Big Race this Weekend

Well, I was able to run 8-9 miles on Saturday without problems.  The shin felt a little tender afterwards, but no pain despite repeated poking into the bones.  So that's good.

On Sunday we're doing the Mt. Diablo 60K, which is going to be pure brutality.  The elevation profile is even tougher than the Wasatch (11K ft gain over 37 miles compared to wasatch 27K over 100 miles) (http://www.pctrailruns.com/elevations.aspx?dtid=6135, bottom graph).  Of course it's shorter and at lower elevation than the Wasatch.  But it's going to be by far the toughest thing we've done to date.

The cut-off is 12 hours, so at this stage my goal, given my recovering shin, would be for us to make it within the cut-off.

We'll be doing lots of hiking, so I'm thinking of getting the Black Diamond Ultra Distance Trekking Poles to ease the impact on my legs.  First, I'm going to try Matt's trekking poles on the trail tonight to see if I even like poles.  If I do, than those would be a good addition to my arsenal.  They weigh only 9oz for the pair and compress down to 1 foot, so can easily throw them into the camelbak.

I'm scared (because of my shin), but really excited at the same time.  I just love spending so much time in the wilderness, going up and down mountains :).  And it would be nice to have other folks taking care of food, water, logistics, routing, not to mention having like-minded crazy people out there.

The minimum event on that course is a marathon (compared to the 11K at the last trail race we did), which means only the really crazy people will be out.