Ok, now I am scared

Today was absolutely brutal. Here are the stats as Suunto X6 sees it, max heartrate 203, min 79, average heart rate 141, 5720 feet of climbing and believe me, I felt like every bit of it. 90 kilometers of absolute pain and agony. I seemingly bonked early this time as about half way through the race, my downhill skills were falling apart and I went over the bars on a steep non-technical downhill. I face planted and slammed my knee on a rock and sliced it right open.

I was going through all kinds of pain, frustration, gear problems, and most of all depression when I got back as most of the field was already here. ; (

When we sat down to eat, the route was explained to us...125 kilometers. I am without a doubt frightened for what tomorrow will bring. The saving grace: there is no saving grace.
Fortunately Roy is still calm, cool and collected.

I did see a part of Roy I haven't seen before. While we made the cutoff by the skin of our teeth, I was in bad shape and he was in front. I heard a disembodied voice saying "Ed, its 15 to 3, Ed its 10 to 3, Ed we only have 5 minutes!". Roy was asking that I throw the hammer down.. I couldn't. I was hammered. Finally at 3pm, we arrive. I am out of water, I am feeling horrible and they are out of water. Out of nowhere came this Canadian accent suggesting another water station 22 kilometers away. I thought to myself, 'you have got to be kidding me.' I started eating what was there. We ate what we could and left. I am growing emotional as we continue uphill...and finally some reprieve the downhill. We started heading down only to experience more pain, and specifically in my hands! I thought, I just can't get a break, can I?'. 22 kilometers a nice man with about 6 5 gallon sparkletts says 'you want water, eh?'. I said '. I was about to drink my own urine!' We had about 25 kilometers to go, all flat and straight...thankfully...but unfortunately I was still in the woods literally and figuratively...I was still showing signs of weakness and fatigue. I had to stop at least 3 times to eat and drink. Still didn't help, I was just simply tired and broken and nothing was helping. I continued on, crossed the finish line with a time of 8:50:13 and 182 place out of 187. Things like this makes me just want to stay home play legos.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Day one begins

This day is finally here and I woke up not as nervous as I was the night before which in some ways was good and in some bad. I am also still not as hydrated as I liked to be.
I am nervous still about the first couple of days as I believe today specifically consists of something around 90 kilometers. I am concerned about the hydration so I am taking endurolytes and pounding water. The weather looks a little warmer than I had prepped for which is a good thing. My experience with the traverse at 106 should put me into a good situation today. I think I am not that nervous today because Roy is not nervous at all. Everyone knows that Roy is always calm, cool and hardly collected at these events but he is calm. Maybe I have false sense of security at the start line. I think Roy really does draw some confidence from people that are more overweight than he is and maybe I am using them as a floor as well. We were sitting with Dubin, Forrester
And his seemingly large teamate which I don't know his name. He seems to be our gauge on how many pictures we will be able to take and how much food we will be able to eat before he catches up to us. Hmm, I wonder if that's why I am not nervous.
I would be would willing to bet others in this breakfast room think the same way of Roy and I. They are probably saying to themselves 'we can easily beat those guys.'
Wish us luck. Oh ya, Roy is still eating.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry