I traveled to Idaho to run a newer race, Pickled Feet. It is a fixed-time race but they also have a 100-mile division. The fixed time divisions are 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, and 48 hours. I ran the 48 hours. My goal was to reach 150 miles. I knew that would be tough because I really haven't trained very hard for the past three months due to the stress facture. I'm also 10 pounds over my race weight. But I gave it a good try. There were only 15 starters in the 48 hour but there was good competition. I hoped for a podium finish.
Things went well. The course was a 2.5 mostly dirt road smooth surface, pretty flat. Not as fast as Across the Years, much slower because of the surface and small hills, but it still was pretty fast. The weather was cool with some rain, at times pouring. Things got muddy for a couple of the hours.
I settled into 2nd place right from mile 2 and never retook 1st place. Jayk Reynolds was solid and held on to it. He was always worried about me and kept checking the standings, but I knew I couldn't catch him if he didn't crash. I just wasn't in good enough condition to put up huge miles.
But I did compete very well with two other runners, David and Sam. I reached 50 miles in 10:31, so that was pretty slow, but I was steady. Jayk reached that point in 9:15 which is closer to what I should have done. I reached 100 miles in 24:37, not fast, but not bad. At mile 105 I was so thrashed and in pain that I had to stop and rest in my car. I had it all set up for sleep and it was nice an comfy. But sleep never came. As I interacted with Facebook friends, I learned that while resting I lost my 2nd place lead and would soon be in 4th place, so I pushed myself back out after about 1:45 rest.
I eventually regained 2nd place and with nine hours to go had a 10-15 mile lead over David and Sam. But David had the ability to kick it into marathon speed and he did. I had 15 miles on him at the 150 mile mark but my bad leg was in pain and I was limping slowly along. I did the math and realized he would catch me. So, I groaned and also kicked it in gear and started to fly. For ten miles, I ran just as fast as I did near the beginning of the race. But at mile 160, I noticed my leg swelling, and I knew I had to quit with two hours to go. I told David that I was stopping at 160 and knew he would catch me and he eventually did. I did beat Sam by 10 miles so I got my podium finish. I was pleased but it still eats me that David beat me by 2 miles. If I would have kept racing, we both would have ended up near 170 miles and I would have held him off. But I was really beat up and stopping was good. For the last hour, they open up a tiny loop for you instead of the long 2.5 mile loop. I walked another mile to finish with 161.14.
During the race I spent a total of about 4 hours resting in my car, but I never did fall asleep. The rest did work great because after each rest, I could again run pretty fast. I went a total of 62 hours without any sleep. Ouch!
It was a great event. I'll be back.
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