7, boy do I know how you feel. You work hard to take care of your body and *poof* it fails you. The disappointment can be overwhelming. Who knows, maybe this is something that's been brewing for a while or maybe you had something weird go on--something tight on one side, planet alignment screwy, early spring...you get the idea. Don't beat yourself up about it. The good thing is that this is fix-able. Hang in there. It sucks being injured.

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I did a 50k (actually about 51k) over the weekend. Running 33 miles on an island with no shade and on a day with record setting temperatures and no breeze is humbling, to say the least. I did everything right with fueling and hydration but still had a rough go the last 12 miles or so. My body was just not ready for the temperature (and, OK, I was a bit undertained but we won't go into that). I finished with a respectable time, all things considered (5:49, 4000' of climbing, not hard but not easy, either). I wore my calf compression sleeves on a whim and boy, am I glad I did (my calves were the only part of my legs that didn't cramp). On a sour note, I got really bloated from the endurolytes, enough so that it slowed me down significantly. My feet (especially my right foot) got swollen for some unknown reason in the middle of the race. I had leg cramps in places that I didn't know I had muscles. I wasn't the only one having problems; quite a few people dropped because of heat exhaustion and related ailments (cramps, mostly). BUT! I still finished, the trail was beautiful (I train out on this island a lot but I never tire of it), I enjoyed the scenery as I walked up the hills later in the race , the volunteers were awesome, the bison didn't charge, the racers were fun, and the beer I had after I finished was the best beer I've had in ages. I kept telling myself that I needed to treat it as a training run for my June 50 miler. What I learned from the day is that I need to find another 50k between now and then and my vacations and work and whatnot. And I need to go somewhere warmer and do some training (like, maybe Zion? OK, twist my arm ).