Day 3

I forgot to mention that for the last half of day 2 and first half of day 3 it was Luis Rio's Birthday.A little before lunch was served at the end of day 2 we had a party. The video above is Luis cutting the cake.
Day 3 was much cooler and by now I was starting to get in to the routine of the race. After my usual nap I was back out on the course. During the day you find others that are either running or walking at the same pace. Since I have done a few of these races ( this was in fact my 25th Multi Day ), newer runners or first timers often ask me for advice, or how to deal with a particular problem they may have. I am always glad to try and help.
In the dorm I was sharing with 9 other runners it can be surprisingly quiet at night and is not so hard to sleep. At least I slept well.
Again by the end of day 3 I had run another 42 miles a distance I seemed to be settling in to. This gave me a 3 day total of 147 miles, slightly less than I had planned , but I was satisfied.

Day 2

Each runner shares a table in this "Dug out" with another. This is where you can take a short break and keep a few items you may need handy.
At the end of each day they serve a hot vegetarian lunch, ( each day is from noon to noon)I usually eat this then sleep for 1 hour. The afternoon of day 2 was even hotter than day 1, so for me the idea is to try to take it easy and get whatever miles I can. I do this until 7 pm when they serve dinner. After dinner I walk 2 easy miles then go to the dorm where I sleep until 11:30. This is a schedule I developed 6 years ago and seems to work for me.
I have found that during the night it is much easier for me to accumulate miles.
I usually do not have a problem with my feet for the first 4 days, but in this race it started on day 2. I started developing blisters on the base of my fourth toe on each foot. I know how to deal with this so it was not too big a deal. In most races I manage to do around 50 miles on day 2, but by the end of this one I only added 42, for a total of 105. I felt strong and wasn't worried and was ready for lunch.

10 Day Race- Day 1

For some reason they mis-spelled my last name on the scoreboard, they corrected it later.
The first day was interesting in that there were 49 runners on the course so it was pretty crowded. The afternoon was quite hot with a strong Sun. I spent the first few hours with some of my running friends, since we seemed to run at the same pace. I ran 35 miles I think in the first 10 hours and then took a sleep break.
I then seemed to struggle a bit which is not usual for me. I think maybe the Sun affected me a little bit more than I thought it would. Anyway I completed 63 miles for the first day, which is on the low end of what I usually do, but I was happy. Though I was placed near the back of the pack.

Recovery and such

The 10 day race is run on a 1 mile loop in Flushing Meadow Park in Queens NY. During the course of 240 hours you see a lot of things going on. The photo on the left shows you just one activity.
Needless to say my feet are sore from the race, but that has not stopped me from going out for a run. I am recovering so that means a 2 or 3 mile easy run, which feels pretty good at the moment.

The little toe on my left foot seems to be the most bothersome and that is something I didn't feel during the race.

The Past

When I lived in London in the mid seventies I was involved in a relay run to celebrate the American Bicentennial. Three friends and I ran from the George Washington Statue near the National Museum,to the JFK Memorial at Runnymede. We got some newspaper coverage and this was a clipping from the time. I am the one on the right, I believe I was 22 at the time.

Luis Birthday

Over the 10 days of the race there were 3 birthdays. This was the first one, my friend and sometimes walking partner during the race. Is here celebrating his 60 th .

I pretty much kept to my the same sleep pattern that I did during the race, last night. My quadriceps were a little sore when I got up. I did however meet with Utpal and run a couple of miles, just to shake things up a little. I think it helps in the recovery.

Back from the 10 day race

Just to say that I am back from the 10 day race. I ran a total of 427 miles, which is smack in the middle of the two goals I had set myself. 450 being what I hoped for and 400 being my fall back. You can see from the photo that we did have some rain. I will talk more about the whole race in the next few days.