Old Man Still running

Doing a severe taper.  Going to really take it easy this week to rest and heal up stuff. Just going to do enough to stay loose.  Race day weather looks perfect, cooler than normal, high at the lowest point of the course, 69, up on the ridges about 60.  Overnight low 48.  Great stuff.

Ready for Saturday.  I may go a little early to go watch the Celebrity Golf Tourney at South Lake Tahoe on Saturday to watch Barkley, Jimmer, etc try to golf. 

Hoka or not?  Leaning not, at least for the first loop to get over the fear of slipping and falling again.   Still some snow and wet places on the course.  The hardware in my hand cost $4,000, just the hardware, not the cost of installation.

Detailed report later. 

I don't think I have ever suffered more during a 100-mile race.  I experienced a terrible stomach bonk for at least 14 hours.  Not acid stomach, just terrible discomfort when I pushed the pace.  I've concluded it was altitude related.  When it was at its worse, my breathing was also out of control.  Probably low oxygen in the blood, drawing the blood away from my digestion.   When I was on the lower portions of the course near 6,000 feet I felt much better, but above 8000 feet, it would just kick in again.  At 3 a.m., at mile 80, I stopped for an hour to try to recover but then my body temp went down and I shiverred in a cot under the care of some very kind people.  I was very seriously thinking about quitting, but I knew that I was still probably about seven hours ahead of cutoffs, so I had plenty of time to recover if I still wanted a finish.

Eventually I pulled out of it, jogged up and down the stairs inside the ski lodge and concluded that I could continue on.  But after a huge climb up a ski slope, eventually the suffering came back.  At least I was running faster than the other runners around me.  

My only goal now was to finish sub-30, to get the silver buckle and my 500-mile (5-time) finishing belt.  I paced myself exactly fast enough to have a 15-30 minute buffer.   With my slower pace, a warmer morning, and some great pancakes, I felt much better with 10 miles to go.  I just enjoyed the morning and the amazing views of Lake Tahoe.

I crossed the finish line in my slowest time ever there, 29:45:51, four hours slower than normal.  I had been shooting for sub-24.  Not this year.   I was frustrated and disappointed because my legs were fresh but my body had experienced terrible stress.  But I was in good spirts at the finish as the RDs greeted me and made me feel like a hero as they presented me with my belt. 

Oh, I ran into a mother bear and her cub at mile 52 only 50 feet in front of me on the trail.  That really spooked me.  She took one look at me and ran away with amazing speed after her cub.