Completed first Ultra-Marathon

It has been a while but I have achieved the Ultra-marathon goal. The last few months have been very busy. I started back to school in January on my EdS., I now have two classes completed.
On the training side of life, I have been doing OK. After this weekend I know for sure that I have not put in enough miles. I will double the mileage for next year, if I do the same event. My weekly totals were mostly 30 - 50 miles a week and I need to be doing that on Saturday and Sunday with shorter runs during the week.

Race Recap - The week leading up to the race was stressful but not overwhelming. As everyone else I never seem to find enough time or get enough rest, but everything seems to fall into place any way. I do hope the next time I try something like this I will get more rest, but enough about the do better list.
We traveled to northern Virginia on Friday with little complications. We checked in and found a cabin to stay in for the weekend. Elizabeth loved camping, she played outside and found lots of bugs. The people that organized and the other participants were great. We met a lot of great people and that may be the best part of all the events that we do, the people. We got our safety briefing on Friday night and we went back to the cabin to rest. It was very relaxing no TV, no radio and not telephone - yes we had phone reception for the weekend; Jennifer did have to drive out and call to let family know that we had made it safely.

Race Day - I woke about 5:30 and felt good. The race started 7 am so I could take my time and get ready. The weather was Hot really Hot. I ran a couple of loops with Keith Straw who is an elite runner that has completed Badwater (one of the toughest races in the world) he was great and gave some solid advise as we ran and just chit chatted to pass the time. It did not take long before the heat and my lack of drinking enough water during the first two laps to take affect. I got really sick and every person that past kept asking are you OK and my response after the first two or three was, "I don't know", but as I said before the people at these events are great and the lady who won the female division slowed when she caught up to me and then walked with me to the aid station. If it had not been for her I would not have been able to make it, at the aid station I drank a ton and set off again. I went slow and made it back to the check-in point and drank several bottles of water. I took of again this time with two water bottles and it only took a few minutes and I was back to running. I was drinking 40 ounces every four miles. As the day went on my right foot began to hurt worse and by 2am I could not walk on it, so I called it a day after completing 64 miles.

The awards and breakfast was at 7am so I hobbled over the the main area and we all ate breakfast together and congratulated each other on our individual accomplishments. Jennifer and Elizabeth got to spend Saturday with Jennifer's sister and her boyfriend who had came down from D.C. for the day. Elizabeth had so much fun Camping she cried when Jennifer told her we had to leave.

All of this said it was a great weekend and I hope to do more of these events. I had posted an update in another forum and some people said they thought what they were doing was now diminished. I want everyone to know I was not running like this five years ago, I have progressively ran longer distances over the past several years. I want everyone to know that you can do what you REALLY want to do. We all make statements that we wish we could do something but how many times do we really adjust our lives so we can accomplish what we wish for, so that said; Change your Wish List to you Goals and start checking them off.

Take Care and Get Outside,
David