Black Toe Run

The worst part about the End of Days run were the frozen fingers...  I spilled water on my gloves at the mile 1.5 aid station, which promptly froze--both the glove and my hand.  Not good.  The course was downhill on the way out, and entirely uphill on the way back.  I started off slow, and was never able to mentally pick-it-up.  My heart-rate stayed in the 155-158 range.  Neither my knees or hips gave me any problems (my shins haven't troubled me in a long time--ever since I worked on my stride-rate) but my toes... that's a different story.

By mile 7 or 8 the toes in my right foot began to give my problems--a slight discomfort, perhaps.  My left foot felt fine (the one with the sexy black toe). But my attention was focused on my hands--by mile 10, I was actually glad they still hurt--if they didn't that might have meant frost-bite for sure, and I still had almost thirty minutes of 'racing' left.

When the race was over, all I could think about was getting my hands warm--the digits on my left hand were starting to swell...

At home, I took my socks off to discover my left black toe had a black and purple bruise a the tip.  Very nice!  And, I had a pair of blisters on the tips of two of my toes on the right foot.  Ugh.

I don't like looking at it either

Confided with some running colleagues of mine and they felt that it was the conditions--soft snow--that led to the problems, and not my favorite running shoes.

[EDIT]  Finally received the official results: 11th place 2:01:19 (PR)