Well, I’ve got 5 minutes for another quick post-event note before I return to my self-induced 36-hour coma!
So … the question is “what hurts?” … Maybe, it should be “what doesn’t hurt?” If you asked me the question when I got home this morning at 10:00am, I’d tell you the only thing that didn’t hurt on my body was probably my eyebrows!! But seriously though, I think the major factor in how I’m feeling, and probably what the other guys are feeling (maybe not Florin since he’s so fit) is general fatigue and exhaustion. Let’s not forget that during the past 48 hours, we slept a maximum of 2 hours while the rest of the time we were hiking through some very challenging mountain terrain … but we’ll get to that during the full hike write-up.
Back to the question at hand … and trying to answer with all seriousness … pretty much everything below the waist hurts … thigh and calf muscles, groin, every bone and joint in the foot … upper back muscles and rib cage … etc …
But on the very good news, the parts which are most common injuries for such an event and which I was worries about made it through without any issues … my knees, especially the left one which I injured during the Mt. Kumotori hike, made it through just fine … as well as my ankles. All the credit for their survival goes to proper support … braces for my knees … and heavy taping for the ankles, which by the way prevented any blistering as well. I cannot stress enough the importance of knee supports and ankle taping for this kind of stressful, endurance exercise. Quite a number of retirements which we heard about during the event were related to ankle and knee injuries.
OK … I’m off to bed again for plenty more sleep … but I’ll leave you with this great video on ankle taping instruction and best practices.