Post-Stonecat Thoughts

So, the inevitable:

~ I barely slept last night. Spent a lot of time laying in bed, tossing and turning and looking at the ceiling. Sigh.

~ Found a few spots of rather uncomfortable chafing - mainly under both arms where the shirt and pack rubbed my skin and along the edges of my back where the pack movement rubbed me a bit raw.

~ Have several bruises along my middle vertebrae. My assumption is that  it is from pack movement. Although I love my pack and wouldn't want to wear anything else while running long, and it fits well, it does move. I have it as tight as it will cinch but it's still a bit too big, or I'm a bit too small. Either way, over the course of 9+ hours, all that movement compounded into some rather uncomfortable bruising after the fact.

~ Got one nasty blister on one of my middle toes. I managed to accumulate a lot of debris in my shoes, and I think this one spot took the brunt of the debris. It's a bit painful.

~ My legs are sore, sore, sore. Could barely make it down the stairs this morning and am still hobbling around. Put on my polka dot compression socks and that is helping my calves but the quads, well, ouch!

~ I am just plain tired.

Since I posted my report last night in a fit of post-race spastic energy, I missed a few key things:

~ The first is that the GAC put on a great race. Things were very well organized, the aid stations were well stocked, the volunteers were great, the course was well-marked, with some of the nastier roots even marked with reflective tape so as to help the runners use caution in the dark. Thank you, GAC, for a fun race! I think it was a great race to run as a first 50. It was awesome to come through the start/finish a number of times and have good access to crew. I didn't find it too tough to run the four laps. It was easy to break down each lap into 3 parts, which helped, and every time I went around, the woods seemed to look different. It definitely worked for me.

~ Secondly, a big thank you to Irene and Dana for watching Sam for the day yesterday! I know she had a lot of fun, and it helped a lot to know that she was in good hands while I was out running all day!

~ And last but not least, many thanks to Ryan for supporting me through this whole venture. He encouraged my training, put up with my tiredness during the big weeks this summer and fall, and believed in me the whole way. I really appreciate his unwavering support, especially once he got injured in September and had to shelve his own running goals. I know it was tough on him to not be able to run, to have to miss his planned race for he fall, and to watch me run throughout. But he didn't complain (much ;) ), and was my biggest cheerleader yesterday. I am really glad he was able to run the last few miles with me! That was a great treat!

~ Results still aren't up, but I'll post when they are. In the meantime, I'm gingerly walking around, eating a lot, and am hoping to sleep well tonight! I'll be taking the week (and maybe more if I can handle it) off from running and will try to stay away from ultrasignup.com in the meantime :) Ha.

A few photos from yesterday:

Helping Grammie cut up cheese for the lasagna

Coloring with Grampie. (Note the crazy hair!)

Fun with legos!