Life after 50, miles that is...

Well, since the 50 miler several things have happened. I did not want to run whatsoever after the race and I think I ate all I wanted for the next week. Then two weeks later I did something dumb. I tried to run the Roanoke Half Marathon at an all out pace. Roughly 7:30 per mile. I was pacing my friend Lee so he could get in NYC Marathon. It worked well for me till about mile 7 and then the bottom dropped out. It was hard to jog and even hard to walk. I was wearing my shirt from the 50 miler and some folks were looking at me like what's this guy's deal? He's wearing a 50 miler shirt and he's walking at mile 10 of this race? Anyway it was another two weeks at least before I thought about running. Lee finished with a good qualifying time. All together I didn't run but about 10 times between early November and Christmas I think. Of course deer season became the priority in November and December.

Then after Christmas, I started to pick up running again. I was ready to get back at it. After all that time off, I feel really strong. In every run I do, I feel good and strong. I'm still not any faster. I lost weight up until Christmas and then when I started running, I started gaining weight back. (big sigh). I'm still where I was but that is frustrating. All the snow and cold in January has put a damper on my training but I am hoping it will lead to a slow start that builds into something good. I'm already signed up for the Terrapin Mountain 50k on March 27th. I've run one 20 miler and several 10 and under runs. I need to get back into the middle distances of 10-15 miles. I'm also looking forward to the Great Greenbrier River Race in late April. I hope to do it with my family.

I finished last year with about 1300 miles running, almost 1000 biking, and almost 10 swimming. As far as Ultras go, I hope to do Terrapin 50k in March. I will try to do one in the summer, either a 40 miler or 50 miler and then do Mountain Massochist again in November. After Massochist last year it wasn't if I was going to do it again but how many times. As always, my favorite thing though would be to get my kids involved in running somehow. I try to involve them but I have to be patient.