Michael: Bound to Happen

A breath of slumber

Takes in the cool damp breeze that

Seeps into your dreams.


 Monday, August 26, 2019



On Saturday I had my first DNF in 5 years. Although I had sworn earlier that wasn’t going to happen again, for this race it wasn’t completely unexpected.



At my last 50k at the end of July, I bruised my heels pretty badly. A mistake that may have been caused by not using my usual Superfeet green insoles. I’ve been trying to work through recovering while still maintaining enough training to go after the age group record for the Bull Dog 50k on Saturday. I thought maybe if I got through it fast enough I’d be off my feet before the pain really kicked in. I was way off.



I did the first loop of the two loop course in 2:08, which was faster than my time in the 25k last year of 2:14. But my left heel was bothering me on the downhill and when it got worse on the uphill of the second loop I felt my day was going to either end in further injuries or end prematurely. I decided to pull the plug at the 21 mile mark.



In the past most of my DNFs involved some kind of emotional trauma. This was a purely rational decision that I feel will allow me to heal properly so I can get back into the flow of training as soon as my heel’s recovered.



I’ll take my time and try to maintain my cardio vascular fitness bicycle riding and keep up my running form by doing speed work. I also have a few days left of work before going on a 6 day hiking trip to Colorado. There, I only plan on walking. When I return I’ll see how the heel feels and go from there. But it’ll only be races less than 30k for the rest of this year.