100 miles - Cliff Notes

I'm going to write a couple of recaps, so let’s start with the Cliff Notes version.  Is that still a thing?  It is today.

• It took me about 48 hours to complete 100 miles.  

• I've been quiet on training reports even though I started 6 months ago and diligently hammered out the miles week in, week out.  No matter how much I was doing I never felt like it was enough.  

• I had no blisters during BLU.  That's unheard of for me so if you too are horribly blister prone, there is hope.  I used Trail Toes for lubricant, taped my feet with Leukotape and inserted ENGO patches in my shoes well before the race.  I also relaced my shoes for high arches.  NO Vaseline, it actually causes blisters. See book - Fixing Your Feet by John Vonhof.

• Although I changed out my socks and re-taped my feet several times, I wore the same pair of shoes (Hoka Cliftons) the entire race because I couldn't believe I wasn't getting blisters and was afraid to change them.  Oops.

• Also, zero chafing happened thanks to Trail Toes.  ZERO, anywhere.  I used it everywhere.  

• During Jackpot I met Pablo the creator of Go Juice and that's the product I successfully used throughout BLU even when I didn't feel like eating (usually at night) I never got tired of it and never had any GI issues either.  I used the unflavored version.

• I was diagnosed with ADHD shortly after starting training so I have been able to tailor my training to that, I used intervals a lot.  For the race I created a schedule that gave me 3 x pace expectations based on a lot of regular breaks/food to look forward to.  I found it much easier to deal with shorter periods of time with rewards at the end.

• It was freezing at night, taking my big Calgary winter coat was essential.  I still needed breaks to heat up.  The car was no help due to breaking down on day 1.  At least we made it to the event before that happened.

• No injuries, just so much tired.  Tired to the bone a week later.  I can't sleep well either.  I don't care, worth it!

• Jackpot was a great test run, especially with all that went wrong there.  

• I never got tired of the course, even after 50 repetitions.  It was primarily trails and very varied.  Could I have done this at the Jackpot mostly concrete course?  I just don't know.

• This is way more fun than writing a summary of what went wrong.  It was worth the hard work and endless preparation.