An Inspirational Journey
I may not have finished Pinhoti 100, but marathon #58 was a success in my books. Overall, I felt good throughout the entire run. I just couldn’t climb up Pinnacle fast enough to make the cutoff time. That was the last high climb and I missed it by about 5 minutes. The cut off time was about 5:30 a.m. so that was all going on after running over 22 hours and in the night.
One other issue I had was that I tried trekking poles for the first time at that section. It was a late decision to buy some before I left and figured I might need them. The problem with them wasn’t the poles themselves, but the fact that my headlight had died by then so I was using my backup handlamp until I got to the last drop bag stop. That was a pain trying to hold the handlight and the trekking pole at the same time while trying to climb up a mountain in the dark.
There was also a lot of maneuvering around fallen trees from the previous hurricane on the trails which if you weren’t careful, you could roll down the edge of the mountain for a while. And in addition to me running for over 22 hours by then, that was the first time I was hallucinating and sleep running! It might sound horrible, but it was great.
There are many other things from the run that were definitely memorable but they’ll have to wait to hear them in person or on future posts.
Still my longest run yet, just under 75 miles), so I’m pleased. Going to write it off now as training for Lake Martin 100. I’m going to get my damn buckle!
