It's been 2 weeks now and I am still struggling with putting the final words on this experience so I'm just going to ramble a little bit while I have some free time on my hands.
First of all I would like to say thanks to Rick and Jennifer McNulty , their family and all the volunteers. An awful lot of hard work goes into putting on an event like this. I imagine their were a lot of runners that got more sleep than the McNultys did.
I would love to be able to tell all about what an almost spiritual experience this was or how I had these epiphanies on the meaning of life. How I left a big part of myself out there or how I had to dig deep into myself and discover things I had hidden inside to push myself on. But even if I had the writing skills to do it I couldn't because none of it happened.
No, I am very happy to say that as long as I was out there, I never really entertained the thought of not continuing, even when I was so sick of the rain and even when my feet were killing me. I had come with a purpose and a challenging goal and for those long 72 hours I was able to keep my focus on what I came to do. Yeah, there were a few rough patches but I kept a positive attitude and kept moving. I have had quite a few races over the years that I have given up mentally as well as physically. There have been many times I have questioned why I was continuing to put myself through an ordeal and many times in distances from 50K to 100 miles made up my mind to never do another one. That did not happen here. I don't know if it is just that I was well trained for this or I did a great job of listening to my body and had a well thought out plan for success and was able to roll with the punches and adapt that plan as needed. Whatever the case, things just went amazingly well for me to be able to still be knocking off some fast laps in the final hours.
As I said in the reports there was really not a lot of self-exploration or deep thoughts going on. I was so focused on the goal that I was able to keep count of all 211 laps and I was constantly going through the numbers of how much time I had left, what pace I needed to maintain, how long I could allow for a rest break, etc and that really didn't leave much time for wondering in my mind. The one thing I did allow myself to think about was one of the main things that helped with my motivation and that was of my many family, friends, followers and of course the Angels that were out there supporting me. I really looked forward to reaching a milestone or something special that I wanted to share with the FB updates and text. I couldn't allow myself much time to see the likes and comments on FB but I was aware of them and when I would check and see a text checking on me from one of the Angels it would bring a smile to my heart. Thank all of you that cared enough about me to follow along. It was huge in helping me to perform as well as I did knowing you were out there thinking of me and pulling for me.
I do wish I could have spent more time talking to some of the other runners but it is really a hard thing to do when you have a tough, tight scheduled goal. I had to keep my own pace and it was just very rare that anyone was around that was moving at the same pace or wasn't running when I was walking or vice versa. There were some really cool people out there.
I have to say that I was a bit surprised and almost amazed at how little soreness I had and how well the recovery has gone. I was pretty much walking normally the day after once I got moving other than the very painful blister. By Tuesday that pain was nearly gone and I was walking normally with practically zero soreness I allowed myself another day for the swelling to go down and was running my normal easy pace by Thursday and ran everyday for 8 days straight afterwards with some strong fast miles mixed into some of those.
One thing that took a little longer was getting over the sleepiness ! I was sleeping my normal routine all week afterward but by mid afternoon everyday for the first week I was groggy and all I wanted to do was take a nap which I couldn't do . I was glad that was finally over. And eating ! That was a good thing. All I could think of beside sleeping was eating. Lots ! And I did !
So, is there another 3 day or other multi-day in the future plans? The first few days I was thinking no way of course. My feet hurt and I knew I had put myself through quite a beating. And I had achieved my goal so really what would be the point? Well, there would be none other than if I just ever have the desire to do another one and I can't answer that question now. I don't see anything anytime in the near future but who knows what another year or two or three may bring.
So thanks for reading and your support. Stay tuned and find out what I do have planned coming soon !
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