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Less than 24 hours past the finish line and I’m already eyeing the calendar for the next one. Weirdly the knee feels fine today, but the ankle is swollen and quietly suspicious. I’m starting to think the knee was a cover story for something going on lower down. The body is a committee and they don’t always tell each other the truth.

I feel like the race was an essay question and I turned it in half answered. I want a retest. I just need to decide when to schedule the exam, this fall or next spring.

I’m told this is normal. I’m told this is, in fact, the whole point. The cure for being broken by an ultra is, apparently, another ultra. The sport polices itself.

Also, salad has never tasted this good. Turns out a body can only eat carbs and gels for so long before it starts begging for fiber like a Dickensian orphan.