Another tough day. The course was a little easier, but the cumulative effect from yesterday has left me pretty sore and tired. I finished 4th again in 4:29:02, but at least I was closer to the first three this time – only 10 minutes behind the winner. Yesterday I was 40 minutes behind.

Tomorrow promises to be another day of pain. My legs are very fatigues, particularly in the hip flexors, which have had to do a lot of work lifting my legs high over all the obstacles. Wish me luck for tomorrow.

Here are two photos from yesterday. The first is from about the half way mark. The second is about 1 km after the start. Here I’m running with another new friend, Cameron. He and I shared two bottles of red on Thursday night in Birdsville, along with several beers. It doesn’t seem to have had any effect on us.

On This Day

Jun 25, 2012

Distance today = 50.23 km; Total distance = 8322.59 km; Location = White Bear Lake – 45 05.439′ N, 93 00.379′ W; Start time = 0904, Finish time = 1741

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192833560

Not a great day overall. I am having shoe problems. Right from the start of the day I could feel trouble. I am wearing brand new shoes for the first time since March (more recently I’ve been alternating old pairs that I’ve worn over the past year or so). This is often a difficult time, as the wear pattern suddenly changes.

The new shoes aren’t worn on the outside, so I tend to pronate more than I have been. This has caused the inside of my right ankle to become sore again (same issue from several weeks ago). I tried orthotics this morning, but that didn’t work. I even ran without an inner sole for a short while. I finally used toilet paper, folded into an apporpriate shape, to build up the inner side of my right shoe. I also took out the laces from both shoes, as these are totally superfluous. Things improved, so hopefully I’m on to a solution.

The problem with the right ankle started when I accidentally trod on a rock and rolled my ankle inwards (the opposite to a normal ankle roll). I didn’t think much of it at the time, but it slowly began to give me trouble. I have treated it over the past few weeks and the problem had virtually disappeared, until now. One option is to go back to the worn shoes, but that’s not a sustainable solution.

Anyhow, I got through the day – a beautiful day weather-wise – with another 50 km. I’m now on the outskirts of Minneapolis-St Paul. And we’re staying in a great hotel tonight, at White Bear Lake – a really nice location.