Never so happy with a DNF!

I was really tempted to sleep in...little ghoul me doesn't do 7 am anymore.  But the race is so close to my house, probably a 5 min drive, and I know the route so well, and what's the worse that can happen during a 4.5 mile loop race?  4ish miles of absolute crud?  That's less than most marathons!

I was vaguely remotely tempted to attempt the full distance, 100K, but I reminded myself of a few very important factors:

1.  My last run over 3 hrs was in November.
2.  My last run over 2 hrs was in November.
3.  My last run over 1 hr was in December (wtf?)
4.  My average mileage during the past month has been like 10 miles/week.  Ok, under.  sob.  It's true.  Little dinky tempo runs twice a week, and maybe a mile or two jogging with the dogs--but our outings have devolved into power hikes, I guess--and this really came in handy when passing people uphill, but it's not running at all.  And most of it wasn't even on trails.
5.  The semi-last minute daytrip on Thursday took a lot of juice out of me, plus the week before was ROUGH.  it included a 3 am trip to the emergency vet.  Puppy #2 is better now, though!
6.  I haven't been super well to begin with since September--this whole year has been sort of off, but things got worse this fall, culminating in a workplace swoon last month.  Yep, I hit the floor in the OR.  Fortunately, this was pre-incision, so I didn't land on someone else's blood.  Turns out a fair number of people faint in there from the strain (holding heavy patients limbs/whatever under bright lights, or just forgetting to keep knees loose).  I'm better now though!
7.  My husband is away so I would have to deal with my increasingly irrational thoughts when trying to figure out what to eat or wear umpteen hours in, plus drive home!
8.  Plus the dogs would be left waiting an awful long time for supper.  They have a doggy door so that's not the issue, but 14+ hrs (ok, 18?  who knows?) between meals is not fair for them.
9.  I'm lazy.

However, 50K is not bad at all--I wasn't positive I could pull it out of my ass this time, but it usually precedes the onset of major hurt.  I admit, I toyed with the idea of running a bit further, but a few pains cropped up, including some IBS and some ITBS.  That last one surprised me.  Maybe the yes-no machine isn't a completely adequate substitute for clamshells, but trails can be brutal.  These trails are better than some, no loose rocks, but they're sandy and they have a ton of roots, plus a few fairly steep uphills and downhills.  They're like, "you want to just shuffle through this, haha, NOPE."

Fortunately, I got rid of the ITBS with stretching, and the other stuff subsided enough for me to push through.  I finished the 50K in just under six hours--very happy with that considering the trails and the human involved.  Plus it didn't tear me up too badly.  I was able and happy to hang out for 3-4 hours afterwards to chat and watch the top men come in.  My quads feel rather tender, and my abdomen feels oddly raw on the inside (not guts, almost like my diaphragm--is this even possible?), but otherwise, it's like I didn't run much at all.  Except I'm wiped!

It was a really fun day--the race staff, volunteers, other runners, and spectators were awesome.  

What's next?  I'm not sure.  We might be moving...sometime...maybe May...somewhere...don't know yet.  Maybe if there's a local race, I can sign up.  I intend to try to exercise the dogs and myself more honestly, though.  Even an hour long run on the weekend would be better than before, and fairly easy to accomplish.