Holiday Lake 50k++ Ready or not, here I come

An ultra that is good for beginners and has a couple of extra miles beyond the 50k standard.  It is a nice race from my experience last year.  Even though that included about 6 inches of granular snow on the course.  And stream crossings that make for wet feet.  And a finish time less than 10 minutes ahead of the cutoff.  And an IT band problem surfaced that took some months to resolve.  It is a pleasant memory, really.

I have felt that my training is going well in preparation for the Boston Marathon April 18th.  A fun run on trails would give me a longer workout that should add to my fitness.  And some of my best friends in running are doing the race too.

Then, after last Friday's 6.5 miles, my left IT band starts to get my attention.  Inflamation at the top of my thigh bone that became increasingly painful through the day until I was limping.  Ice. Skip my usual running Saturday, Monday, Tuesday mornings.  Seemed to be much better 

Went to physical therapist yesterday who massages/grinds the nearby muscles into mush and prescibes more ice and only treadmill runs till the race.  Maybe running the left side of the roads is giving me trouble on my left side.  I did get to run 2 miles on the treadmill in the PT office.  The only pain was what the massage gave me.  Two more treadmill miles this morning, then circuit class.  And I feel so much better.

Ok, I am not really trained to race 50k on a trail.  But I do hope to run it at a comfortable pace and finish at least an hour ahead of the cutoff.  And I expect to hurt if only from the long effort.  And I plan to pray my way to the finish.  Even if I don't have a physical breakdown.