De Feet! (Pt1)

I only made it 23 hours and 76.1 miles.
I learned a ton during the experience.

My first pair of socks were fairly new. I’d worn them a few times before with no problem. Still, everything else I wore was so tried-and-true for months or years that I have to suspect the socks are what started a blister on my right foot. At mile 8, I took these outer socks off and put on some older socks that I’ve run probably 1000 miles in. It was too late.

The morning was the best part. The park was empty, I dodged the sprinklers while listing to my iPod and watched the sunrise.

I changed my shirts shoes and hats periodically throughout the day.

A volleyball tournament went on all day. I took a break and sauntered through the festival. A stand was set up for a new drink named Mix1. A Boulder physician invented it for athletes. They gave me a free bottle. It’s quite good. It’s like Odwalla but better.

I also visited two garage sales but didn’t see anything worth buying.

Biggest thanks to Talon. He brought me three slices of pizza. By lunchtime, I’d finished about 50K. It took a couple of hours to digest two slices, and two more hours to eat the last slice. I’d also brought Tostitos Lime chips, Doritos Salsa Verde, Twizzlers, Skittles, Muscle Milk, and jerky. Not a single gelpak and I didn’t miss them.

I brought about 2.25 gallons of water. I drank all of it and had to get more than a gallon more from the fountains. That’s another reason I decided to do this at Washington Park. They had tons of porta-potties, a cinderblock restroom, and two fountains.

Since it took me until 4:30 to finish the pizza, and my stomach was getting queasy, I told Caroline she didn’t need to bring me dinner. I had planned on a Chipotle burrito. What was I thinking? That’s way too much. I could’ve eaten two bites, but that’s about all.
Instead, I drank Muscle Milk. That hit the spot. No hint of stomach problems from that.

It got hot. I never saw so many runners running/walking/running/walking. I faired much better than them because had hydration systems.

I finally stopped at about mile 64 and took off both pairs of socks. I had three blisters. One was a huge bag of juice. the other two were deep down underneath the callouses.

My legs got pretty dirty. For some reason, my legs looked much dirtier with the naked eye than this photo indicates (one leg cleaned and one dirty).

In spite of me changing my shirts, hats, and shoes often throughout the day, some people still recognized me and started to point and make comments. As I passed one couple for the umpteenth time, the guy commented, “There’s one person who didn’t want to sit around the house today.” Other comments, “How many times is he going to go around?” “Look. Is that the same guy?” Some people bordered on being rude. There’s this one guy who’s short and in good shape, but every time he's seen me in the past, he looks at me like I’m some sort of oddity. But Saturday, he looked down-right horrified when he looked at me. I started to feel like a circus freak.

Since this blog is about my preparation for the Leadville Trail 100, I obviously mention all my ultra running races and training. But in regular life, I’ve learned not to mention it. I used to be proud of it, but not this year. I’ve learned to keep it to myself. It freaks people out. If you say, “I’m training for a marathon,” people react by saying, “Wow. That’s awesome!” But when you think of marathons as little training runs, and you think of 50’s and 100’s the way most people think of marathons, you step beyond what people admire. You become a freak. Everyone wants to see the humpback midget with two heads, but no one wants that kind of creature in their lives as a friend or other. So I like to keep it quiet. “I run a lot.” I prefer to leave it at that.
I once met a woman I was interested in. My friend, sensing that I was attracted to her and wanting to “help” me out, blurted out that I run marathons all the time and was training for the Leadville 100. Gee, thanks for shooting me down. That ended that.