Up on cripple creek

I had a DNF at the Glacial Trail 50 mile.  I'm okay with that.  Here's a brief recap.  If you read my last post I felt good coming into the race.  It was a cool (low 30's) day and overcast.  It was basically dark the first hour.  I was traveling slower than I expected, but what can you do.  I knew two guys in the race which was Scott Meyers and Parker Rios.  It was great to not only run with them, but to see how they managed the course.

Somewhere around 15 miles I noticed my right ankle had turned and it hurt.  Thing is I cannot pinpoint exactly where it happened.  Probably more of an accumulated total of smaller turns that just weakened it each time.  The trail is rough in many spots.  This was a higher ankle sprain.  I still feel it today, primarily walking on steps.

Around 20 miles I did notice I was listing or tilting to the left.  This has happened to me twice before.  At Ice Age I think in 2017 and definitely at JFK in 2017.  You may see this in other older runners at longer races.  I know I have.  Once it starts you really can't make it go away.  Obviously there is an issue and for the first time I read somewhere about the possible relation to too much fluids.  I was definitely in that camp.  Whatever it was the crew noticed it and finally mentioned if I was aware of it.  Which is a good question because you don't always know.  Fact was I did notice and was somewhat bummed out because I was starting to feel the best I had all day past 25 miles.

Why wouldn't I think I could just out run it?  Especially feeling decent.  Eventually it was too much and my back was killing me.  I could not stay erect enough to navigate the trails properly.  I pulled the plug at 35.8 miles.  Briefly I thought of walking it in, but it was cold and still in the 30's. 

As before, the next day the back thing has all but disappeared.  Whatever was causing the pain has gone away and all that remains is a back that is slightly sore.  The ankle was painful enough that it kept me up quite a bit that night.  Good thing was that pain subsided substantially each following day.
But I didn't drop because of the ankle.  The back pain was the key to dropping. 

Anyway I am now considering some new adventure.  Perhaps I'll blog about this soon.  I will say that the experience I just had at the race above taught me more about me and long distance running than I have learned in a long time.  Hats off to Parker for taking 4th overall and another solid finish by Scotty.  Both true legends the past 20-30 years in the sport.