O24 "Training Run".

It was a decent training, but it wasn’t what I had planned. I’ve been to the O24 24 Hour endurance race for the past two years and never seem to be able to do what I plan on doing. This year was the same. My goal was 100 miles or more, but stopped at 80 miles after 18 hours and 38 minutes.

The day started well enough I ran with the eventual winner Steven Parke for a couple of loops to start and then backed off the pace a bit. I have learned that there is no point in going out like you are going to win it. Better off to start slow and maintain.

I had been worried somewhat about my left knee as I had some swelling and that had followed a few weeks of instability in the knee. While I had been amassing some fairly substantial mileage I had no problems, but when I started to back off the distance for my taper, the swelling started. As it turned out I had no issues during the race, except for the odd twinge here and there.

The first couple of hours went be quite uneventful, watching Steven cruise through the field and Dave Morl pushing himself with the look of someone who also wanted to win it. After 4 hours I stopped for something to eat, an Isagenix shake. The plan was to try Isagenix again for race nutrition and have one shake every 4 hours. I would also have an E-Shot every 4 hours too, but started them 3 hours in. SCaps would be taken based on the conditions and started with 1 every hour and a half.

Joan was running and looking to get in 100k at least. She had been through a lot lately and would be running on little training. Not long in she was having trouble with her breathing and asked our old RMT Rhonda to look at her. Rhonda was there as crew for Steven. Rhonda checked her out and said that she had a rib dislodged and some of her organs were twisted, probably due to her shoulder issues. It was time to reevaluate. Joan got her 50k in and then stopped, but walked a few extra laps with me later on. She would go on to be the best crew person a runner could have, again. It would have been nice for her to get in over the 100k, but under the circumstances still a good outing.

I ran on well and went through 50 miles just over 10 hours or so. Things were still good at that point, but I was getting tired. A few stops to get my legs rubbed down with Arnicare helped. By 58 miles things were going a bit rough. I was thinking that 100k might be good enough today. I stopped and actually had a lay down, changed my shoes and socks and headed back out. Shortly thereafter I got a spurt of energy and ran off 10 miles feeling rather good and probably moved up the ranks a lot. But by 70 miles things weren’t go quite as well. Approaching 80 miles I started to deliberate about stopping, leaving well enough alone. I still had time to get in the 100 miles easily, but my mind wasn’t in it any more. The argument that made the most sense was that I had got in a good long run in and had done some night running so rather than risk injury, play it safe for Bighorn. And with that my race was over.

I watched on as Steven and Dave ran hard against some other great runners. Steven winning with a new course record of 127 miles. Dave coming in second with 114 miles.

My initial feeling was of disappointment, but that quickly subsided as I was happy to get in the miles and some night running. I still have a lot to do to be ready for Bighorn and unfortunately ever since O24 I have aggravated the knee and haven’t been able to run. I tried on Wednesday and stopped at 2k. Now I have decided it’s time to rest and recover, ice and elevate for a few days. Went for physio today and the prognosis is that it could be a problem with my meniscus, but rest and icing might be all that is needed. So I have decided that there will be no running (let’s see if I follow through with that) until the Horse Capital Marathon on the 16th.

Rest is good, right?