hadn't cut my toenails so my toes were hurting a bit from jamming the front of my shoes.
So why did I stop?
1). I was woefully unprepared and felt that an untrained 27.7 miles from which I would hopefully recover quickly was better than pushing it too much and risking injury or too much extra time off recovering.
2). I knew I could still finish it or at least go quite a bit further just walking/minimal running, but quite honestly, didn't really feel like spending all day to finish.
I'm happy with my decision to go down and do the run and happy with my decision to stop when I did. 2 days later and I have no soreness. I was able to spend all day Saturday after the run and a 45 minute nap roofing the house and did about 5 miles of mountain biking last night.
I enjoyed the course and would definitely consider doing it again. It was a tough one. Anyone ever notice there aren't very many courses out there that DON'T include long tough ups and downs? Why isn't there a nice one with lots of rolling hills?
Hiraeth
3 days ago
4 comments:
It was nice to see you and sounds like you made the right choice... As I said, I was dead at 20 miles and it was a slow pace... I agree, rolling hills would be a welcome course... but I feel better the day after conquering the hard courses.
Surf the Murph is all rolling hills... compared to the others. It was great seeing you out there; all of the 100 milers were thinking how much it would suck to have to do the course without having seen it in daylight like the 100Kers did. Did you actually get to see the course?
Nice to see you out there, Diane. Now you know what to expect for next year! :)
Steve,
I really only saw the first 5.7 mile loop in the daylight. I arrived to the start/finish right around 6am and was able to leave without daylight broken and no headlamp needed. Never did see the big loop, though. I found it very interesting starting the run at midnight; in fact, I think I liked it.
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