Completed the Alabama event yesterday.
Highly recommended. Very organized event and it was a challenging route that seemed, at times, to be all uphill.
https://www.mammothmarch.com/
Regards.
Completed the Alabama event yesterday.
Highly recommended. Very organized event and it was a challenging route that seemed, at times, to be all uphill.
https://www.mammothmarch.com/
Regards.
That is really impressive!
(But as for me...
)
If we have to march off into the next world, let us walk there on the bodies of our enemies.
LWT16-Most impressive.
Tell us about the gear- shoes/sock choice etc.
I am not your attorney. I am not giving legal advice. Any and all opinions expressed are personal and my own and are not those of any employer-past, present or future.
Good for you @lwt16!
When I read the title I thought "I've done 12 in 3 hours so 20 in 8 wouldn't be that bad". Then I realized that was 25 years and ~75lbs ago...
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits - Mark Twain
Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy / Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Route was clockwise starting with the lake side trail. Blue trail with a connector to red trail. I have the exact trail names at home on my paper map. My wife and I reconned the park a few weeks ago and I picked up a paper map. I’m a map/compass guy.
The weather was perfect. I tried on some of the shorts mentioned and just went with a well-worn pair of tan cargos. That thread did turn me on to Body Glide and that stuff seemed to work perfectly. Shirt was a cheap Athletics Works high vis yellow from Walmart. I wanted to be easy to spot if lost, disoriented, sick, snakebite, etc.
I started training 6 or 7 months back for this and bought a pair of Solomon Speedcross 5 trail runners. I had to get size 14 which is a size large for me. At first, I wasn’t crazy about the speed laces but those shoes and my feet were just perfect. Once I got some miles on them on my training hikes (4, 8, 12, 16, 19.3 milers), I purchased a second pair for the event. I wore the new pair at work last week to break them in.
Zero blisters……zero swelling. My Allen Edmonds dress/work shoes fit perfectly today so the Solomons were outstanding performers.
Socks were Merrells …..nothing fancy. I bet I could have skipped socks altogether with the Solomons. Camelbak Rogue with Nunn hydration tablets and Gu packets.
About a month before I retired I did two hospital admissions with C19 double pneumonia with ground glass opacities. Almost went on a ventilator. They weren’t sure how much fibrosis I would have. Didn’t know if my hiking days were over or not.
@blues was aware and offered up support from afar. Thanks again, buddy.
A few days at home on a concentrator drove me crazy. Started doing push-ups, stair climber, etc. a week later I could walk down the street and back. O2 would crash so I’d have to take breaks.
2 weeks later I weaned off of O2 way earlier than the Drs thought I would. I sent my wife a selfie of me on a trail. Her entire office was mad at me. My pulmonologist follow up was interesting. She asked where my oxygen was. Told her I was back hiking and she cleared me.
She was astounded when I told her my latest hike was 5 miles with 900’ of elevation. I’d keep an eye on the o2 and rest when I’d hit high 80s.
Little by little I got stronger. I coughed up stuff on trails.
My buddy (cancer survivor) asked me to do this Mammoth March with him. So I trained hard. Hikes, stairs, treadmill, elliptical, weights, etc.
And Saturday, at 53 years of age, I completed a hike that I never thought I could do.
Thanks for the replies.
Screw Covid and screw cancer.
Regards.