Old Man Still running

Recovery going well.  Got home last night, slept nine hours.  Going to get the hand checked out this afternoon.  Still swollen and red but I can type again with all fingers, no problem.  Hopefully it is just a bad sprain.  I don't want a cast, nor do I want them to carve it up and put a pin in.

So it was an interesting race.  1 finished the first 50 mile in 11:44, about 20 minutes behind schedule (I think the hand problem slowed me down about 15 minutes).  Indeed, Tom, Cory, and Bryce were 10-20 minutes ahead of me.  I should have been up with them.   Well, then the wheels fell off and the stomach went south all night long.   The next 50 miles going back took 18.5 hours.  Once I reached mile 70 and ate a bunch of bacon, my stomach came back to life.  I reached mile 76 just in time to see all the 50K runners start and was so pleased to cheer my son Kevin.   I then ran a boring 7-mile out and back. I saw people who I was running near at mile 50, about seven miles ahead.  Bummer.   As I ran, I just decided I didn't care about my time, why not run the rest in with Kevin?

So, for about 1.5 hours,  I kicked back at mile 83.3 waiting for my son Kevin to arrive during his 50K.  It was about mile 13 for him.  He was very surpised to see me laying down on the grass under and blanket.

The last 18 were funny.  My stomach had recovered and I had all this pent-up energy.  At times I showed off for the 50Kers and sprinted up huge hills and then stopped to wait for Kevin to catch up.  He did great, kept a jog going almost all of the last 18 miles.  He finished in 7:55.   I lost track of him with five miles to go at an aid station.  I thought he had ducked into a bathroom, but it turns out he sprinted ahead down the road.   So I searched, waited, and then finally concluded that he was ahead.  He finished 20 minutes ahead of me.  I waited until Matt and Anne Watts caught up and enjoyed finishing the last two miles with them.

It was great fun.  It has been a long time since I've run a 100 and not cared about time and placement, just enjoying the day.

So, the legs and body are just fine.  Feels like I ran a hard 50.

Went to the doctor.  Felt like a wimp because the hand wasn't hurting much.  After the xray guy saw the picture, he asked if I punched something.  I tried to explain 100-mile races and he left with a look of astonishment.  The doctor asked when it happened (Friday morning) and asked why it took me so long to get it looked at.  "Uh, I still had 70 more miles to run."

Going to a orthopedist today to see if he can duct tape this back together for me.

I go under the knife this morning.  If I croak, I believe I already posted my last will earlier in my blog somewhere, great running stuff to unload.  Here's some other stuff for grabs:

- My Hokas with 660 miles on them

- My bag of clothes from Bighorn that haven't made it to the washer yet.

- A six-pack of Ensure

- lots of old issues of ultrarunner

First run with the club on my hand,  JRP.