Ultrarunner fighting Atrial Fibrilation (AF)

This blog has pretty much always been about running ultras, mostly Hardrock. It still is but now it is also about running after AFib. I was forced to miss Hardrock in 2011 due to the onset of AF but my long term goal was to get back to running milers. And hopefully help any other runners with AF who stumble upon this site. I never made it into Hardrock in 2012, or 2013, or 2014. I didn't have a qualifier for 2015. I ran Fatdog in Canada instead. That was tough. I finished my 4th Hardrock in 2016 and now I'm back to try for the magical number 5.

If you want the history of my AF the heart problems all started back on May 25 2011: http://howmanysleeps.blogspot.com/2011/05/out-of-hardrock.html

Sunday, August 24, 2008

From July 4

Don't have the capacity to upload any pics from here. One guy has been videoing stretches. They wanted to mount his cam on my head and send me down one of the steep trails. Of course I wouldn't be so silly.

Yep, apparently Scotts off the list. There are people here doing all the prep who are still on the wait list. It is really hard to get into and no favours offered.

So what day is it? Thursday here. So Day 10 must have been marking from Maggies Gulch over to Cunningham Gulch. In fact it had already been marked so it was a free run to familiarise with the course. We drove my car out and left it at the "start" which was actually a 4 mile hike uphill to the actual course. As this is the second last part of the course a few of us decided to also run the last part all the way back into town. Wow, what a day. 19 miles and over 8 hours and 3 passes over 13,000 ft and I was totally bagged. I had a hoot tearing down the tight trail into the Cunningham checkpoint. I looked back across the valley today to see where we had been and realised I was on the edge of a sheer cliff the whole way. Oh well, sometimes ignorance is bliss.  On the last extra climb I was doubting my decision to double up, especially when the thunder started. It was a really really long climb. Think Bogong X 4 at 12,000ft. But we crested the last peak and headed for home safely, if a little cold and hungry. Only to find the pizza place was closed!
Day 11 today, was the official marking of the last section that we added yesterday. I had already done some of this on my own but it is great fun doing the marking and meeting all the other runners and hearing the war stories. It was an easy 9 miles ending with a soak in the icy stream to cool the quads.

As you can probably tell I'm having a ball. People are starting to stake their goals and I'm sticking to my conservative aim of to just finish. The more I see of the course the more I respect those who have covered it. 

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