Segment 5/6: 12.65 miles

Well, segment 5 turned into segment 5 and segment 6 because I was in too much pain to stop and didn't think that it would help me at all to rest and then start again. Plus, after finishing 8 miles, I would have only had 5 miles left to go. That, and I'd need to go through the whole rigamarole (it's a word) of dropping that person off and re-driving the road with the next person to join me. Trust me: it's not worth it.

Anyway, this was by far the most brutal segment(s) of the run, as I expected it would be. First, I was obviously tired from the previous 35 miles, as one might expect. I only had about 45 minutes at home to shower/relax before heading out and my electrolytes were still way off. I was having stomach problems from the massive amounts of Gatorade I had consumed on Saturday. In other words, I was quite a mess.

Karl, bless him, was about as patient as could be. We started running the flat parts and then walking up the hills. That VERY quickly turned into walking the flat parts, the downhills and the uphills. I was obviously sore but wasn't feeling fatigued. However, my new problem was that the outside of my left foot was starting to throb. And I mean, T-H-R-O-B.

I hadn't eaten much that day because I was still having stomach problems. That's an issue because I obviously need food, even on days when I'm not running 24 miles. But I didn't want to get sick, so I had been conservative. The find of the day? Bagels at Dunkin' Donuts. Man, I had two sesame seed bagels, and instantly my brain started to work again and I started to perk up. I clearly needed carbs.

So we did a lot of walking through downtown Nashua, which was pretty but filled with stoplights. I was having time where I felt bad and times where I felt better. Karl just continued to talk to me and make sure I was OK. I was really concerned that my mind wasn't working well and didn't want to run into problems. We talked about sports, law school--pretty much anything to keep my mind occupied and working.

After going through Nashua and into a quiet neighborhood, we finally got back out onto the main shopping district. We were walking slow and I was starting to get really frustrated... really frustrated. I was ready for this to be over, especially at mile 42 when it seemed like we had been walking forever and not getting anywhere.

We had to walk 2 more miles to the car, which would have gotten us to 44 miles. At that point, there was no way I was going to stop. We walked another 2 miles toward Massachusetts, eventually walking just barely into Tyngsboro, MA and passed the Pheasant Lane Mall.

Once we hit 46 miles and turned around to make the last 2 back to the car, I told myself that I needed to run. So I started to run to the stoplight and stop. Then to the green sign above the road. Still feel OK? Now on to the next stop sign. And then the light. And I continued and continued and continued. We finally got back to the car, but we still had another .5 miles to go.

It was in an apartment complex so we just decided to run around the apartments to get the last half mile in. We timed it perfectly to get back to the car right at 48 miles. I was determined not to move a step farther. It worked. We finished, high-fived, took a couple pictures and then high-tailed it out of there. I was going home.

Pictures, statistics, and what went well/lessons learned to follow.