Umstead 2012- A look back

It's been three weeks now since the race so I've had a lot of time to look back on it. Not much time for writing though due to a busy time at work. Although my time was a little disappointing to me, over all it was a really great weekend in so many ways. I think that one reason I can look back so positively is because m recovery has really been a bit amazing to me. By Monday after the race I was not feeling much more soreness than if I'd done a long training run and was walking around normally. By mid-afternoon I ran across the parking lot just to see if I was really feeling that good. Gave serious thought to going for a run after work but I decided to play it smart and rest a few days. i waited until Thursday and then went for a 4 miler and was almost shocked at how good I felt. No pain and my pace was about normal for my easy runs. A week later I put in a normal 45 mile week of training and followed that up this week with another 45 miles. Sweet !

Once again I must thank Blake and all the staff ad volunteers that make this race so special. It takes a tremendous amount of time and effort to put on an event like this and do it as well as they do. I'll be looking forward to once again being one of those volunteers for the next few years and maybe I'll give it another shot in 2016 or so. Other than my own race, it was a lot of fun keeping up with the training of quite a few local runners that were either going for their first 100 or giving it another shot after a dnf last year. Congratulations to Charles Akers, Jeff Sackoroff, Shannon Johnstone, Lauren Wilkins and Linda Banks as well as the 64 total first timers. Oh and no I am not forgetting one very special first timer, Amy Surrette. I think that watching Amy finish was more satisfying to me than my on effort out there. I had the pleasure of meeting Amy nearly four years ago, not long after she moved to Raleigh. At that time her longest race had been a half marathon and she was hoping to run her first full marathon that November. She asked to join with me and my Angels on our long training runs and soon we became friends. I decided that I would run the last portion of that race with her and it was there under tough conditions and under-trained that I saw she had something special about her spirit and tenacity. I guess I was a bad influence on her along with the other Angels as well as several others in the local community because a year later she was headed off to run her first 50k at Derby. Soon after she asked me if I thought she should do the Boogie as her first 50 miler and without hesitation I told her I had no doubt she could do it. Despite some who would doubt her, she not only finished but made it look easy. So when she said she wanted to do the Umstead 100 this year I was committed to giving her all the encouragement and advice I could as we continued to train together nearly every weekend as well as the occasional weekday run. Well, she once again proved her great spirit and determination in a gutsy performance that moved many to tears. Yep, I'm mighty proud of this young lady and so happy to have her as a training partner, friend and Angel. I'm linking to her report on her blog here

for your reading pleasure.