It seems there's been lots of "firsts" lately.   This would mark my first event not having my Mom to call afterwards.  She was always eager to hear what were almost always positive and sometimes jubilant reports on my runs.  When I first started doing the "longer" runs I think she thought I was a bit off, but as time went by I think she got it.  Over the past 4 years I've had Rick to think about and call on for strength during runs.  Now I'll have Mom and Dad as well.  While I'm on the subject of drawing strength I cannot discount the huge hug that Misty gave me on my way out the door Saturday morning.  Just the thought of her disappointment for me if I were to DNF is enough to keep me chugging along during a race!!

My days of being able to gut out a decent 50k on minmal training are over. Gone are the days of having an "automatic" top 3rd finish.  Due to way too much going on on Saturdays lately and too much emotional eating and beer drinking I ran the Rocky Raccoon 50k yesterday in 6:51 and finishing 76th of 87 finishers.  Time wise, this was my 3rd slowest 50k yet.  I'm going to count it as my slowest one though in regards to finish time/ effort.  I've run the Bandera 50k twice, my slowest being 6:53.  Almost anyone reading this blog will know that those nearly identical times don't come close to comparing when taking into account the difficulty of the Bandera course.  In Dec '04 I ran 6:55 on this course but that was truly a training run in lieu of the RR 100 mile that Feb.  On this run I gave it everything I had, I had nothing left at the end.

On the glass half full side, at the age of 51 I can go out and run 31 miles in under 7hrs on only 147 miles of running over a 2 month period.  Another positive is that I ran almost even spilts.  At the turn I came in around 3:15 and  left at the 3:24 mark.  I had been eating gels regularly, taking my electrolytes and eating at least a little bit at every aid station so I shouldn't have been out of gas but I was!

When I headed out for the 2nd 15.5 mile loop I surely thought I'd be finishing in 7:30.  I plugged and plugged on the 2nd loop and then with about 5 miles left I realized I had a good shot at breaking 7hrs and continued pushing.

For the near future Saturday mornings are going to be spent regaining my endurance.  I've got Sam's Run like the Wind 6hr coming in 4 weeks and the Rocky Raccoon 50 mile in 3 months and hopefully at least 2 other early spring events as well.

Oh, and I had Misty to call as soon as the race was over and reported to her that although I was slow I had the time of my life out on the trail again!!