Running is my 9-5

Sorry, you hafta start at 8 if you want a lunch break? No? Then no breaks for you, ever!
Today I ran from 9 am- 5pm. I ran 56.2 miles, the longest I have ever run by 25.1 miles, and the most I have ever run in one day by 16.2 miles.
Along the way I finished the marathon in 3:31, 50k in 4:11, and 50 mile in 6:59:32.
The course I ran was the same course my team puts on the Skagit Valley Ultras and I set a course record for the 50mile on it. The course is in Mt Vernon and is a 5mile road loop. I started out in what felt like a normal training run pace except I felt good for once, like the first time since the 50k which is not normal! Really I was going just slightly under 8 min pace and for the past few weeks I have struggled running under 9 sometimes for lengths a quarter of the distance! I liked this time trial because I didn't have to worry about pace since it was all so new, just surviving it would be an accomplishment, and once I got to 31.2 miles everything I ran was a PR.
The first 30 miles actually went by pretty quickly. At about 40 miles I realized I could maybe break 7 hours for the 50 mile, despite a bathroom break and throwing up at 49.5 miles I managed a kick and got it which was pretty exciting for my first 50 mile ever! After that I ran kind of slow for a few miles but then managed to 8:50s- 9:10s for the last four miles.
After driving home my right leg was cramping and it was hard to walk up the stairs. But it has since improved and I managed to do a quick 12 minute walk around the house. Well as quick as you can go when you have to turn around furniture every few feet and are being attacked by a killer cat who thought this was the funnest game ever, especially after napping for longer than I had been running probably. I even walked up and down the stairs!
 

40 miles

My legs hurt. But that is legs with an s so it doesn't matter. It's good actually, the more you can be miserable the better, because the better practice it is.
Last Sunday I did something I had never done before- run 4 times in one day- getting a new PR of 40 miles in one day. My Sunday went like this- wake up run 10 miles, stop for an hour and a half, eat breakfast, run 10 more miles, stop for an hour and a half, eat lunch, run 10 miles, lie on the floor for the next hour and a half wishing that it would go by as slowly as your next run is going to, then slog, I mean jog 10 miles. Total time = 11 hours. I am told doing it this way was harder than doing it all at once which I believe. I am also told that the harder running is the better. That which doesn't kill us...to quote a book I didn't like very much but did have this one very good line- only makes us want to die!
But maybe I should try running 40 miles straight before I make that decision. Running any hill right now that is bigger than a speed bump makes my legs feel just the same as that forty miler. You cant get away from hills where my parents live. They are in every direction- east, west, north, south, upwards, backwards, skywards, and sideways. And it's really more than my legs- it's like every single muscle in my whole body is being pounded through a blender. I do not like running when I feel this way every single day because it makes me feel like the world's worst slowest runner in the world.
I know that I am running 20ish miles a day but really that is normal. This bad feeling is not normal :(

USA 50k National Champs (again!)

It has been a whole year since I started my blog, hard to believe. This is where it all started last year- at the USATF 50K National Championships. And this year I am back at Caumsett Park NY on the same course.
That means 10 more 5k loops and 20 more out and backs. That may sound like a lot but the race is getting less and less long to me. It was still long.
I was less nervous the few days before the race this year but that didn't help me to sleep at night at all. I get so worried about not being able to sleep that I pretty much kill all my chances of falling to sleep. It got so bad I even went to the doctor so I could get put on sleeping pills, but I stopped taking them the night before my race so I wouldn't feel groggy the next morning and got a total of about 20 minutes of sleep.  I hate, hate, hate people who tell me that if I want to get a good nights sleep try exercising. Wow, is that what I have been missing? Well I have only run 10 miles in the past 3 days so no wonder I would be sleeping only about a 1/3 of a night- that is like a 1/3 of a day. No! it's exercise that keeps me up in the first place! I also hate people who start snoring a couple seconds after they hit the pillow. And that means most boys I have ever known, and also my cat. Ahh to be a simpler creature, if only...
Anyway I got enough nerves race morning to make up for any shortage. I don't know if nerves stay in your legs bouncing around but that's what it felt like for the first couple laps. I tried to calm myself down by lying ( to be an ultrarunner means you must lie to yourself- constantly) to myself that I was not really nervous but it was like trying to sleep all over again.
I don't know if that explains how I can run a 3:46 30 mile in a time trial and feel pretty good, and then run a 4:01 50k in a race and feel very sore and tired but I don't have another explanation. I am glad that I could still run a PR (by 2 and 1/2 minutes) in such a long race where I felt badly for most of it. I held off running really slow except for one lap or so which was better than last year. I ended up 5th whereas last year I was 4th but this year had a stronger field. Still I missed getting lapped this year by about three seconds!
I was a little disappointed though that my time did not closer match my time trial time and that I feel so sore afterwards when I ran slower. Shouldn't that be the other way around?
 Still I was happy to get a 50k PR and my fourth All American medal. And even though I was hurting we walked around New York for several hours that night so good practice for the 24 hour huh? I'm most glad that I have a coach who supports me and puts so much time and effort into me, thanks Joel!

right after start of the race

                                                                       my  time shot

 with our friend Joe Gray, winner of the men's race!
I have red gatorade all over my face

us in Manhattan, I no longer have gatorade all over me, yay!