As my last race of this winter racing season approach this weekend, I have to admit to being a tad nervous.  It was a trail ultra and my last few ultras have not gone according to plan.

Those vision issues have been a concern and my eye doc and I have been working together, trying to get all the problems ironed out.

Yesterday morning I laced up my shoes for the MS50 Trail Run.  This was to be my 3rd time running this event.  I dearly love this race!!!

Just last weekend, I had run the Phoenix Marathon. Have to admit that was a hard earned 26.2 miles. I had fun running that race but I don’t expect that will be a repeat event for me.

I started getting sick around mile 14 at Phoenix and race day morning at the MS50, I was still running a temp and dealing with a terrible head cold.

To be honest, I was the most nervous about the eye thing.  Would I or wouldn’t I made it through the 31 miles with my vision intact?

I used my eye drops and put on my glasses and headed to the trails.

These two ladies and I ran the first loop together.  It was such a beautiful morning!  The skies were sunny and the temps were great!  It was an absolutely picture perfect Mississippi morning~a great day to run a few miles out in the woods!

The sweet lady on the right ran with us through the first loop~what a fun time!  The last two loops, were the myself and this other very pretty lady.  Gotta love the amazing runners you meet!!!

Now, one of the things you need to know about the MS50 is it’s infamous for it’s mud and water crossings.  Some years are better than others but you’ll ALWAYS deal with the water and mud.  That’s one of its charms!

If you’re going to run this race, you’re going to need to embrace your inner child and expect to have some fun plodding through that sloppy sticky mud.

Lots of people’s shoes were claimed by the mud yesterday.  Runners were frantically digging through that mud, trying to get their shoes back.

I was like a kid at Christmas because I had just received a brand new SPIbelt in the mail.  It has great big, colorful polka dots.  What a fun belt!  I used it to carry my little bags of Tailwind.  I was fueled perfectly for this 50k by my Tailwind Nutrition!

With all of the mud and water, I didn’t have to worry one little bit about chafing or blisters on my feet.  YAY for ChafeX!!!  This product has never let me down!

Usually a 50k is pretty smooth sailing but running the fever for this past week took its toll on me.  By the 2nd loop, I was not feeling amazing ~ At. All. Nothing for it but to run, right?  Run, I did.

I’m so thankful for this sweet lady’s company.  We chatted non-stop for all of those 31 miles.  Even with feeling crummy, she made it lots of fun!

The best part of this race?

Crossing the finish line and realizing I could still SEE!

YAY!!!

How’s that for a huge success story!?!

This kid was doing the happy dance!!!

Don’t ever forget~You’ve put in the work.  You’ve run the miles.  Trust your training!!!

With last week’s Phoenix Marathon and yesterday’s 50k, this kid also *FINALLY* qualified to be a Marathon Maniac!  What an awesome day yesterday!!!

#IRun4Aiden