Speedgoat 2011

Last March, I began a quest to see whether I was born to run because I was enamored with the thought of  being able to run | in the mountains | without injury | in an effortless manner | for a long time.  I must have really been enamored with that thought because as I think about it, last summer was really painful.  My feet always hurt, I lost 80 percent of my toenails (more than once), I had DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) every other day.  At one point I needed a crutch/cane for 4-5 days because I thought I broke my foot.  I was a wreck.


Even so, that thought -- can I run | in the mountains | without injury | in an effortless manner | for a long time? -- was a fountain of motivation for me, and I worked through the pain and injury.  On top of that, being in parts of the mountains that I haven't accessed by ski or bike Last July (2010), I ran my first ultra marathon, the Speedgoat 50k.  It was an exercise in survival.  Most of the time I was on the verge of imploding.  And I was thrilled just to finish.  I concluded then that while I did in fact run in the mountains for a long time, it wasn't effortless.  And  it wasn't completely without injury.


Still, I was inspired and signed up for Speedgoat 2011.  The signing up part is an integral part of the process, but it's the training part and the doing part that really matters.  Going into Speedgoat 2011, I was a bit lacking in the training part.  Speedgoat 2011 happened to be book-ended (is that a verb?) by two epic 60+ hr weeks at work.  And before that, I had only put in one serious 3-week training block.  So, going into the Speedgoat, I was hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.