Traprock 50K Report In July Issue of Ultrarunning Magazine

I was happy to see the article I submitted to Ultrarunning Magazine was published in their July issue.  I know editing is something that must be done due to space constraints but I was disappointed that the last paragraph of my article and none of my photographs were included by the magazine.  The omission read like this:

"Co-Race Directors Steve Nelson and Kevin Hutt and all the volunteers did a fine job in providing a much needed spring ultra to the New England area. The course was adequately marked and the aid stations were well stocked and staffed. All the runners I spoke to during and after the race were very positive about their Traprock experiences. This is definitely a race I’ll be running again in 2011."

And the photographs looked like this:

Elaine Romano (3rd female) on technical descent.

Runners working their way up the steep "Stairway to Heaven"

Here is the published article:

Ultrarunning July 2010

June In Review

My plan for June was to refrain from running and continue with rehabbing my ITB but I still held on to the hope of running Wakely in July.  The lure of Wakely won out over common sense and I started training two weeks earlier than planned. I felt encouraged that running 3-4 miles every other day on flat surfaces did not cause any knee pain. I added a slightly longer 5 and 7 mile run on the weekend and still no pain.  Things were looking up!

June Re-cap
Total Miles: 37
Longest Run: 7
# of Runs: 8
Avg Run: 4.6

With Wakely only three weeks away I decided to test the ITB on a longer run with more challenging terrain this weekend.  I needed to know if I could handle some distance before driving 5 hours to the Adirondacks for the race. The good news is I covered 10 miles in the blistering heat.  The bad news is my knee was in pain by mile seven. I probably should have walked the last three miles out of the woods, but I didn't.  I can be stubborn at times.

I have to be realistic about my injury.  It's just not going to heal as quickly as I would like. Any thoughts of racing (or training) long distances have to be banished for now.  I'll rest and ice for a few days and go back to my boring 3-4 miles runs.  It's better than no running at all.   I'm sure you're sick of reading about this injury as much as I am of writing about it so I'll be signing off for now.  I won't be back until I have something positive to say. I hope it's not too long.

Have a nice summer....