[Today’s run: 5 miles]
After arriving on Friday after for the 50-mile run the next day, we checked into our hotel, went for an early dinner than to the packet pickup. The race director told us the condition of the course which is in a wooded nature area SE of Laurel, MS.
On Saturday we were up with the crickets (2 AM), had some breakfast, sat a spell, then took off driving for the start/finish area arriving about 5 AM. At 6 AM, just as the sky was starting to get light, the runners were off.
I had a little nap in the car. Then I set up my ham radio, suspending the antenna wire between to tall pines, of which there were many, and sat on a blanket and did a bit of morse code. I had configured an alarm on my cell phone for 2-1/4 hours to remind me to be standing ready when the runner came around.
She did come around about 2:45 into the race, a bit slow but not terribly so. She was brisk in activity at our little aid station and then off and away again.
I set another alarm on the cell phone for 2-1/2 hours later. After about an hour, I was down near the camping area talking to some folks when her cell phone in my pocket started to ring. I answered and it was her! She said she was at the car and had been injured and dropped out of the race.
I walked directly back up to the car and found her talking to one of the neighboring spectators. We packed everything up and headed back to the hotel. Given her description, we were both afraid that she might have cracked the bone in her shin on an log that was in a water hole. She described having fallen 7 times during the first lap (12.x miles) and once more after starting on the second lap. Her shin pain started around mile 10, before I had seen her, and had gotten progressively worse until she couldn’t even walk right. So she made it to a water stop and called for a pick-up.
We spent most of the rest of the day at the hotel. Her leg got better once she was off it for a bit, but other bruises and marks from the falls started to show up. She is a bit beat-up but no long-term damage that I know of.
And the race has a policy of “down grade” where a person signing up for the 50 mile can stop at the 50 kilometer or at the 20 kilometer and get a finisher’s medal for those distances. Since she had done more than 20k, they gave her a 20k medal.
It was an interesting weekend. We stayed Saturday night then drove home from Laural on Sunday morning.
Back to work on Monday.