Chippewa 50K and Sylvester

Well,

I am resting after the Chippewa 50K race this last weekend. I was lamenting the cancellation of this race in January when I was informed that it was picked up by another group.

First, the positives:

1. The weather was great. It was cloudy and cool at the start with plenty of sunshine.

2. The trail was nice and soft with lots of moss and leaves.

3. Great Race - I had a good time once again and thanks to all the organizers and volunteers

Negatives

1. I had a crappy race. The first half was good and fast. The last third was a death march. I am not sure what happened but a list of likely suspects would include: under training, hip injury, stomach problems, going out too fast.

2. The nice and leafy trail covered up a lot of root and rocks so I took about 4 falls. None too serious but more than my average.

My wife Geri ran the new 10K and we had another good weekend up in Chetek. Reds Tavern was definitely the best dinner we have had in town. This area is really nice and the lakes around Chetek are beautiful.

Anyway, back to the race. I have been suffering from a nagging hip pain for over a month that I was suspecting might even be a stress fracture so I had stopped running for the two weeks prior to the race. Good for my hip but bad for me. The first 10 miles of the race were sweet. Lots of singletrack up ridges and around countless lakes. Add a few boardwalks and bridges and it is as nice a run as I have ever participated in. The last 5 miles to the turnaround are a bit less spectacular but still pretty nice. I was dragging at the turnaround at about 2hr 25 minutes but I thought 5 and change was possible but things wend bad pretty quick. I got lost after a mile or two and added about 1/2 mile or so but mentally that hit me right when my body was rebelling. Stomach pains, calf pains lack of energy plagued me the rest of the way in. I would get passed and get a bit of energy trying to keep pace but I always dropped back. I kept waiting for the second wind but it never came. Anyway, the last mile is great because most of it is downhill except for the evil hill in the last 1/4 mile which I managed to stagger up.

Its weird how crappy you can feel but then feel OK about an hour later. We headed to the hotel and a shower and rest for an hour made me fine to go out for a few beers and dinner.

The other tough thing is that we had to put our cat Sylvester to sleep this afternoon. We have had Sylvester since we lived in San Jose and he was about 17 years old although we don't really know because he showed up in our driveway 15 years ago in bad shape. He was a good soul and he shared out life in Singapore, San Francisco and finally Madison. He joins our cat Maya who passed away two months ago as well. The photo I found of them made me smile. They were buddies but also competitors for food even though they never went hungry living with us.

Rest in peace friends!