The LONG WEEKEND!

I always think this post looks so cute everytime I run by it!

The long weekend is almost over...I took Friday off work to make it even longer! They always seem to whiz by so fast. It was Neil's birthday on Sunday and we had a party - 11 for dinner - it was fun (family and Marilyn and Ron). I bought Neil a Garmin 310XT which he had been thinking about for a bit now. I think he will really enjoy it once he figures out how to use it. ;-) Next weekend he is off to run the West Coast Trail (75km) on Vancouver Island with a group of guys so he plans to take along the GPS to capture the journey. They hope to start at first light and push through to complete the 75km in approximately 18 hours. Most hikers take 5-7 days. Another gift was a hand held Ultra Violet light to treat water to make it safe for consumption. You hold the device in the water for about 60 seconds and it kills giardia, crytosporidium and all those nasty critters. He has iodine tablets as back-up just in case the light malfunctions.

This weekend we had a low mileage weekend. We were feeling tired - as we should be with the long runs we have been consistently doing every weekend for the last 6 weeks. Last weekend we were sweeping for 10 hours on Saturday, Sunday = bike ride 1 hour, Monday = run for 1 hour. Tues, Wed = rest. Thursday = 45 min run, Friday = 75 min run, Saturday = 2 hour run, Monday =2hr run and an evening bike ride = 1 hour. I am really trying to work on preventing the serious pain I had in my feet last year at WHW. I have new shoes, socks and most importantly I am trying to be disciplined about taking electrolyte tablets. Last weekend my feet started to hurt and the pain did go away after taking some Succeed tablets. In the "foot book" I have the author suggests the connection between electrolyte imbalance and blisters/sore feet. Last year at WHW I had what is called maceration of the foot where the entire bottom drops away looking like one big blister but once I was somewhat rested/hydrated the foot looked normal with no blistering. I am really nervous about this happening again. I have also tried taping my feet but after a couple of hours the tape comes loose. I am going to try duct tape as I recall the foot doctor using it on Neil's blistered feet at Western States. I will carry the tape in my pack - unlike last year we didn't have any tape. Our crew borrowed some from another crew - by then the pain was so bad it didn't really help but psychologically it probably did!

Our flights are booked, (yes with BA!), the house sitter/cat sitter is booked, the accommodation is booked (we are spending a week prior to the WHW in Edinburgh and head for home the Tuesday afterwards) so it is all coming together - now I need to convince myself that I can complete this event. Neil keeps reminding me of the adversity I faced last year with the foot pain, how I managed to continue (it was a crawl!) and we finished with a few hours to spare. I still can clearly remember myself and another runner who had really sore feet as well going back and forth with each other on the 2nd night. I passed him between Lundavra and Fort William for the final time and said hey buddy I am buying you a drink tonight!! He never did make it to the party - I saw his crew and they said he was in bed with his feet up. I wonder if he'll be back again this year?