Lake Hinson 24 Hour Ultra

Whew! That's done!

Had a great weekend at the Lake Hinson 24 Hour Ultra Run. This being my first official ultra, I did not enter the race with any specific mileage goal. You had 24 hours to complete as many laps around the lake as you could. Each lap was 1.5 miles. I was however going to use this as a gauge to measure how the training was going for my 50K race scheduled in November, so I really wanted to get 30 miles in at the least.
  With the help of copious amounts of Gatorade, Mountain Dew and PB&J sandwiches, I cranked out 40 laps, for a total of sixty miles. I was going to attempt to run the entire 24 hours, but around 19 hours I really started to wear out. No blisters! But I did have some chafing going on south of the border that was starting to make life a tad uncomfortable. The last few laps I felt like a marionette with all it's strings tangled up, so I shut it down. I had exceeded way beyond my expectations, so I was happy as I staggered back to the tent to collapse in a heap.

Still smiling here, but it was early!

Thank God the weather wasn't hot, as I heard at last year's race it was 97! We did wake up to rain at around 6am, with the race start at 8am. The rain stopped, but the air was THICK! I had put on a long sleeve shirt to start, but quickly sent my trusty pacer/crew member/training partner Hannah back to the tent for a sleeveless shirt! I started out wearing my La Sportiva Crosslite 2.0's, which were awesome since the trail was a little muddy in spots. I then switched over to my Nike Free 3.0's, and did the bulk of my mileage in them. Once they got soggy ( mainly from my profuse sweating) I changed into my New Balance Minimus for the final few laps. I changed outfits four times, sox five times.
  Since half of the run was to be in the dark, I invested in a great headlamp by Fenix, which I had taken out on a 13.5 mile night trail run a week earlier. This thing is BRIGHT! I feel light a locomotive coming down the trail with it on.

It took a while for me to get to sleep when I arrived back at the tent, but I did manage to sleep for an hour or two. Then came the fun part of trying to take down the tent and canopy in a post ultra stupor. It was quite comical.
We managed to get everything broke down and stuffed in the car, then stopped for coffee and a bite to eat. We then made our way north to the town of Southern Pines, and treated ourselves to a room and hot shower at the Holiday Inn Express! Using my "Priority Club" clout, we were able to check in at noon instead of 3pm.
 At one point I was tempted to bring a chair into the shower so I could sit, but thought the better of it. The rest of the day was spent napping, eating and watching football on TV.   Glorious, indeed.

Now for a few recovery days, then back to it! Triple Lakes Trail Half  is next on 10/15, then the Derby 50K will be here before ya know it!