The G Running Diary

Javelina: It's all about the Feet: 11/19/04

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So far, we were doing fine on pace. We had taken the first loop slowly and still managed to finish it in 3:45. Using simple math, if you ran each 15-mile loop in 4 hours, you would be at 91 miles in 24 hours (4*6=24). That would leave 6 hours to do the last 9 miles. How hard is that? But simple math doesn't always apply. Still, I felt it was a good thing to keep in mind during the first 4 loops. It would stop you from going to fast, and stop you worrying about going too slow. Four-hour splits were easy enough to calculate in your head, so you'd be able to figure how far off you were from a reasonable guideline. I reminded people of these numbers whenever I could.

By the end of the third loop, we were in the dark. It was about 12 and a half hours after we had started. Things seemed ok. Lucinda had concerns, but was still moving along. I was a little worried about my feet, and considered a shoe change, but then I decided to wait. It was still fun to joke around with people at the start/finish aid station. Don's technique was to hurry Lucinda through by running ahead to let people know what she needed. He was also hurrying me along by picking up what we needed from the drop bag. Still, if I wanted to go to the bathroom, he couldn't do that for me.

The fourth and fifth loops were slow. The fifth and sixth were the hardest, I think. During the fourth loop, we were still in the early part of the night. It was fun getting to the aid stations and having soup, as a change from the daytime food. I was still able to laugh about previous races when I'd had nighttime trouble. By the end of this loop, I convinced myself that I definitely needed a shoe change. I had my favorite road shoes as my alternate pair. I told Don so that he and Lucinda wouldn't wait for me. I was sure it would be no problem to catch up.

So I sat on the ground to change shoes and socks, and tried not to look at what was happening with my toes. Sarah watched for a little bit, and then was (gladly I think) called away by someone. The toes were not pretty, but they didn't really hurt. I just felt like the shoes I was wearing were too stiff. As I muttered to myself about ugly toes, I looked up to see Paul Bonnet saying "Hey girl," to me. He turns up when I least expect it. It was close to midnight. So we chatted away and I ignored my feet. Fresh socks and shoes felt much better, and I was off, laughing. It felt good to run a little faster than I had been, but as I started to do math I realized it would take a while to catch up. I was 15 minutes behind them. As I went through the aid stations, I started to wonder how fast Don was making Lucinda go. It seemed like it must be fast, because I was moving along without stopping (except to pee, and actually, that was kind of a lot), so they must have been moving about the same pace. At the end of this loop, it was after 4:00 am. I saw some of my regular hallucinations at the beginning of that loop, but decided I really didn't have time for it. So the mice and hobgoblins had to go away. I finally caught them toward the end of the loop. I was tired! And I was starting to worry. Lucinda might not make it. But did I even have enough time to make it? What made me think that I could help someone finish, when I'd struggled with my own finish last year? Sure Don could do it, but now I thought I was just being silly. I had DNFed 6 100 milers. At the start/finish again, Don was giving Lucinda orders, and she was still following them. Barry thought it was funny that she wouldn't listen to what he said, but she would listen to Don.