What the hell. Race after race I realize how little it matters and how little I care about drop bags or planning, for that matter. The only thing I'm dropping is a pair of shoes and night stuff at mile 51 or 65 aid station. I got a bad blister on my heel from a pair of untested shoes I wore the first 20 miles of Bear last week. All my shoes are destroyed, so I'll be wearing the same blister shoes again at the start (with tape or something on my heel). My Hoka Mafates look like they've been boiled then run through a meat grinder; they'll be in my drop bag and will still make the slickrock surface feel like pine needle bedded trail.
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| Hoka Mafates. Lost track of the mileage at over 600 a couple months ago. |
The less gear, less planning, and less responsibility self-induced, the better the runs are. Worrying and over thinking these things wears me out more than the physical exertion. The only thing I'm concerned about is finding someone to watch Pippit. How can someone resist this little guy?
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| "Daddy, you're too slow for me to wait indoors all day for you to finish." |
Whenever I have a shoe that rubs I put a piece of tape on my foot as well as inside the shoe where the rubbing is occurring. Try this with the shoes that you'll be starting with. Even if the shoes that you have at the 51/65 mile are good you might want to put some tape inside of them where your foot is tender from the shoes that caused some blisters.
ReplyDeleteWill do. Thanks Rick. I don't normally get blisters but the crazy 4000 ft climb right at the start of bear did it to me two years in a row. I'll be taped up like a NFL lineman.
ReplyDeleteGood luck Tim! Hope the shoes hold up for you so you don't have to gnaw a foot off before the end of the race ;-)
ReplyDeleteNo pacer on this one?
ReplyDeleteNaw, just had JT pace at hardrock and Leadville to justify his beer consumption those weekends. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think Pippit's look says he wants to pace you.
ReplyDeleteBark bark! "What? Timmy's lost a wool mitten around mile 68?" Bark bark! "And he's out of Shot Bloks?" Bark bark! "Black cherry?"
May the running be smooth and fast. And pain-free.
Bark bark! "What's that, Timmy's feet fell off and he's running on bloody stumps?" Bark bark! "Now he's singing show tunes in his dead grandmother's voice while rolling on the ground in his own feces?"
ReplyDelete"That's normal. He's fine."