No Regrets!

Everything appears so easy during the day, but something creeps into my room in the dead of night, usually around 2:30, and wakes me with a start, and then all hell breaks loose.

Even though I had obsessively prepared for Phunt - bags packed, multiple layers of clothing, hot hands out the gazoo, yak traks for my shoes - I still woke in the middle of the night with the kind of anxiety that usually requires medication (or a brief stay in the psych ward).  I told myself it would be fine, it was just a 50K, there would be lots of folks around, all the obvious stuff to pump myself up for this.  But in the end, fear won out and I turned off my alarm. 
Once the sun came up, I regretted my decision...for exactly 90 minutes, until I was on the trail by my house trying to run in the 5 inches of new, powder-fine snow that had fallen a few days before.  After 11 miles, I felt as if I had run 30. 

Too bad my feet aren't smaller!

 Other than tracks from one lone biker who had cut a narrow wheel path and a few deer, the trail was undisturbed.  There was no compacted snow to follow, no footprints to make the trek a little easier.  Up and down I went, kicking through the fluffy snow as it collected into ever growing balls of ice on the back of my shoes and ankles.  That was fun.
A run that normally takes me a little over two hours took me close to three.  I was winded, cold, and very tired coming off the trail.  NO, doing this for 31 miles would have taken me way too close to race cut-offs, if I even made them at all.  From what I have heard, there was more than a little confusion on trail markings, and for me, that is the kiss of death!
So Phunt 50K was a no go for me this year, and while I would have liked to have knocked off that long run, I was able to get a good workout on Saturday followed by another 15 mile run on Sunday, so that was something. It wasn't like there was a Polar Vortex or something holding me back(;

A hard run but very pretty!