latest endurance endevour

Run Around The World Ultra Marathon (for Run 4 Water charity/awareness). Sept. 27, 2014. Lebanon, TN.
I earned the Women's Master's award for the event.
 I logged 34 miles.

In terms of time/distance this was my slowest/least amount ultra ever, but whatever--I was out there, and I did what I could.

I really haven't been in "racing shape" for any of the 4 events I've done since January; my health/fitness level has been on a downward slide for the last 12 months (ok,  let's not ignore the elephant in the room and go ahead and mention the 50 lbs I've gained over that time.), and I hadn't even done any distance of more than 4 miles at a shot since early June. You could say, I did this event with a background of previous ulrtamarathons, but completely untrained. I'm not proud of that, but am proud of myself for getting back out there to see what was possible.

Going into the event, I did have the "goal" of going over a 50K/31 mile distance-- which I accomplished.
I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep moving non-stop for 24 hours, so I also had the goal of perseverance. I'd rest as needed, but get back up to go walk again. While I rested more than I would have liked, and slept a few hours here and there during the overnight portion, I did not give in to stopping and quitting for good. Think there were only a couple hours out of the 24 when I didn't at least walk something.

Quickest walking pace was 16:00 minute miles for a while early on, but I  know there were some 30:00 slow slogs out there as well later on.  Like I said, lots of resting; after about the first 12 miles or so, the pattern became to walk 1-3 miles between rest breaks. Guess it took me about 14 hours to finish marathon distance? (yikes, which means an average of less than a mile an hour for those last 8 miles, but  it is what it is.) I tried to keep my rest breaks reasonable, but did take one afternoon nap of about an hour, and as evening came the resting got more frequent and I did sleep some of the night away, maybe about 5 hours or so, broken up into 3 naps.  Blah, quit crunching the numbers, we all know my pace sucked but my spirit was in the right place.

NO blisters! NO hip pain!
Muscle/body aches came and went. Some calf tightness. A couple bouts of lightheadedness and mild nausea--mostly during the hot afternoon hours when the temperature was in the mid to upper 80's. Worst was just my continually achy feet and growing fatigue. Oh, yeah, and the fact that my fat fingers swole up and I couldn't get my wedding rings off!

Think I could use a new pair of shoes though. I swapped back and forth between a pair of Newtons and Hokas, both of which are about two years old and already had quite a few miles on them. The upper still look decent, so I can keep them for daily knock around shoes, but he soles look much the worse for wear/for training now.

Great people.  Joseph Nance and his wife Bethany did a wonderful job organizing things and kept it all running smoothly. (and there was a lot to keep organized--24, 12, and 6 hour divisions; as well as set distances for 4, 14, and 27 miles) The chip timing worked well, and they kept up with updating the stats on the leader board. (And BIG kudos for making it such a family friendsly event!)  Bethany also did a good job with the aid station; the spread was sufficient and the sevice freindly. However, I think next year, I may volunteer to make a couple crockpots of warm  "real"  food for the overnight runners (some potato soup or something),  There were a bunch of youth volunteers buzzing around all day; I got a kick that they would call me out by name. And, of course, my own "Great people", my husband B was there and taking good care of me. :)

I think I was a bit of the token Old, Fat, Slow Lady Walker out there, but that's okay. :)

Got to walk a bit with my friend Terri, who went on to capture the women's 24 hour first place- for the second year in a row!- with 52 miles.  Really enjoyed the couple nighttime miles I did with her and Diane.  (Yes, Diane, I'll go ahead and register for the 50K at the Pistol run in Knoxvillle in January--if all goes well with training between now and then, I might even bump up to the 100K distance) With my walking slower pace, mostly I was walking alone--but exchanged brief words whenever other runners would pass.  Got a lot of encouragment that way! And it means a lot when the folks taking time to shout out a "Looking good" or "Keep it up" comment include the front runners in the race as well as friends! Given the figure 8 course, there were places where you'd also see other participants coming back facing you, so didn't really feel alone. Another inspiring boost was seeing all the groups of school kids come in during the day to finish up their "Marathon in a Month" program!

Also, my daughter and her family came over in the early evening to visit and walk a couple laps with me. :) That did a lot for me. I really enjoyed having them there (though I did use it as an excuse for more visiting than walking those hours). My three year old grandson Desmond made a full two miles. lol-- actually, I think, Lennon (at 3 months old) did 3 miles -two carried by Hannah and one by Ken. Desmond had a blast-- doing his "race" walking with grandmama; drawing with markers on the reverse side of the leader board, getting snacks from the aid station, picking up a collection of glo-sticks, watching the Lego Movie on the inflatable video screen; flirting with several of the girl runners...



Lol...good sentiment, but (as much as I tried not to be Cranky Runner Girl) I couldn't manage it during the race event!