The aftermath

(Pictures stolen from Rachel, as I warned her I would do!)

So, we ran a really, really long way yesterday. More to the point, we ran it on the Ice Age Trail, involving over 8,000 feet of climbing. It was incredible, and incredibly intense. Highlights, and lowlights, included:

• Horseflies all over the gosh-darn place, despite repeated applications of bug repellent. Our hair was full of flies!
• Sections where the trail was almost completely obscured by hip-high wild grass – beautiful, but hard to run through, and we had to try hard not to think about snakes…
• I fell pretty hard around 9.5 miles – unfortunately, while I was trailing on the single track, which meant that not only did I get a skinned elbow, but also a shoe to the face. Lesson learned: trail from further behind.
• Mushrooms with caps larger than my open, stretched palm!
• Green that was greener than any green I’ve ever seen.
• Running low on water = bad.
• The high you get from finding and replenishing with fresh water = enormous!
• Tons of great conversation, as well as quiet periods to reflect on God’s astounding creation.
• Friendly campers and hikers put perk into your step.
• Friendly campers playing music while you change socks really put the perk there! It’s a pretty good sign that you’re getting a second wind when you can do the Time Warp at 17 miles into a trail run. (Me, not Rachel. She’s never seen the Rocky, if you can imagine!)
• Randomly-placed benches are awesome. Remembering the approximate locations of the benches for your return run makes for a great motivator (although I did start to wonder whether I’d hallucinated the first bench when it was well beyond the spot where I thought it would be).
• My feet swelled pretty badly, which made the downhills extremely painful on my toes. The possibility is strong that I’m going to lose my big toenails over the next few days; they’re pretty dark. At one point, when I accidentally booted a large rock with one, I screamed! Going to relace my shoes, possibly get a second pair of larger shoes to change into at the midpoint aid station for Devil’s Lake.
• Reached the end of the run a little short of where we wanted to be, mileage-wise, and we still had the mental fortitude to make up most of it on the roads around the parking lot. Boo-freaking-yeah!

I’m sure I’ll remember more, but for now…it’s taper time! Ten miles to do today (probably with plenty of walking; my sore toes are more the reason than my tired legs, though), and ten miles is the longest run length I have from here on out to the race. I can’t believe it’s finally here!