Day 9

I just remembered something that happened to me the previous night. After eating dinner I took my usual sleep break. I woke up after 2 hours with a stomach ache, then after another 2 hours sleep I woke up and vomited. This has never happened to me before and once it was done it didn't seem to bother me too much.
I have mentioned that I came into the race with a goal of 450 miles, which I adjusted to 400 after the rain. So here I was starting day 9 with 350 miles, leaving me with just 50 miles in 2 days to reach my goal. This meant that I was very relaxed and had no pressure to push.
The forecast said there was rain on the way again, but this wouldn't be a problem. My friend Vladimir who was in 3rd place was having some problems with his shins and asked me to help him with some taping. Though I have not had shin splints for a long time I do know how to treat them and was glad to help.
Helping others seems to also help me and by the end of day 9 I had another 42 miles for a total of 392. I was very happy!
I forgot to mention that as I started my 390th mile I got the inspiration to run a little fast, it felt good so I picked it up and surprised a few of the runners when I did a 10 minute mile which is quite fast for this stage of the race.