Umm, maybe you had some edema along with the pedal bruising? 

I got a pretty good case of edema from upper knee to my toes after my 1st AZT 300, and a light case after the 2009 CTR.  It almost knocked Mary Collier out of the 2008 TD.  I think it is somewhat common on multi-days, about the 3rd day or after you stop.  Anyway I now carry a off the shelf pair of compression stocking that I slip on at night, some days I have left them on till my lunch break.  I am investigating compression tights and/or thigh high stockings.

Just finished AZT 300 and had the same thing.  My lower legs were all swollen up to my knee; people were commenting on how jacked my calves looked.  They were less impressed when I put big dents in my shin with my thumb 

So I haven't seen much about this topic on the forum so far but I find it hard to believe that I am the only one.  During the 300 I almost dropped out several times due to lower back pain, hand and foot pain and saddle sores.  It took the better part of 100 ibuprofens and several thermacare wraps to keep the pain managable.    How do you guys deal with this?

Nice but….I sort of wish I would not have read your write up.  Brings back all my AZT memories, makes me wish the AZT was in my 2010 plans

Oh, and is sounds like you got the endurance bug in a bad way now, soon it will be more AZT, then some CTR, GL, GD etc etc……….you are doomed

haha yup I'm addicted.  Training for CTR starts now, I feel like I can't fake my way through that one like I did during the 300

ride report is posted
http://jonesy792.blogspot.com/2010/03/arizona-trail-300-itt.html

thanks guys for all the support.  Knowing that there were eyes in the sky watching definitely provided that little extra motivation that I needed at times.  The race report is coming soon, I promise

I have a business proposition for you: open a snack bar on the gasline between reddington rd. and the control rd. I can guarantee at least one customer this weekend :-D

wow scott I'm impressed, I just looked over the detour and not only did you find a route that is more exciting than dirt road but also one with an equal amount of climbing and less resupply than the original. 

You can take some roads, the gasline, the haul road, then control road, and maybe even climb up to descend Cody trail.  Seems like a pretty legit detour to me.  It actually adds mileage, making the 300 a legit 300! 

too legit to quit!

He'll be on the AZT tracker.  I'll post more about that when he's rolling.

so its not just new to me trail, but new to me trail that I'm not allowed to find out about beforehand.  I'm excited 

gah I've got summer class thru july 27 :-(

Yeah I was preparing to do just that (you should have seen me last night trying to figure out how to lash my bike to my pack with para cord).  Unless someone can hook me up with some bikepackable snowshoes in the next 24 hours I think it would be best to detour.  It is my first 300 after all

I just talked to a guy at work who has backcountry skied lemmon since the mid 90's and he was convinced that the last couple storms will leave the trails and road impassable thru next weekend with hip deep snow in places.  The new plan is to detour down reddington rd, head out to san manuel and take the dirt road west out of san manuel to reconnect to the course

toby you have those two mixed up.  The tracker is the first generation unit and the messenger is the second generation unit.  The new spot has 3.5-7 days tracking capability before the battery dies vs. 14 days for the old unit. 

Haha that's true, I've got it all figured out now.  Transportation logistics are done, weather looks like it will cooperate, I've written the grocery list and taken vacation time from work.  Now I have no excuses to back out :-D

Fair point scott.  Now to figure out how to get to the start line....

hmm mabe a pair of these could come in handy.... http://www.rei.com/product/760280

I'm starting next Friday (3/12). 

IIRC there was a similar decision to be made for including 10 mile in last years CTR.  I think the choices were between "the colorado trail race" and "the colorado trail race except for some sections that we don't want to do".  Do you want the 300 to be known as "300 miles of AZT except for some sections we don't want to do"?

hey scott, do you have an idea when that GPS track will be done?

Sorry tom, no offense was meant. I was referencing your stopping in salida to regroup/recover and still going on to finish instead of just dropping out.  My comment was that I hope to finish even if it means that I have to lay low for a couple of days to recover.  Congrats on your finish, I was following your tracker the entire way.

Oohh.. it does affect you, huh.  Unlikely to be snow there come April, but in two weeks...

Well seeing as I have practically zero bike fitness right now the chance of me getting far enough to use that clause is slim...

Can we enact a snow clause like with the north rim?