50K on Green Rock Trail

RUN 8hrs and 31.6 miles on the full Green Rock Trail

Just over a 50K actually! It was planned to be a 28 miler but you know how these things go.

TH, BG, and TV and I started out running south. Gorgeous day but cloudy with the forecast showing cooler weather moving in later. TV would run ahead, he was warned of the drill (we have our pace and we're sticking to it) so he kindly (very kindly!) waited for us to catch up.

BG stopped around 10, we turned around a few miles later, and ended up back at the lot at 19.2 miles. TH had a sore hammie--I knew something was up because she got quiet and short-strided in the last few miles. Her new Hoka's were working for her too! (aside from the blisters she found later). So she was done at 19 miles :(

TV and I kept going, this time towards the north. His pace slowed a little while mine kept more or less steady on the ridiculously steep hills in this section. When the turn-around time came and went, and I realized I was going to be over mileage, my head started getting a bit weird. I wasn't worried about being able to cover this distance. I was somewhat worried about the chance for injury and fatigue. Mostly I was over-worried about the number, I was just fixated on it for a few minutes. I kept thinking, 28 is coming I'm supposed to be done. All mental.

And nutritional, I only had 4 gels left for 12 miles! BTW--the 45 min alarm worked awesome.

No injuries aside from a few blisters. The Cascadia 8's were wonderful, aside from some pains from the orthotics. But that alternated left to right and came and went, I couldn't nail it down. No problems, no pains, no cramps, no falls, no gear mishaps, all in all a great day. But it's what happens AFTER that gets me.

My stomach just decides that food isn't welcome for the next few days. Here I'm writing this on Monday, I ran this on Saturday, and my stomach is still remarkably unhappy. Whenever I eat, it's like the food sits ON my stomach instead of IN. I force myself to eat knowing I can't recover without it.

I'm looking forward to doing a trail run for fun, this run was conservative and careful. Would really SUCK to have something go wrong on the last long training run! Careful picking up and down hills, careful over rocks, careful all over.

I'm also impressed that in the last 5 weekends I've run at least a marathon distance! Isn't that amazing!? And not a single ache or pain to show for it, aside from a resistant stomach! I've always wondered what it would be like to be able to just pop off a 20-miler on any given weekend. Well, I'm there now.

Why don't I hurt? Is it just the conditioning, or is there something to the pace, hydration, and/or nutrition that is the magic here?

And what would it take to do a >26.2 on all St Louis trails? I've already done Chubb, L&C, Babler, and now GRT. What's left? Lost Valley, ..??