Are you sick of hearing about my race yet? Don’t worry! Regular posts will be resuming soon (including a reading post featuring Pillars of the Earth). But let’s wrap this recap up once and for all.
I slept well the night after my race (gee, I wonder why!) and woke up SO stiff and sore. Everything hurt, except for… get ready for this… MY HAMSTRINGS. Remember that left hamstring that ached continuously for months every step I ran? It was fine. WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON? Did it finally give up and decide to leave my body??? My quads were so, so sore. My shins were killing me. The left knee, the one I feel on, was very stiff. My feet hurt, and let’s not even talk about the toenail situation. My neck and shoulders ached, my back hurt. My hamstrings were fine.
The drive back from Ocala is four hours, but it took my five hours with all the stops I made. While I drove I listened to this episode of the Everyday Ultra podcast, all about post-race recovery. The host, Joe Corcione, said the three main components of physical recovery are sleep, hydration, and nutrition. By “nutrition” I hope he meant a Subway sandwich and Coke Zero.
On the Subway sandwich was mustard and all the vegetables. I added the curry chickpea salad from Nora Cooks (which I brought along in a cold bag) and it was delicious.
Then Joe talked about mental recovery. He said you should ask yourself two questions: first, what am I most proud of?
Hmm! The obvious answer would be, that I finished. But I think really what I’m most proud of is that I had the audacity to believe I could even do this in the first place. Who told me I could attempt such a thing? I’m not a gifted athlete. I’m 59 years old. I’ve never run on a team or had a coach.
When I picked up my packet the night before the race, I had a full-blown attack of imposter syndrome. They can tell I don’t belong here. I don’t look like an ultra runner. I didn’t do enough long runs. My hamstring is injured. My heart was literally pounding with fear just from picking up my race number.
Yet- I showed up at the start the next day, and once I started running I knew that, barring injury or heatstroke, I would finish the race. Belief is a powerful thing.
The next question Joe encourages people to ask is, what did I learn? Note the wording there- not, what went wrong? Yes, mistakes were probably made. But the important thing is, what did I learn?
Well. When I look back on this race, I ran the first 50K well and felt strong. It was in the last 20 miles that I started to fall apart, and the last section I got through on mental strength alone. I talked about being a little disappointed in my finishing place- so many people passed me in that last section. Two people actually came up behind me and passed me right at the finish because I was stumbling around incoherently, trying to figure out which way to go. It would be nice to finish a little stronger than that!
I could blame the sand, the hills, and the heat. But every ultra has SOMETHING, and it’s almost impossible to train for every single thing that might come up. But I think if I were stronger overall, I would be able to withstand the challenges better. So- more strength training at the gym! I’m going to really focus on strength this summer, and also do some hill training on the treadmill.
Does this mean I’m going to do this again? Of course I am!
Is there anything if your life you believe you can do, against all odds?
Top photo by Andy Montes de Oca on Unsplash
One Response
I am not sick of your race recaps—in fact, I’m kind of sad this is the last one! I can’t believe your hamstring – after all those months of drama, it just… behaved? Unbelievable.
But the real heart of this post was your reflection on belief. That took guts, and you showed up anyway. Well done, Jenny!
Excited to see where all this new strength training takes you!