Exhausted. Challenged..Zombie state…

Wow.

I am running a day late from my normal posting date. But I think I can be excused.

Now, I am still doing training for the 6 Inch Ultra.   So need to get strength training up, distance and endurance, and sand skills in.   So muggins here set herself up for a little beach run yesterday – less than 12 hours after the 12km trail race…..  Oh my word….

then the rocks to get past, with a tide coming in and no choice but to get over it.

Next up was tending to injuries to protect them from the fine hot black sand on the 4 x 4 tracks that I had to use to bypass the rock heads I could not get over…  And so the run continued..on and on and on… I had a slow start in the first few kilometers clearing rocks and heads, then got to the open beach sand and kept going.  I was fairly strong for the first 18km, where I then took a meal break and a five minute recovery.  Then re-starting showed the fatigue..phew it was harder to get going than I accounted for…I pushed myself for the next 3km..then I saw a young family up at the top of the beach head by their 4×4 and my mind gave up…I asked for a lift back up to the main road….”sure” they said, “we leave in 2 hours”…Oh no…I collapsed in the sand, had a little cry and a chat with myself and said, “No worries mate, it will only take me an hour to run back ..see ya later”..

The next 4km was mental hell.

I was in trouble and seriously struggled.  Did a lot of walking.   Finally I got back to the heads to veer back up onto the 4 x 4 trail…and I called my husband asking him to collect me at the first point of civilisation I could reach and he could get to with the car…I came to a finish at just over 25km.  And I cried.  I was shattered.  I did not care what I looked like or who saw me in that state.  I made my husband carry my back pack.  And cried when I saw he parked about 300m away from me…And I cried when I got home…Then a long hot soak, and nothing for the next 12 hours.  Woken up this morning and meant to go to gym for a strength session…Not…Not happening…still feeling exhausted and in a zombie state….