A couple weekends ago I got up real early at my mom’s on a Sunday morning. I went downstairs and grabbed a cup of coffee and made myself a PB&J with extra PB. I sat down in the family room with only the light of my Facebook profile page to light the room. The sandwich went down before the coffee could cool as I inserted some type of witty comment into my status. Natalie’s IPod was still in my sweatshirt pocket so I pulled it out, wiped a couple lint bugs off it and began to set the tune that will stick in my head for the next 6 hours. My next stop was www.weather.com and that’s when it hit me. Ohio was entirely blue and looked like it would be for awhile. Any other Sunday this wouldn’t matter. I walked over and pulled the shades open to see cottonball sized flakes of snow on their final approach to the previous 4 inches that will undoubtally haunt me at some point. I took my new found nausea into the kitchen and began to get dressed…2 layers on top, bodyglide the unmentionables, man tights, and an awesome pair of trail shoes (with no ankle support). Natalie came to join me in the kitchen. She wasn’t all that hungry after looking outside. I filed her gel container and topped off my perpetuem. We headed out in the dark to join all the others at the Boston Store. I’ll say, that when we arrived I was feeling much better. I could see Natalie was not, or maybe it was just the odd yellow reflection of car lights off of the snow covered roads that made her that shade of worry. What we have decided to do is run a little diddy called the BT50K. Natalie was running her first half and I was planning on the full 31. Why not run my first marathon as an ultra in the snow in January…?
Fast forward a little. We start running in the dark. Not so bad except that it feels like I’m trying to run on the beach. The pace felt really slow but, no one is jockeying for their final position. Everyone is running in a row. I was thinking this going to suck when we cross back through and there’s 2 people on a single track. About 3 miles later that’s the case, except everyone coming at me decided that they were not moving. Oh well. I was running 10 minute miles with a 19 yr old kid from Kent and I was feeling great. Around mile 14 I decided to back off a bit. We were still running in sand. No grip. My ankles were screaming and these other runners would not get off the single track one bit. I was always jumping into the deep snow on the downhills. The group I was running with started to pull away a little and I stuck with my decision to back off. The fuel was going, and I stuck to my Hammer. Problem was that no gel was put out for the runners until mile 19. That was not cool. I had my own but, I planned to mix in theirs as well so I didn’t have to carry all this crap.
Now for the hard part…
My group was long gone, no one was behind me either. My ankles are screaming, or maybe it’s just the my body trying to reason with my will to keep going. The math has begun. Ok, in about 15 minutes I will be at the 9 miles left mark. IT bands hurt but still tolerable. Ankles hurt, quads on fire but, I’m starting to feel better…right? This is that part where I sorta of detach from myself. There’s this quote that I always here from ultra runners. “If you start to feel good during an ultra, Don’t worry it’ll pass”. Not true for me right? This is my final surge. I’m going to kick ass today. I finally enter the “9 miles left” aid station and I did something stupid. I walked. I bent over and stretched my back then turned around and headed out. The person at the aid station offered me some ramen noodles. I ain’t eating that. It’ll make you fat I replied. Funny? She didn’t laugh either. So in the next 200 yds I began the end of my day.
I’m coming down a moderate hill and my right knee is starting to make this clicking sound with a lot of pain every time I bend it. I figured it would work itself out as usuall. Ten minutes goes by and I’m only ½ a mile further and hurting real bad. It would be real nice to have a running buddy right about now. So I’m starting to think to myself, can I even make it back to Boston Store. 4 miles aint so bad, who cares if I can’t lift my legs anymore. Over the next 45 minutes I find that powerwalking (that is walking real fast like) is my best bet. I have decided that 26 miles will do it for me today. I’m about 1.5 miles out from the store and here comes Pat. Apparently I had just missed him when I ran by an hour ago. He came to help me get through that last 9…or 4 now. I keep trying to run but, it’s just not happening. I could hear my IT bands clicking and the pain at this point was not even worth enduring at this race. At Ironman I’d go for it. Not in January. I finally make it back and go for some chili. They gave me my jacket but, I don’t think I’ll really wear it. One, it has VR real big across the back and two I don’t think I earned it that day.
Natalie did real good. She finished her first half marathon graced with a new understanding of what longer running is about. I’m proud of her. Now if she could take the time and train properly and allow her body to absorb and adapt, maybe she would be able to walk the day/week after.
That’s all for now.
No comments:
Post a Comment