I wasn't sure that my feet would be up for Chippewa 50K after Zumbro 50 Mile only two weeks before and they were still healing from the blister fest of Three Days of Syllamo prior to that. Luckily, they had scabbed over quite nicely and I was ready to try them out again. For Chippewa I decided I'd try Injinji toe liner socks and wider shoes, the Hoka Speedgoat in Men's EE. I had tried them on a few runs and was optimistic.
I rolled into raceday with :30 to spare so plenty of time to use the facilities, pick up my bib and mingle around. I hung with Maria, Doug and Jim before we'd head out.
I was happy that my pace and Maria's were again pretty close so we ran together the whole way out, catching up and reminiscing. It made for a fun way out. The course was in really great shape. There wasn't much mud on the way out and it was free of snow and ice. It really was a nice day.
At the turn around I filled up my pack with water, emptied my gel and block wrappers and headed for home. I tried to go a little faster, run some of the hills and see what I had left. I was moving quite well and then it began to rain and the course became very very muddy. Oh well. Keep pushing.
I had a dozen stitches in my back after having a cyst of some sort removed a few days prior. I had extra thick bandages covering it for the race but ouch, it was rubbing and quite painful. I hoped I wasn't doing any additional damage. I hoped I wasn't causing an infection.
I removed my pack and tried to adjust it to relieve some of the pressure on the stitches. It didn't really make any difference.
As I began to hike the hills Maria and Tammy caught me. It was great to run with the to the finish. Maria hiked ahead, then ran up the final hill into the finish. I climbed the final hill following her with Tammy following me.
What a fun day, a great adventure! Chippewa 50K is always a blast. I changed into warmer clothing and visited for about an hour, cheering in the finishers. A quick rinse with the hose and I was ready to head for home.
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