February Runfessions
Well, let’s see! In the past week I sprained my ankle, nearly froze to death, and DNF’d my big race. After all that, what more could there be to runfess? Oh, I can probably come up with a few things! Thanks as always to Marcia. What would we do without her monthly “runfessional?” The first thing I would runfess is that I haven’t really been missing running this week. I know! Who am I? I guess I knew I wouldn’t be running anyway (when I, ahem, thought I would be running 50 miles on Saturday) so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything. I’ve seen a lot of the bike at the gym this week…. but I’ll runfess that my good attitude might start to wane if I’m on the bike much longer. I’ll also runfess that I’m, er, enjoying my race “swag.” This race was minimalistic in that department. When I checked in I got a nice sticker and a cap. It wasn’t much, but that’s okay (I thought), I’ll be getting a medal at the finish. (oh, no you won’t!) What I did get is a lovely towel- the towel they wrapped around me at the aid station when I was shaking and shivering. Three hours later, no one could remember who it belonged to, and my aid station friend probably just wanted me and the wet, grubby, muddy towel OUT OF HIS TRUCK. So he told me to keep it. That’s it! Come back on Sunday for the Weekly Rundown, where you’ll hear more than you ever wanted to know about my ankle. What’s the weirdest race swag you’ve ever gotten? Header photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash
…And All the Rest
For a race I DNF’d, I sure have a lot to say! I’m going to start off with the story of Jonathan. For this race, we had to park at the finish and take a shuttle to the start. That bus ride to the start was almost thirty minutes long, and I sat next to a young man named Jonathan. I’ll say he’s 23 years old, because he told me he went into the military right out of high school, and has been in for five years. Jonathan was terrified. He told me he wasn’t really a runner, that he didn’t even like running, and had signed up for the 50 mile race because his friends convinced him. He told me the farthest he had ever run was 20 miles, and he didn’t know if he could complete the 50. I told him he absolutely could do it, and we discussed fueling strategies- he said he was so nervous he hadn’t eaten anything yet that day- and mental strategies we could use to get through the race. He kept saying things like “We have three hours to make it to the first aid station, and that’s ten miles- I know I can at least do that!” He had a piece of paper with all the cutoff times written on it. Finally we got there, I wished him good luck, and the race started. I saw him twice on the course-once I passed him, waved and gave him a thumbs up, and then when I was walking he passed me. At that point he said his hips hurt, but he was running and he looked good. Go Jonathan! After that I dropped out, so I didn’t see any more of him. The next day I checked the results. For the 50 mile race, there were 109 finishers, 16 DNF’s (sigh) and 14 DNS (Did Not Start.) I scanned the list of finishers, looking for Jonathan’s name. My eyes went down… and down… and there, at the very bottom, the last finisher was Jonathan. JONATHAN!!! He FINISHED! He was DFL- Dead Freaking Last- which in ultra running is a sort of honor. The DFL is the one out there the longest and presumably had to fight the hardest to get to the finish. Jonathan’s finish time was 15:40, twenty minutes before cutoff. When I think of what he must have gone through, out in the cold, rain, mud, for almost sixteen hours… the last four or five in the dark…I can only imagine this was a life-changing experience for him. My eyes well up with tears every time I picture him crossing the finish line. So… what’s next? As soon as she found out what happened, Darlene sent me a text: “50 miler near my friend in April. Maybe you will heal quick.” Yep… she gets me. Darlene was referring to a Florida race in early April, and there’s another 50 miler at the end of April that I’ve had my eye on. I’m thinking about doing one of those, but it all depends on how fast my ankle heals. The good news is, I think it’s a mild sprain. I can walk on it, slowly. It’s hard to move it side to side, but the discoloration is already fading. There’s still a lot of swelling, but it already feels better than it did a few days ago. I’m hopeful. An ultra in April is possible, but I’m not signing up for anything yet. My daughter said she think my injured foot looks better than the other one, because the non-injured one is so “boney and veiny.” I believe this is what’s known as adding insult to injury. And, what about Forgotten Florida? You might remember they had announced this was the last year this race would be held, which is one of the reasons I wanted to do it so badly. Apparently another group held an event in this area and left behind a lot of trash (WHO WOULD DO THAT?) so they said no more events. But… This race director donates a lot of money to the Florida Trail, and does a lot of work maintaining the trail system. Governor DeSantis intervened on his behalf, and convinced the powers-that-be to allow the race to be held again next year. I’m pretty sure I’ve never said this before but- thank you, Ron DeSantis! So….. will I try again? Honestly, right now I’m still trying to shake off some PTSD (the mud… the cold…) but in a few months I’ll probably be ready for redemption. Who wants to come down and run it with me next year??? – I’ll bring the rain ponchos.
