Happenings - Part 2

As I wrote in my last post, a lot has been happening.  I covered the big DNF last post.  This time it will be some thoughts on life and death, or more correctly death and life.  Two weeks ago my Fathe passed away.  It wasn't a surprise.  He had been slowly going downhill for a few tears now.  He had diabetes as well as some other minor things, but the one that took him was Parkinson's disease.  What a lousy disease.  No cure and your body slowly fails you.  The hardest thing though is that you are aware of all this happening.  Your mind has to take it all in as you grow weaker and weaker.  My Dad battled through this bravely, but he eventually reached the point where he couldn't even support his weight anymore and his voice was so quiet you really couldn't hear him.  At the end he couldn't swallow, so they had to put a feeding tube that would be connected directly to his stomach.  It was so hard to see a man who was always active in his life and one I admired and loved go down this road.  He ended up going in his sleep a week after the feeding tube was inserted.  For that, I am very grateful.  But I will never understand, that if there is a merciful God, why he lets these things happen.  My father was a great man and I will always be grateful for everything he has taught me in my life.

But less than a week after my Dad's death, my family was blessed with new life.  My youngest daughter gave birth to her second child.  So I now have my first grandson.  In fact, it was the first boy born into our family in 50 years.  My wife and I have three daughters and my first grandchild was a girl as well.  And my sister had a daughter and her daughter has a daughter.  So it was pretty exciting to not only have another grandchild, but for it to be male.  Hopefully,  I will know what to do when the time comes.  Also, my sister's daughter is also due in less than a month with her second child.

So, although we lost Dad, we will now have two new additions the family soon and life goes on.

Thoughts on a DNF

A lot has happened since my last post.  But I will split things up over two posts.  This one is about my DNF at the Black Hills 100.  I've been a little reluctant to get to this one.  I ended up getting to the halfway point (50 miles) and dropping out.  I was pretty well prepared for the race as far as conditioning and even for the climbs.  What did me in was the terrain.  There was no way to get my legs and ankles ready for the rocky, uneven trails that made up the course.  By the 29.5 aid station my ankles were mush and my quads were already trashed with the technical downhills.  To the 50 mile point they just got worse to the point that I was very afraid that my legs would just fold up under me on one of the steep declines.  This was the factor that weighed heaviest in my decision to stop.  In other ways, I actually felt pretty good.  I had energy and my stomach had been fine all day.  But facing the downhills, especially in the dark, just was too intimidating to me.  I really don't know why it was, but something in the back of my mind kept telling me that I was going to get hurt if I tried some of the return downhills.

It is a couple of weeks after the event and although I regret to some extent not trying to finish, deep down I know I made the right decision.  Will I try another 100 mile?  I really don't know.  I kind of would like to, but on a bit of a gentler course.  Unfortunately, my wife is totally against  me doing another 100.  And without her support in the endeavor it will make things difficult.  It is not the ultras that she is against, it is just the 100 mile distance.  She is fine with a 50K, 50 Mile or even a 100K, but she really feels that something will happen to me at the 100 mile distance.  Maybe this was a partial influence on my DNF decision, I don't really know.  All I do know for sure is that I am not done with ultras.  I have the Howl at the Moon 8 Hour run still on my schedule coming up on August 10th.  Hopefully, I will have a bit of redemption there.