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.