Forgotten Florida 50 Mile Race Recap- Live and Learn
This definitely isn’t the race recap I wanted to write, or the one I thought I’d be writing. On Sunday when I shared that I DNF’d, several people commented that it was due to factors “beyond my control.” But I’ll be honest- I think most of this was within my control, and not just bad luck. Let’s get right into it, and talk about THE WEATHER. I’m not trying to make any excuses here- I’m just trying to explain my thought process. As you may remember, leading up to the race I was concerned about being too hot, but as race day approached it was looking cooler and rainy. Here’s the forecast the morning of the race: Okay- 66 degrees isn’t cold, is it? BACK ME UP, PEOPLE. I run in tank tops almost year-round. On New Year’s Eve, it was 49 degrees when I started my long run, and I was wearing a tank top. Of course, it was sunny. But 60 degrees at the start and cloudy didn’t seem too cold at all- actually, I was excited about it- and the rain wasn’t due to start until noon. There was my first mistake- I based my whole race, the race I had trained for and dreamed about for months and months, on a weather forecast. We all know forecasts aren’t 100% accurate, and this one wasn’t. The temperature hovered around 60 the entire time, and it rained steadily for almost the whole day. Here I am at the start. I wasn’t uncomfortable at all- maybe slightly chilly, but that’s the way you want to feel before a race, because when you start running you’ll warm up. That is, if you’re running fast. But the start of this race was very slow because there was a lot of technical single-track, which meant some slow running and walking in places. And… it started raining about ten minutes into the race. At this point, many runners stopped and pulled rain jackets out of their bags. Silly runners! (I thought.) You’ll be much too warm in those! It was beautiful though, running through the woods. I couldn’t take any pictures because I couldn’t exactly hold up an entire line of runners behind me while I got my phone out (“Sorry everyone, just hold on a second while I get some photos for my blog!”) It went on like that for a few miles, and then we emptied out onto a wider dirt path. After a mile or so we were back in the woods, and now there were some muddy areas, some of which had little “bridges” over them. Again no photos, because it was very wet and slippery, and I was just focused on staying upright. At one point I asked the woman behind me if she wanted to pass me and she said “no, this isn’t the time to go fast- this is the time for caution.” Here’s a photo I took a little later on, to give you an idea: At this point I was still feeling good and enjoying the trail. I did notice that my arms felt cold, but the rest of me was warm. At around mile 5 I took a Lara bar out of my pack, and I noticed that it was hard to get my pack unzipped and the bar open because my hands were so cold. Hmm. Around mile 8 we had a two mile stretch on a road. By this point I realized I needed to move faster in order to warm up, so I booked it. Of course that’s a relative term- at one point I looked down at my watch and saw that I was running around 9:40 pace. I passed so many runners on this stretch, and it wasn’t because I was feeling competitive or I was trying to make up time- I was simply trying to warm up. It worked, and I felt pretty good. When I got to the 10 mile aid station everything was still feeling good, except I was having a lot of trouble moving my fingers. The aid station volunteers refilled my water bottles, and I was on my way. Now we were back on trails, and it was dawning on me that I was seriously underdressed. I had a hat, gloves, and arm warmers in my drop bag, which I would see at the 30 mile aid station. Well, that was a long way away, but at least there was hope. I resigned myself to being cold for a while, and just tried to move as quickly as possible. It was just before I came to the next aid station, at 15 miles, that I twisted my ankle and fell. It wasn’t even on a super technical area- it was just grassy, and I guess I hit a little rut and went down. In retrospect, I think that my concentration and coordination were affected because I was so cold. Of course I’ll never know for sure, but I think it’s very possible that’s why I