this was definitely my most taxing run so far. not so much mentally and physically, but because of pain. from about mile 5 onwards my legs began to actu up. pain on both sides of the knees, pain in the hip flexors. later pain in the quads and calfs. luckily it was just that - pain. nothing failed, which lets me hope that i'll be ok for the IM run.
what was really annoying was that i limited my ability to go downhill fast, out of caution. i kept passing the same 3 people on the uphill and then they flew by me on the downhills. all of them ended up beating me. oh well.

at about mile 7 our group got attacked by a swarm of angry yellowjackets. i fared rather well with only 2 full fleged stings and 2 half-assed ones sustained, but it hurt enough. they guy who got the worst of it got stung at least 7 times, the poor bastard!
to top that off, when we reached the point of the first aids station we learned that due to a gate the ranger had forgotten to unlock we'd have to go another 2 miles and then back if we wanted water and food. us 50k-ers weren't so bad off because all of us carried at least 20oz, but a lot of the 20k people didn't - lesson learned, i hope. i don't think too many chose to run the extra 4 miles. i'll see when the official results are posted.

i learned my lesson, too: pain and exhaustion take different mental muscles to fight.

eat a bit more, i.e. pack a few more gummi bears and cookies at the aids stations to eat while running. just to make sure. i didn't think i was running out of juice, but i might have on a longer run. hard to tell.

go out easier at the beginning. during the first loop, all the participants for the 20k, 30k and 50k share the same narrow trail. it's hard mentally to be happy to be stuck behind a bunch of very slow people. passing takes a lot of energy and concentration, and there's not much to spare.

chili, chicken soup and chewing the fat with fellow runners who either waited for partners or just hung out. a lot of them are 'real' ultrarunners who do these shorter ones in preparation for 50 miles or 100 miles. there's a lot to be learned from them.


i couldn't tell if i could afford to go downhill faster. i sure didn't want to pop anything. now i think the pain was mostly due to overtaxed muscles, but i don't regret my decision not to push it.


i'm getting to know Sarah and Wendell better. Martina volunteered to hand out and sell tshirts, caps, socks etc while she waited for me after she finished her 20k.
i like the trai running atmosphere better and better!