I woke up this morning at oh dark hundred to turn on the light for the chickens and had to walk through 3 inches of slush with a nice crust of ice on top and sodden muck below. The temp was hovering around 32F and I just couldn't bring myself to go out and run a 10 mile trail race. I just couldn't. Wimp!
I did go over - it was only 7 or 8 miles from my house - to cheer in the folks tough enough to actually finish it, and was glad I did. Truly inspiring! My lord, those runners were covered in mud up to their chests and at least one out of 5 were bleeding to some extent. I think the winner finished in just about 60 minutes and the top 15 were inside 1:10. Of that top 15, 5 or 6 were in my AG (50-60) and one was over that! I could have done it in my VFF's which would have served at least as well as any of the conventional shoes I saw. Everyone was soaked within 200 yards of the start and I heard of one guy whose shoe was eaten 1/4 mile into the race. It just disappeared and got eaten by a mud pit! The organizers said that they rerouted the course to bypass the big water hazards, but runners told me they still were up to their thighs more than once and some MUCH deeper if they were unfortunate enough to choose a wrong path through one of the remaining water courses. Yikes!
Next year, then, for me and maybe I'll toughen up some twixt now and then.
I did go over - it was only 7 or 8 miles from my house - to cheer in the folks tough enough to actually finish it, and was glad I did. Truly inspiring! My lord, those runners were covered in mud up to their chests and at least one out of 5 were bleeding to some extent. I think the winner finished in just about 60 minutes and the top 15 were inside 1:10. Of that top 15, 5 or 6 were in my AG (50-60) and one was over that! I could have done it in my VFF's which would have served at least as well as any of the conventional shoes I saw. Everyone was soaked within 200 yards of the start and I heard of one guy whose shoe was eaten 1/4 mile into the race. It just disappeared and got eaten by a mud pit! The organizers said that they rerouted the course to bypass the big water hazards, but runners told me they still were up to their thighs more than once and some MUCH deeper if they were unfortunate enough to choose a wrong path through one of the remaining water courses. Yikes!
Next year, then, for me and maybe I'll toughen up some twixt now and then.
