Day 4,298—Cars on the Road and the Shippey Part V—

 

    I was surprised how little the snow fazed me. I was wearing my Yaktrax over my shoes, and I had the hand heaters in my gloves, but the biggest positive was running with my mask on and my Ski goggles over it, so none of my face was exposed to the outside. It was still annoying to run through the heavy snow when a car was in the road. There were so many black SUVs driving around when I was running. A lot of trucks, too, but I couldn’t help but wonder where all these people were going. The highway was down to one lane, and cars were going around 30 mph. The snow wasn’t wet, so it was nice to stay dry throughout this run. Eventually, my goggles started getting fogged up, and my mask started to freeze around my neck. I also felt my hood, and it seemed like it was just a frozen ball on my back.

        I kept thinking that it wouldn’t be that hard to do 100 miles in these conditions, but I don’t know. That would be insane to run during a snowstorm that accumulated 18 inches during the run. With so many people running in the snow. Maybe a lot of the path would be kept mostly clear. My biggest issue with running like that in the snow is how hard it is to walk. I have never tried snow shoes, but maybe that would be something necessary just to move at a normal pace, but can you run in snow shoes? It might be cold, but I loved taking pictures in the snow. I also like seeing what stores are open. Almost nothing was open, but there were still plenty of people driving around. Even though I was feeling okay at the end of this run, it also wasn’t even 2 hours, so doing 30 hours in conditions like this would be a very different experience.

Video update

I have been working on the video for the Shippey, and it should be done in the next few days! Thanks for your patience!

Loop 5 

5:35 a.m.

        It was difficult to start on this lap, knowing how late it was during the race. If I could run the next loop in 6 hours, I would be under 30, but I didn’t know how likely that was going to be. I tried to go faster, and some of my miles were a little faster, but inevitably, I would have to stop to fix my pole or for some other reason. I made it the first 10 miles without a lot happening. I enjoyed the sunrise and got some pictures and videos during it, but once I started on the last 10 miles, I was suddenly being constantly overtaken by the 20-mile runners. One 20-mile runner after another passed me. I just stood over for them initially, but then a few of them asked me not to and waited until we were in a wide enough section where they could pass without me stopping. It made a huge difference, even though not all the runners did it, but I had just been getting so mad with losing the momentum on my last loop, but then some of the 20-mile runners did exactly the thing to make me feel better.

        After a few had waited to pass more did that, and then it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. I saw a handful of other runners out, but I didn’t know where the other 100-mile runners were. I figured I was probably in last place and everyone else was way ahead of me. I had been watching my watch, and I kept doing the math to determine which mile on my watch I was going to hit the finish. I was confident it would be 104 miles, and I was finally within 7 miles of that goal. I had looked at my watch for a while when I suddenly looked over and saw that my screen was black. There wasn’t a lot I could do, but I was annoyed. I thought of all the time I could have charged, or if I had just changed the settings so as not to record heart rate, but it was too late now. I didn’t want to listen to music or anything at this point. I just wanted to be done, and having the miles to count down was helping me pass the time. Now I was going to have nothing.

        On the last leg, I focused on the mile markers I knew from doing the route so much. I remembered that we go down for a couple of miles and then come up and climb, and when we get to a hill that is incredibly steep and by the highway, that’s when I will know I am almost done. I kept on imagining I was going to see that hill, but I kept on not seeing it. By the time I got there, I was past being excited about it. I just wanted to finish and try to get home. I was ready to be home and take a bath, and get some real food to eat. I was thankful I had such a short drive home. When I made it to the finish line, I saw Jake, who had my buckle but also two other prizes for me. He gave me another shirt that said, “250-mile club” and a backpack that said, “I went 100 miles both ways!” These rewards might not seem that prestigious, but I loved them. Some other runs do stuff like that for their locals, doing a lot of recognition for the runners who have done the race a bunch of times, so stuff like this will definitely motivate me to keep coming back. I do like have a variety of belt buckles. I hope they make some different ones at some point.

I looked at all my stuff for a while before I started packing up.

Loop 5

Time: 7:31:40

Clock Time: 31:07:25

Loop Pace: 22:29 mi

Distance: 100.45

1:07 p.m.