WS100 + 8 days, VT100 - 13 days

I have had a rough week!!!! I am starting to recognise that the 5th major factor in my Grand Slam attempt beyond each of the 4 races is in fact going to be the traveling, mainly for the loss of resting time during the immediate post race period. Once I got back to the hotel on Sunday afternoon, having been up for 40+ hours, I spent the next 12 alternating between sleeping, eating and watching real high quality fishing programming on cable tv before taking on the journey home which was a 22 hour slog. As is the usual pattern with these things, the endorphins were still rushing around in my system as I drove back to Reno and I felt good, albeit my legs and feet were still trashed. Three flights and a lot of trekking around airports later and I felt like I'd been hit round the head with a frying pan PLUS my feet had swelled so badly that my ankles had disappeared. I spent the car ride home from the airport laid out on the back seat and keeping one eye on my vitals to make sure I wasn't suffering anything more than the after effects of a long journey and longer run.

Fast forward to Sunday and my energy is starting to return, the swelling has disappeared and my blisters have started to dry out. I lost three toe nails this morning (which is good news!) but my quads are the lingering issue with a lot of tightness and lack of strength due to the pounding of last weekend.

So with less than 2 weeks to Vermont I am planning on continuing to rest as much as possible, bring my feet back to a runnable condition and get plenty of sports massages on my legs to try and re-habilitate them in time.

Each day that goes past I get a little more confident in my returning energy reserves and in my shin which seems, unbelievably, to be ok. I am not yet 100% set on starting at Vermont. If I damage myself further I will be furious if I am not able to start at Leadville. With 14000ft of climb, no altitude to contend with and not a lot of single track it certainly represents the most straight forward proposition of the 4 Grand Slam races and whilst 100 miles is a massive deal any time, any where, this won't be anywhere near as difficult as WS or Badwater for example so I don't have a lot to prove to myself in terms of simply finishing as a one off race. The challenge is of course to finish just 3 weeks after Western States and keep the Grand Slam torch alight. Keith Kniplings altitude comparisons of the 4 races shows the differences between them

Whatever happens I am going to make the journey to Boston and continue to take each day as it comes.

This weekend is a huge one on the US ultra running calender with Hardrock taking place on Saturday and Badwater on the Monday. Hardrock is always fascinating to watch and having now properly qualified by finishing WS, my name will very definitely be in the hat for it in 2012. Good friend and double world record holder Mimi Anderson is headed to her 2nd Badwater, this time to attempt the double and break the female record in the process. The double involves a continuation beyond the finish line at Whitney Portals, to the summit of Mt Whitney before returning via the same route to the start line back at Badwater itself, a round trip of 292 miles and a true feat of human endurance. At the sharp end, it will be fascinating to see what Mike Wardian can achieve in his first attempt at the race. Mike is a phenomenal athlete recently finishing 11th at Comrades in a time of 5:51, before finishing 3rd at the NF50 miler the following Saturday and winning the associated half marathon the following day. Just 2 weeks later he ran a 2:17 marathon. Clearly recovery is not an issue for him.... He also has Ian Sharman pacing him so it will be fascinating to see how things unfold. Two other good friends are also running this year, Eberhard Frixe who crewed there for me in 2010 is going for finish number 7 and Lisa Smith Batchen my coach through this last 3 months for finish number 10. Like me, Lisa has been injured for a long time and comes in to this race with a longest run of about 20 miles. It will be a case of mind over matter for her but if anyone has the mental strength to get to the finish despite all adversity, it is Lisa.

I will be managing the Washington Aid Station at mile 49 of the SDW100 this coming Saturday and looking forward to seeing some good friends finishing a great 100 this side of the atlantic, a race that I hope to have a lot more involvement with in the future.

What a great sport this game of ultrarunning is and man have I missed it..................

(I found a couple of videos of the snow fields from last weekend as below. I am at 7:07 and gone in the blink of an eye in the first one. The second gives a better idea of how difficult it was to negotiate the terrain, particularly in ROAD SHOES!!!!!)

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