Last Saturday, with over 1,200 other runners, I started the JFK 50 for a day long tour of the Appalachian Trail and Potomac River valley.  It was a clear cold day - but for the first 3 hours I really could not enjoy the scenery since I was watching the rocks and roots of the AT as they pounded my feet to goo. For the third time - I say never again will I run this. There was a heavy covering of leaves on the AT this year, and it made picking out the rocks harder than usual. Despite wearing fairly sturdy trail shoes..my feet hurt worse this year than in any year previously. I changed my shoes at the end of the AT, and my feet hurt badly - after a mile or so on the C&O Canal  - that pain went away and my feet never really hurt to much for the rest of the day. This year I imposed my wife to be my crew, and meet me along the trail with dry clothes, food and drink - and Tylenol. In hindsight this was probably a mistake - because a sympathetic soul offering a hug and a massage is way too tempting when you have been running for 5 hours and are only at the halfway mark. Luckily, the Reston Runners  was there in force and they show no sympathy. 'If the bone ain't showing, just keep going is their motto - and it got an amazing 58 club members across the line this year.

My friend Len, who had run this the past two years with me has been training hard this year and had recently completed an Ironman...my only real hope of keeping up with him was if he was still in recovery from his other races. Unfortunately - he recovered just fine and at about mile 28 was running backwards down the trail in front of me asking how I was doing. I took the hint and wished him well. After Len took of, with a small rooster tail behind him, I settled in to ruin with Nick  who seemed to be running about my pace. One of my favorite ways to pass the time on this run is to review romantic misadventures with my running partners...your worst girlfriend, the best looking women you ever dated, etc.  This can make for great fun (ok pathetic, but diverting)  - but we kept coming up on groups of women (ok - most of them were passing us) who deterred proper discussion of the merits and demerits of each tryst. The conversations went like " so there was this girl , and uh she was nice, and uh, you know..."  BORing! It was more fun to talk about aches and pains - which were legion by this time. I wasn't having a great day, but nothing was going wrong that seemed to threaten finishing. In an ultra marathon, pains tend to move around from ankles to knees and thighs and perhaps your feet in a more or less random way. As long as they keep moving and don't settle in too deep you just give it a few miles and it will probably move on. By the afternoon I was running 12 minutes and walking for 3 and calling that a lap...most other people we doing some variation on that and so we passed each other, back and forth, for the last few hours.

At mile 42, we leave the trail for the last few miles on the farm roads of Maryland - I was feeling (relatively) good and had hopes of matching my usual 10:30 time or so when a for-real cramp grabbed my left calf...in the fading light there was an actual knot showing on my leg. Working that out slowed me down a bit more, but it eased up enough for me to actually run across the finish line in 11:03. My slowest time - but you really can't be to disappointed in finishing a 50 mile race. Len had come in almost an hour in front of me and was fully showered and changed. Maybe next year.... Thanks to the many well wishers and supporters for the run. If you were waiting on the final count - I did cover all 50 miles and if you considered making a donation to the Hopecam charity are a result of this - you have my gratitude. To date we have helped over 30 kids stay connected to their friends and classmates with Hopecam while they fight off one nasty disease or another. With your support we can make a direct difference in even more.

Check out the website at  hopecam.com