Afton - the outcome

Well, the plan was good, the day was beautiful, Afton was gorgeous but if it was a contest between me and Afton, Afton won easily.

It was a delight to run around in Afton, the trails weren't too crowded, no bug issues, some shade, some sun, some animal life (deer), no stomach issues, all in all an enjoyable day besides what else I might say in this report

The one thing I did do that I haven't done all year was trip and take the nose dive. It was funny as it was on the bluffs which are fairly flat about 2 miles into the run. I looked ahead at a puddle and then next thing I knew my bottles were flying and I was going down. I had tripped on a root, all of an 1 inch or so high. At the time, I thought I hope this isn't a precursor for the day and the good news was I didn't wipe out again.

When I say the day was beautiful it was except it got up to the mid 70's which I haven't run in for about a year. So it was warm, although I did sweat a bit I have walked away with no heat related issues. I went through 5 bottles (1/2 liter - 16.9 oz) of my electrolyte in 4 hours, two sport beans and 4 endurolyte tablets. I did get a few strange looks as I hobbled by some folks I think because of how wet I looked (was).

Did I say hobble, well in yesterday's post I mentioned two things I planned on doing, the first was take it easy in Afton, the second was don't pound the knees. The two went together and initially I tried to go easy on the downhills and to walk or take my time on the uphills. It all went well until I got to Nigel's hill, I just couldn't help myself and I ran down fairly quickly which a mile or so later, I concluded must've been hard. As that was when my knee pain got to be a bit more than bothersome. My left knee followed it's normal pattern, ok for the first 3 or 4 miles, then some pain then more, put on a strap and it did help. After Nigel hill, I ended up switching my straps as the pain wasn't going away. That helped but I could tell my body was trying to tell me to back off. I decided to listen and aborted the run a 1/2 hour or so early. I had wanted to get a 4-5 hour run in and I ended up stopping just short of 4 hours.

As to mileage, I was trying to run the 25k course plus 5 to 10 but I wandered off course a few times early and a lot later on but I think I probably got in around 17.

So did I learn what I kind of pace/time goal I would shoot for at the 50k in Afton? No, I did not. I walked away thinking of how out of shape I am and am now concerned can I even do Afton in under 8? I think it depends on the knees and the heat. If I get through Marathon 2 Marathon without anything worse happening and use ice a bit more, I should be able to take a crack at Afton. So the plan is run M2M and then see, which pretty much was the plan before Afton.

I walk away with a renewed respect for the hills in Afton and will need to get healthy to make the race in July more enjoyable. The thing I need to remember is that my goal for the year is to get back in running shape and to lose weight. I can't get ahead of myself and worry about time until the weight is reduced.

So today Afton won, on July 5th I expect Afton will probably get me again but I will give it my best shot after all I only need to beat my Chippewa time to get a PR for 50k which means if I make the cut-off I will PR for the distance.