Oak Mountain 50k

D.N.F.

Yup...that's right. DNF. Kind of a bummer. So it went down sorta like this:

Woke up on Saturday morning not really feeling it. Just kind of lethargic and not real excited. This, and those that know me can attest to this, is not at all like me. I'm a pretty excited person!

So, we hit the start and I'm generally feeling pretty good. Running strong and steady. The trails were awesome! In fact that course is the best one I've run yet! Complete with water falls and all! Absolutely beautiful! Right around mile 10ish it hit me. I started feeling like...ok...really bad. Way too achy. Everything hurt, and I had that creepy crawly skin feeling that usually signifies the onset of some sort of illness. I was not feeling well at all. I was trying my best to work through it but just couldn't shake the feeling. I would walk a bit and then try running a bit, all the while working on the meta physics of it all, but to no avail. When I finally reached the third aid station, around mile 14.5, I realized that if I continued on it would be a bad day. I have no doubts that I could have finished the race, it's just that it would have royally sucked. I realized that I didn't need to prove that I could finish one of these events, but was actually going for a time goal in this event. That being blown, did I really need/want to suffer through this one to say I've done it? NO!

So I bailed.

All in all, I am, of course, disapointed about the DNF (did not finish), but the great news is that, running wise, I feel great! I ran 14 miles and, aside from feeling not well, don't feel like I put forth much effort this weekend!

Which is a great lead in for my next event. This weekend is the Knoxville Covenant Health Marathon I'm pretty excited about this one because, running wise I feel strong!