A robust week.

Monday: 6 mi, trail (SHT at Becks Rd), 144 bpm
Tuesday: rest (yoga)
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: rest
Friday: rest (travel)
Saturday: 26.2 mi, SHT (Moose Mountain Marathon!), ??? bpm
Sunday: rest (travel)
Total: 32.2 mi

Ok. Not much to talk about. I tweaked something in my left hamstring while doing yoga and decided shut it down til the race. It was mostly preventive, but I felt like one wrong step could do some damage. Even now, if I move in a certain way (like crouching down to lift up one of my cats), I feel a little twinge. I’m getting a massage this evening that will, I hope, fix this issue. I plan to start running again tomorrow.

Other than the weird hamstring problem, I feel completely normal today. Yesterday, I felt mostly normal. Sunday, I felt like if I absolutely needed to, I could run a few miles. I guess that’s a good thing. Does it mean maybe I could have pushed harder? Probably. But I am running a 50K in 5 weeks, so it’s for the best that I’m not completely trashed and useless for days.

I can’t believe after all the anticipation, hard work, setbacks, frustration, and nerves, that I’ve completed one of my big scary races for the year, and am only 5 weeks away from the other one. It felt, even the day before the race, like it was off in the nebulous not-too-distant future, but wouldn’t ever happen. I worried things would go wrong pre-race, like they did with Curnow, or during the race, like with the Superior 25K. I wondered what business I had thinking I could or should run a marathon. I wondered what the point was. I secretly hoped I’d magically be faster on race day. I wondered if I would be last.

I’m glad to have a break from the long trips up north to run on the course. I feel now like I know it well enough that I won’t have to do that anymore, at least until I move up to a longer distance… Someday.