I made my first attempt on a fifty mile run Saturday Night. I started at 7PM intending to run until 7AM in the 12 Hours At Cool Night Run. But I ended up calling it quits at 2AM after 7 hours and 27 miles. I was experiencing knee pain and I decided that the chances I could finish 20+ more miles in the five hours I had left were very low, and the chances of coming out with a long term injury from running on and on with knee pain were excessively high. Sometimes when I run long I feel tightness and know I can keep going, but this knee pain was worrisome.
Calling it quits was a very difficult thing to do. The worst part was that I had energy to keep going. I must be getting old because I never would have paid any attention to something like knee pain in the past!
My training run times showed me that it was going to require everything to be “perfect” in order for me to make 50+. Ultimately, only 6 people out of 75 runners actually went 50+ miles on that course Saturday night, so I had obviously set the bar for myself very high. I think making my first attempt a night run added significantly to the difficulty, but what else are you gonna do in the middle of August around here?
One good thing happened. I won a pair of Innov8 Trail shoes. I get to pick which style. This may be the answer to the problem because Sunday after the race, I determined the shoes I was wearing probably have 600+ miles on them, maybe even 800 miles…. I’m dumb dumb dumb. Those shoes should have been in the trash long ago.
Depending upon this knee thing, I am looking at one of these two races for my next attempt on fifty miles:
http://www.pctrailruns.com/SF_One_Day.htm
http://www.ultrarunner.net/hkmain.html
Chris
