Haven’t quite recovered from St Helens yet. When I finished I thought to myself: that was the toughest 50 miler I’ve ever done…It was only 30. Not only is going solo just more time consuming, but it takes the mental toughness up a notch…or 10. It’s difficult to overstate how good it feels to run into an aid station and be pampered by volunteers during a supported race.

I didn’t mention in my last post that I never listened to music the entire time – I had my shuffle in my pack, but never took it out. There was never a time when I felt relaxed enough to want to listen to music.  Situational awareness and mental focus was dialed to 11 the entire time.  Running like something is chasing you is how I would describe it, constantly watching the clock, checking the weather, assessing nutrition, hydration, feet… not much time to let the guard down.

Super-disappointed that my watch failed – again. In the 3 big races that I did this season, plus a few long runs and this past long run – it fails. It either freezes and needs to be rebooted, or doesn’t accurately record data. I’ve been through 3 Garmin devices and the quality has all been terrible. This one was the Garmin Fenix 2. My theory is that during races there is interference between other runners/devices and that causes the signaling problem. If that’s the case though, I wonder how Garmin devices work for cyclists in a peloton? Hmmm… I pre-ordered a Suunto Ambit3 through REI and returned the Fenix 2.  I have fairly minimal requirements – namely that it doesn’t crash or lose data.  I’ll be without a watch – or just using my iPhone for the next couple of weeks – I ran Friday and immediately missed looking down at pace/HR/time.  It would have been liberating if I didn’t have my phone shoved into the front key pocket of my shorts. It was an easy run, but I was waiting for it to launch onto the pavement and shatter.  And it was a little uncomfortable.

Finally – it was tough working around the house all weekend, then leaving Sunday to run all day Monday, then straight to work on Tuesday – Friday. Not sure if I’ll repeat that again without another day off for recovery cushion. Waa waa waa… I’m a delicate snowflake.