A cold day in Hell

Okay, I stole that post title from Tim Looney's blog. It was witty so what the heck. Anyway, I hope that you are all had a good finish to 2007 and a good start to 2008. My little personal race on Sunday was a good time, although it represents my first DNF for an ultramarathon. Well, at least it would be a DNF if it were actually a race. I started my run at 7:30 leaving from the Silver Lake parking lot at Pinckney. The first loop of 18 miles went really smoothly, although it did give me a new appreciation for the spikes that my mother-in-law gave me a few days earlier. There was some very picturesque winter scenery; however, there was also a sheet of ice covering much of the trail. There were a few people out hiking and a couple of mountain bikers, but the trail was pretty peaceful and the snow added a pleasant softness to everything. I do miss running on trails. Unfortunately, my tendency to underestimates those Irish Hills continued and I began to feel the strain of the ups and downs by the second loop. On top of that, my ITB began to tighten up a little after 30 miles and as my walking increased and the idea of being well into the third loop after dark I decided to call it quits. Total miles covered: 36.

All in all, however, I'm not disappointed in my performance. I had no problems resupplying every 18 miles and stayed warm despite the winter weather. Injinji socks are awesome and well worth the praise that they have received in other reviews. Even with the irregular terrain, I didn't even have any hot spots. My little $10 headlamp I picked up at Dunhams worked great for the little that I used it in the morning and it has me looking forward to trying out some night running in 2008. If it weren't for the tension in my IT band, I think that I could have finished the run even if my time wouldn't have been great. Still, I think I made a good decision to stop since I had some trouble going up and down stairs for the next 24 hours. Two Advil and 48 hours later, however, I was nearly back to normal, which means my recovery time is where I would like it to be. I'm optimistic for a good 2008.

Hopefully I'll be there for the 2008 Hell Fat Ass. You can check out the results from the actual race here.