My arch-nemesis the digital bathroom scale says 155 lbs. before the race, maybe due to all the hot-and-sour soup and other salty foods I've been eating in subconscious anticipation of electrolyte loss during the Catoctin 50k. My weight is down to 152 afterwards, even though I eat a veggie burger and drink a couple of pounds of water and soda after finishing.

The photo here, courtesy Jim Treece, shows an atypically flat, well-marked, and runnable section of the blue-blazed Catoctin Trail.

Other tidbits from this year's Cat run:

• The word of the day: metatarsalgia. The usual aches in the bones of my left foot commence at the start of the race. After a dozen miles or so they recede, thankfully, as I try to fine-tune my stride and improve my foot placement.
• A raw spot appears on my right shin a day or two later. Is it a hornet sting, or poison ivy? Whichever, it fades a few days after that.
• For perhaps-obvious reasons several songs are stuck in my head during the Cat this year. The big three:
  • "Please Don't Leave Me" (Pink)
  • "Take the Long Way Home" (Supertramp)
  • "Rocky Top" (Lynn Anderson)
• My purple toenail (the #2 toe on the left foot) which I got in the week before Catoctin at the Riley's Rumble half marathon becomes "purpler" but as of 10 days later hasn't yet fallen off.
• Official result from [1]:
  • 162 Starters, 139 Finishers (108 Men, 31 women) for an 86% finish rate
  • Official temperatures: start 72°F, finish 86°F
  • I'm 91st place overall, official time 7:52:43

(cf. Catoctin 50k 2008 (2008-08-10), 2009-08-01 - Catoctin 50k Trail Run (2009-08-03), ...) - ^z - 2009-08-11