SRL came through 40 and hour and a half ago.  I am hearing that the course is muddy and slow.

A pic of the course from someone who is there. 

Criminy.  Maas is participating the hell out of the event.  11th place at mile 80.

Sadly, srl dropped at mile 60. After running 20+ miles on a strained/possibly broken foot bone (sesamoid). Way to give it a go Robert! I hope it's a quick recovery.

Damn.  I hope it is not that serious.

So, the funny part.  When you wrote that I had passed 40 miles "an hour and a half ago", actually... after 40 miles, I spent an hour in the med tent. Then I went back out.  So I was really only 30 minutes into my third loop, which was barely even 2 miles. 

Event started in a big-time Texas thunderstorm.  The lightning and loud thunder were pretty cool. The wall-o-water rain, not so much.  The trails were immediately nasty.  Luckily, this would stop about 3 hours into the run.  Some stuff dried out, some got nastier.  Some of the mud was super slippery.  Lots of post-holing in ankle deep mud.

My first 20 miles went according to plan.  I wanted to run 4:20 loops (1 loop= 20 miles) during the day... I actually ran 4:05. A little fast, but I was eating lots and feeling good.

About halfway through the second loop, I started having really bizarre (to me) ball-of-the-foot pain.  I tried to shake it off... kept the same pace.  What I did not consciously realize was that I was compensating by landing a lot more on my heel than my midfoot. By M36, it was severe.  I would shuffle about a quarter mile and then stop and cry.  Then I was walking and stopping.  Then mostly crying.  I finished that loop sometime around 8:35... so 4:30 for the loop.

They took me to the med tent where the doctor decided to ice my foot.  Now, I've done ice before... but not like this.  Anyway, it was super painful until it numbed out.  But the side-effect was that it super-chilled me in my wet clothes and I got all white and pasty and hypothermic.

Fast forward... an hour later I was all warmed up.  The doctor decided that I had a strained/sprained/bruised sesamoid bone (or two).  Probably not broken, but headed that way perhaps.  Meanwhile, compensating with my heel also led to a massively inflammed/swollen plantar fascia and a bruised heel.

Did I drop?  I wanted to. I was 40 miles in and had also had an hour cool-down in the tent.  But I decided to try different shoes.  I put them on, and some dry clothes... tested it out, felt so-so... and off I went.  Around 9:35 on the clock.  Ugh.

That third loop was something.  I fell on my face a mile into it.  Again at two miles.  I saw my friends at the aid station... they convinced me to continue.

Off I went.  Running.  Then shuffling.  Then walking.  It got dark. Lots of walking.  I hung out at Dam Nation with Lynn for a few minutes and about 10 cheese quesadillas. More shuffling. And walking. At some point, a very large tree had fallen over the trail (side note: I didn't see it fall. In fact, when I came across it, I was like "wait, did this happen during the race? Have I hoped over the tree before??").  Luckily nobody got hurt.  More walking.  In the new shoes (and after aleve and lots of hot food), my foot did not hurt quite as much in the third loop... but the pain was building again, which is why I was slowing.

I finished my third loop (60 miles) at 15:13 on the clock.  Ugh.  I had wanted to be here at 13 hours.  Coming in to the aid station, I was moving at a brisk 18 minute/mile pace... and slowing. The pain was building.

I handed in my chip after lots of yelling by my friends not to do that... to sit down and "consider".  Yeah, I had just spent almost six hours on that loop considering.  I was slowing, it really hurt, and I had been told I might break it.  The math told me that if I walked, I could probably beat the cut-off and finish at 27-28 hours.  But the last 10 miles of shuffle walking had been painful.  40 more miles? No.

Pass.  (or Fail, depending on the word you want)

Do I regret stopping?

Oh hell yes.

Hurts a lot today.

Shoot Stevie Ray - 40 more miles to go when you're injured and in that kind of pain?  And it's not like you're a novice at this.  You made the right choice.  There will be other races, and likely to be sooner than they otherwise would have been if you had kept going and damaged your foot even further.

 

 

Do I regret stopping?

 

Oh hell yes.

 

I'm sorry.  And I wish that you wouldn't regret the decision.  This weekend wasn't meant to be.  Maybe you could have walked in for 40 miles, but what kind of a race would that have been?  It would have been a terrible experience and you would have been left with a terrible memory.  If you decide this is something you want to go after, there are plenty of 100's out there.  While you might not end up having a great experience (it is a 100 after all), it sure beats walking half the race and possibly injuring yourself further.

Besides, isn't this a new farthest distance for you?  That's something.  (Plus I bet you got to get nice and muddy.  Good times.)

WG, regarding distance... sort of.  As a pacer (including extra miles trying to find my runner), I managed 65ish at Keys.  But for me during a race of my own, yes, 60 is the farthest/furthest.  So that will be cool for Miwok.

4 of us traveled together from Seattle to run Rocky.  The person I normally pace dropped at 40.  I dropped at 60.  Another friend dropped at 86 (at Dam Nation... and had to wait until Bonkin (thanks!) gave her a ride).  One friend finished, and although he managed to go sub-24, he was trying for sub-20 and finished at 23:41.  But he DID finish.

Makes Hal, Karl, and Oswaldo's times so much more impressive to me.  Those were some sloppy damn trails.

My foot is a bit better, but not right.  The further/farther I am removed from my decision, the dumber it seems.  Weird how that mental bargaining process works.