Virginia 24-Hour Run for Cancer

I did 90 miles in 22:30.

Ran the whole way with Suzanne Weightman from Pennsylvania, who went on to set a women's record of 95.75. Fun hanging with her. She finished with the guys' winner, who did 113.75, his first time past SIXTY-EIGHT!

Ran strong but had a bad stomach all night and ran out of gas. I didn't take close to enough choices for aid. I need chicken soup and coffee at night. I had two impressive pukes near the end there. Could have kept walking, but didn't really see the point with my tummy in such disarray. Was never reduced to just walking, but the sour gut eroded and eventually erased my willpower.

OK, here's something of interest: I had a bowl of Spaghettio's (Sue had a camp stove), then did a lap. Drank some Ensure to start the next lap, then halfway through have an amazing power yak ... of ONLY Ensure. Not sure how that was possible, but seeing was, in this case at least, believing.

Course: All OK gravel road with about .75 mile of root-infested trail. You can do the trail at night without kicking roots if you go single file.

So the way George works it is this: There is a half-mile marker, so when you come to the end and don't think you can do an entire loop but still want some more miles, you just do out-and-backs. Nice feature, I think.

That was 4/21-22. Now it's May 1, I am completely recovered and I'm thinking, "Hmmmm. Next year I need to bring a cooler with green tea, V-8, Lunchables, Power Gel, Fritos ..."

Hope springs eternal. :-)

a new fave

Just read a great feature at xtri.com on Emilio De Soto (Cuban refugee, ex-pro triathlete, noted tri clothing company owner and all-around larger-than-life figure) that ended with the following exchange ...

If you came back in another life, what would you do?

I’d be trying to replicate this lifetime. I would go back and do it all again. I’m loving my life. I look in the mirror and say “Man, you’re gettin’ away with it!”

My sentiments exactly, dude.

27 hours is a looooooong day

It's amazing how much better you can feel on the eighth and final 12.5-mile lap of Umstead 100-Miler after a THREE-HOUR NAP. :-)

Synopsis: 27:14 finish. That's out in 10:45 for the first 50 miles and home in, well, I can't really count that high. Looks, however, can be most deceiving.

Out pretty fast. Temps in the low 80s, so gradually slowed down on purpose and tossed the sub-22 out the window. Retained the sub-24 until falling asleep RUNNING on Lap 7, so I plopped on a cot at an aid station and fully awakened three hours later. Got up, ambled the five miles back to the start/finish, then posted a 2:48 for my final 12.5-mile split, the fourth-fastest of the day. Dunno what happened to me energy-wise, but MAN did it hit hard when it hit. Prolly just didn't eat enough, I guess.

Ran the early laps with Fred Dummar, a great, REALLY funny guy who is Army Special Forces; ran laps 6 to 7.5 with these two crazy women who had an entourage so large that they had five different pacers for each of the final five laps. First ultra for both of them and their peeps. They toughed it out to finish just a bit behind me. Very impressive show of grit.

Good news: No stomach maladies. Drank plenty. Prolly could have sucked it up and gotten off that cot 2.5 hours earlier, but didn't really see the point in it at the time. It's Thursday now, and I haven't felt the need to do anything more than 20- to 25-minute runs so far. :)

So that's Finish No. 8 at Umstead. Yeah, I'm officially one of the old farts now. Made some new pals. Felt strong at the finish. Fun day-plus.