Oh well, to be honest, this was kinda expected. The weak couple of months of training coupled with the unknown of running through the night and running 100k+ proved to do me in, along with some other issues. The run started off well. Brian Kistner and I ran conservatively down the Shut-In Trail in 3:55, and this section seemed to fly by. It was the ensuing 14 mile Asheville section that really got my mind into wanting to quite. I never really got tired all night, stayed well on my nutrition and hydration but my mind just kept telling me that it wanted to stop running. This was way too early for having these thoughts and I almost got them out of my head once the sun rose. But as soon as started thinking of going on, one mile from the Folk Art Center, I felt a weird pain in my achilles. This was the nail in the coffin. I don't think that I really injured it, but instead bruised it. Time will tell with future runs, but so far so good on it healing. After the DNF, I took a 5 hour nap, picked up some pizzas and drove up to Mitchell to welcome in the finishes of this craziness. Below are some lessons I learned from my first Pitchell experience that I will take into next year.
Lessons learned:
- I kinda like running at night
- $20 dollar walmart headlamps work very well
- Stop eating gels, because they make me nauseous (except espresso gels occasionally)
- Train more leading up to the date of Pitchell (may mean running it in the Spring)
- Downhill training is more valuable than uphill at this run (surprisingly)
- I love the Pisgah Nation crew! (nothing new)
Congratulations to Sultan, Matt, Mad A, Kevin, Tim, Wendy, Dennis, Mark, and Dave for finishing this beast of a run!
Hey man, valiant effort. Thanks for the pizza! I predict it will take you fewer attempts before you finish than me... Peace.
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