100 Miles, 100 MIles, 100 Miles, 100 Miles

I have been following the progress of the MMT 100 here and here since Saturday morning and I am amazed. These folks started in the dark yesterday morning, ran through muggy heat all day, through two major thunderstorms late afternoon and all through the evening, and many of them are still out there. Some of them won't finish until later tonight.

The MMT is a tough, rocky course with tons of climbing and descending. I imagine the rocks are treacherous and the night is long. As I sit here typing in Connecticut in Sunday morning darkness, I hear the rain. This is the rain they had last night. This rain is not trivial. I'm wondering if I even want to go out and run 8 miles in it.

They will all be so happy to see the dawn in an hour or so.

I have 100 miles on the brain. In the soul. I have decided that I am going back up to Vermont. I was going to pace my friend Susan for the last 30 miles, but I think now I am going to try to pace her for the whole thing. We trained for the race together last year, and neither of us made it to the finish. We have unfinished business. We learned so much from that experience, we need to go back and try again. Our friend, Chuck, will pace us the last 30. We plan to stay together and take it slow! Walk 10 minutes out of every hour and walk every hill. Last year we barrelled down the downhills (we got some misguided advice there). We won't be doing that again!

Here we are at the start last year (Chuck is in the middle).



Susan and I ran together Friday night and talked about the race for hours. It was a lovely evening, temps in the 60's, clear night sky. Too much to wish for in Vermont in July, alas. Last year the conditions in Vermont were much like what the MMT runners are going through now. Muggy and wicked hot with crashing thunderstorms. Tell me that won't happen two years in a row!

I am very much looking forward to Pittsfield Peaks in three weeks. I hear that the course gets progressively more difficult as the day wears on. Many of the big climbs come in the last 10 miles. Note to self: start slow and then taper off.

My stomach is getting better. I went to my GI doc last Monday and he thinks my ulcer/reflux medicine simply stopped working. This is a bit disconcerting, as I was only on it for a year. But he started me on something else (Nexium). This is the med I was initially prescribed a year and a half ago, but my insurance would not cover it back then. Now it does. Weird.

These proton pump/acid preventing meds take a few weeks to fully kick in. I feel my stomach slowly getting better. Mornings are still a bit rough, but by lunchtime I feel perfectly normal. Each day is better.

I need to do a bit more research on diet. I haven't had any caffeine in a week and a half and I'm starting to get used to it. So there's a start.