Day 2,619 —First day of Vacation and Reflections on the Mohican—with a PICTURE of a BASEMENT

I am really fine and was still looking forward to my run today. It is still difficult for me to bend my legs, but that’s the only thing that is bothering me. Also, I broke two of my toenails. One during the race and one yesterday, walking around my house.

I am still thinking about the mix up at the end of the Mohican, and I am so ambivalent about it. When I reached the sign, I wasn’t at 49 miles yet, and I think if I had finished the way I was supposed to finish, I would have only run a little over 49 miles total according to my watch. My detour was .75 miles away from the finish, so I basically ran another 1.5 miles and somehow ended up at 50.66 total according to my watch. 

This might seem silly, but it would have bothered me to have finished with my watch saying 49 miles. I know that my watch isn’t perfect, but I have used it for so long; it is kind of hard just to stop listening to it. 

Also, I am mad at myself for not running that .75 miles to the finish. I was walking because I was hurting and kept pushing it to what I thought was the end. It took a lot to convince myself to keep going, so the compromise was to walk, but it cost me probably 5 minutes at least. 

However, what a great story! I don’t mind being the one that lost out at the end. And it is comforting to know I wasn’t the only one that was affected by it. Otherwise, the race would have had a predictable ending with me finishing the way I was expecting to without much added drama.

Either way the race was great. The aid stations were run well. The trail was marked clearly. I didn’t have to deal with bugs and the weather was cool most of the time. We got a little rain, which cooled me down some, but didn’t do much damage to the trail. The trail being slightly wet mostly made it a little softer to run on. 

I also met some great runners to talk to and share the trail with. Congratulations Matt and Laban on your impressive runs. Laban has a lot more to be angry at than I do. He probably would have finished 6th overall had he not made the same mistake I did. Still 8th overall is very impressive. Matt ended up being 10th overall which is awesome. 

Regardless, it was an overwhelmingly great experience, and I think I would do it again. It seems like an extremely difficult 100-mile run. I am so impressed with the 103 100-mile finishers! I don’t even know if I would be ready for a 100-mile race like that next year, but I want to be in that club so bad, so I am going to keep working hard to get there.