Day 3,420—Remembering Shawnee Hill Part II—

Reflecting on the race this morning, I thought I was over it. I thought that I had convinced myself that the story made it worth it, but I am still feeling amazing, which makes me a little angry. My skin is still irritable because of all the bug bites, and the bottom of my left foot still has a blister, but that’s the only way I can tell I even did an ultra this week. This race was supposed to help me relax, but now I feel like I need to find another one to do soon to reach that goal. Maybe the full moon is a factor? 

Lap 2: 35–67 miles (2 p.m. — midnight) 

    Jay and I pushed it on the first part of this section, remembering that this is the easiest part of the race. We were both feeling the heat, and I had not peed in hours. I was also not hungry. I kept not getting food at the aid stations, but I found one that had delicious vegan muffins! I got a little bag of them each time I passed it.

    I also kept eating snow cones! There were two that had a snow cone maker, so that was helping me stay cool. Jay was feeling the heat too, which forced us to slow down a lot on the back half. Once we got to the part where you climb up on your hands and knees, we were both breathing hard when we made it to the top. 

    Jay’s feet were also getting destroyed, and he spent some time getting his right foot bandaged up as I continued to change socks and reapply ointment. The bugs were also driving me crazy. I kept feeling that there were bugs on my calves, but part of that was all the mud and dirt that was caked on them, but there were bugs too. 

I was so happy to see the sun go down, hoping that would finally cool this race down some, and for a while it did. I was hoping it was going to rain some to make the ground a little easier to run on.