american discovery trail marathon

September 6. It was more a dirt road than a trail course, more flat than downhill. The trails, as few as they were, went up and down and up and down again, but I did not mind since they came with shade. It was a hot day.

Thinking this would be serious trail business, I had made up my mind beforehand to take my time and not care about pace. So when the heat became too much I just walked. I walked a lot. To my surprise, I still came in under five hours, which is fast for me.

What was even more of a surprise is how good I felt. The sun bothered me, but otherwise I was fresh almost until the very end. Fueling did not give me trouble (it's true I did not eat much). I never hit the wall. Only the last mile became truly difficult. I wanted to walk again, but I felt weird about walking so close to the finish, as if I would let someone down, although no person would have cared. So I pushed on, and it was hard. When I entered the final loop I was slightly nauseted, dizzy, hot and cold at the same time, and just shy of a heat stroke, or so I thought.

I poured the bottle of iced water someone handed to me at the finish all over my face, and in two minutes I was whole again. That afternoon we drove five hours round trip to the Sand Creek Massacre site, only to arrive there 11 minutes after it closed. On the way back, holding the car steadily at 15 miles over the speed limit, very decently I thought, I got my first speeding ticket.

Yet it was a fun day, after all.