Greenway UltraMarathon March 1st

The Seneca Creek Greenway Trail 50K and Marathon (we just call it Ed's race) is on March 1st. Jane and I have been training pretty hard for this race, at least I've been feeling tired on most of our runs the past couple of weeks. We have one more long training run this weekend and then we'll probably....hopefully back-off on the mileage. I'm not sure whether I'll go for the 28-ish mile marathon or just bite the bullet and do the 50 K ultra. I just visited the site this morning and was amused by this cautionary note in the"New and Notes" update about the race.

Snow, ice, rain, cold, sleet, wind and high water do not bother us. However, if the weather is really severe.......the race may have to be cancelled.

Read my account of last year's race to get a flavor of what is consider acceptable weather conditions.

Here's the last admonition: No complaining.

I'm really looking forward to this race!

March 4, 2008. Well, my race was largely forgetable.....bad leg cramps and nausea developed during the 4 mile loop (miles 15-19) around Lake Clopper and by mile 21-22 (after the section of trail after Riffleford Rd.) I was toast and out of the race. I'm not sure what went wrong. I don't think I went out too fast, I was with a running buddy (Jim C.) at Lake Clopper (who finished the 50K in 6:45) and I had run the HAT 50K in around 6:50 last year so I don't think I was going too fast. Perhaps I should have been taking in more salt, using the Succeed supplements I used last year during the Marine Corps Marathon. I don't know, anyway Jane went on to finish in 6:24.55 (finishing 23 out of 36 women runners) and received a nice finishers hat. I'm just kidding about the hat, she got one but it wasn't reward enough for the effort Jane expended. She is still little sore but intends to do some light running tonight. I didn't have as much muscle strain and have been able to run the past few days. Hopefully, we'll get back on track for our morning runs soon and now that it's gettng warmer and both Elroy and Judy don't have any spring sports commitments maybey we'll be able to get them out with us as well.