Immediately after the race, I was able to walk around bit. There were plenty of seats available in the tent, as most runners had finished well ahead of me, but I knew better than to sit down. I grabbed a piece of pizza immediately. There was only one kind of beer left, but slowpokes don’t get to be picky. (When I went to get a second one, there were none left.)

I had another piece of pizza, and wandered around the tent some more. I saw a noticed that I’d won a door prize: a $50 gift certificate to Seven Hills Running Shop – in Seattle. Fortunately, it’s good until December 2017. There’s a decent chance I’ll be in the city again sometime over the next year. And I’ll always need things like nutrition, even if I’m not going to buy shoes there. I thought about it, because I will need a new pair of trail running shoes. But I’d rather buy my shoes at Runner’s Soul in Kennewick. Those folks will understand what kind of shoes I need to survive training for & running the Badger Mountain Challenge 50K. In my experience, folks in Pugetropolis do not understand the dangers posed by basalt, jeep tracks, goatheads – but somehow they think we’re all in danger of being bit by a rattlesnake.

As I left the party tent and began walking toward to small hill at the West Beach amphitheater, I let out one of those involuntary moans that every ultra runner recognizes. A guy near me turned around, laughed, and asked how I was feeling. He wasn’t being mean; it was more of a “yeah, me too.” I told him I was surprised how well I was moving, but equally surprised how slowly I was moving.

I did a pretty good job of recovery Sunday evening. Staying at my parents’ house (instead of driving home) really helped. It gave me the chance to stretch & massage my legs.

Yesterday was supposed to be five miles at an easy pace. I’d noted on my calendar that if I’d run DP25K, to skip this run. (At the time I wrote the training schedule, I didn’t know if I’d get into DP25K.) I knew that movement would be good, though. I’d hoped to get in a short run, but it didn’t work out that way. I wanted to get over the pass before dark, and by the time I got to where there was no snow on the ground daylight was drifting away. I decided that walking up & down my parents’ basement stairs was enough for the day.

Today’s workout was 3-4 miles easy, with 30-40 second strides in the latter part. It was pretty cold this morning – Accuweather said 12F, but our thermometers put it at almost 20F – but I knew I wanted to get out there and run. I ran in YakTrax again – what a life (and knee) saver! This morning’s run felt pretty good, once my quads got over the shock of what I was asking them to do. I didn’t do my usual run/walk ratio; I just jogged along, slowly. I took a couple of walk breaks: one I took to get away from a rear-wheel drive SUV that took several minutes to get out of its parking spot. I didn’t want to be anywhere near it if the driver got it moving because I figured it would lurch out onto the equally-icy road.

Tomorrow’s workout it a speed workout. I think I’m going to have to do it on the treadmill, which will suck. My other option is to do it along the bike path, but that would be after work. The high temperatures tomorrow will be in the mid-20’s, and I’d be out after sunset so it’d likely be in the high-teens. More importantly, it may be snowing. I was able to do the strides in this morning’s run wearing YakTrak, but I don’t want to try doing a speed workout while wearing them.

An hour on the treadmill. Ick. Bring on the show tunes!