fell. I got to the aid station, and I knew my ankle was hurt but I couldn’t tell how bad it was. I had to ask the aid station volunteer to unzip the pocket of my shorts, take out my energy bar, and unwrap it for me, because I knew my fingers couldn’t do it. And then I continued on. I figured I would walk for a little until my ankle felt up to running, but after a few minutes I noticed something alarming- my teeth were chattering. I knew I had to run, so I tried it. Running didn’t seem to hurt more than walking- my ankle hurt either way. If this had been a flat surface I might have been able to run for a while. The problem was, it wasn’t flat. It was rooty, wet, and muddy. Every time I stepped down on an uneven surface (i.e. every other step) there was a fresh jolt of
Weekly Rundown- I Can Explain…
Well, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is, I DNF’d my race. I know- that’s VERY bad news. The good news is, I didn’t die of hypothermia (like I thought I might) or have to have my foot chopped off (like I thought I might.) Read on for details… but first, I’m linking up with Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Rundown. Let’s start with the beginning of the week… Monday This was a gym day- I walked one mile on the treadmill, then did upper body- bench press, reverse fly, abs, low back. I read somewhere that women shouldn’t taper strength too early, because they need the testosterone. While I didn’t do any lower body this week, I tried to make this workout hard. Did it make any difference? Probably not, but it felt good. Tuesday On this day, the forecast was still showing very warm weather for race day. Even though it was in the 60s I wore my long sleeve shirt (trying to make myself as hot as possible) and carried my double hydration vest, just to get the feel of it (all my long runs have been so cool, I only needed my single bottle vest.) 3 mile run, followed by dead bugs. Wednesday This was an exciting day- Darlene was in town, so we met at Yamato Scrub for a long walk! This is the sandy trail I did all my long runs on when training for my 50K last year, and it’s so pretty. It was fun to show it to Darlene! We walked for two hours, which was longer than I planned, but we were gabbing away and the time went quickly. So fun to have a blogger meetup! Thursday Last run before the race! I walked a mile, then ran 2. Done! I got through the training without hurting myself! Friday Day off! During the time I usually exercise in the morning, I packed. And then after work I drove up to my hotel in Titusville! Saturday I”ll go into much greater detail in Tuesday’s race recap (because even though I DNF’d I still have LOTS TO SAY) but the short version is, I DNF’d due to a combination of poor clothing choices and some bad luck. I was so focused on not being hot, that I failed to realize 60 degrees can be cold IF IT’S RAINING STEADILY. I had to move pretty quickly to hold some heat in, and then around mile 15 I twisted my ankle and fell hard. At that point I had to keep going for 8 more miles to make it to the next aid station- there was no other choice. But now I couldn’t move fast, so by the time I got to the mile 23 aid station I was literally shaking and my teeth were chattering. The runners ahead of me had warned them I was coming, and one of the aid station volunteers already had his truck running with the heat blasting, and he ushered me right in. I told him right away that I was a DNF. As I sat there trying to warm up (and contemplating my life choices) I could hear them warning runners starting off on the next loop, “Be careful! It’s VERY muddy and slippery out there!” and there was no question in my mind I had made the right choice. I mean, I’m obviously disappointed about how this race turned out, but going on would have been dangerous, and I stand by that decision. Or at least, I would if I could actually stand. It just wasn’t my day. But that’s life- you have to take the good with the bad. There will be plenty more races! Sunday Oh boy, this will be fun. First I have to drive home- luckily it’s my left ankle. Then there will be more icing and resting. Fun times ahead! Have you ever DNF’d a race? – I think this was my first one! Ever sprained your ankle? – I sprained the other one years ago, and didn’t really enjoy the experience.