The idea: I was to pace a friend who was planning on doing a slow 50 miles, starting at noon on Friday. The course was 5 ten mile loops in McNaughton Park, near Pekin, Illinois. She changed plans due to the nature of the course; it is a challenging course to begin with (featuring 13 uphill segments per loop; mostly 70-80 foot hills) but spring rains and a lack of drainage turned much of the course into a river of mud.
But I had signed up for the 10 mile even (Potawatomi Trail Runs) which began at 8 pm on Friday, so I went ahead an attempted the event. I wasn’t prepared to compete, so I went out and walked at a deliberate pace…when I wasn’t falling down.
The course used to be single track with breaks on grassy prairie. Now, with the exception of the initial “almost a mile” meadow loop, the grassy parts looked like narrow dirt roads which were rivers of mud. And yes, the old shoe sucking mud was there in force.
In fact, on Golf Hill (about 4 miles into it..a rope assist hill), my left shoe got sucked into the mud. My trail gaiters were also sucked in..I lost them. I feel 2-3 times (on my butt) and was off balance many more times, but my knee stretching program (part of my fitness) kept me from getting hurt.
Also, the elastic in my headband gave way so I had to use my headlamp as a hand held, and I supplemented it with the above flashlight..that actually worked out very well.
It took me 4:09 to walk this 10 mile loop (I used to finish my 100’s on this course at that pace), but I had a lot left in the tank.
Today: I slept in, did a standard weight workout (light on the bench, 1 x 185, 7 x 165, 10 x 165 incline, usual military, pull ups were good: 5 sets of 10, 1 of 5, etc) and then caught some Bradley Softball (sadly, they lost two very competitive games to Missouri State..1 run each time.)
Life of an old goat 