so the race was killer. i don't think i could have even imagined something this hard. all the plans i had in my head as to how to tackle it, did nothing. 13.1 miles of brutality. so i went out the gate thinking i can do it, slow and steady, and NO walking. well, that was the plan. at about a mile into it, people were walking. the slowdown began and there was no getting past it--the first real hill, and it was narrow and slick, and everyone filed along--think "trail of tears". and this went on for sometime. the first 5k took almost 50 minutes. we did the 5k loop twice, equaling 10k...and then from there we went on to ascend a 1200 foot hill in under 1 mile. so once i reached the top--things went well for a while. the descent was awesome...about 3 or 4 miles of downhill. i was in heaven. of course that was when my stomach started cramping--ugh. it hurt. at about mile 11.5 we had our last aid station and as i was running through grabbing some water and who was there: Rhonda--my college girlfriend. i called out her name, to say hi, but she had no idea who i was--either she didn't recognize because of the weight loss or because of I was running. so at about mile 12ish, things feel apart--by body started to shut down: my legs cramped almost to the point in which i couldn't walk; i was stumbling; and i was close to out of it. the last mile or so, i walked and ran, walked and ran, etc. however, i RAN across the finish line.
i wish i could say the adventure ended there, but it didn't. my nutrition plan failed. my coach and i went into it with the idea of using two or three gels before the monster hill, but i used almost that many in the first 4 miles. so i was out of gels by mile 6. they handed some out at aid stations, but thankfully i read the ingredients--otherwise i would have been sucking down some gels with dairy...who knew that there would be a gel that was lactard-unapproved. needless to say--i crossed the line, but things didn't end well. after trying to get water in for about 10 minutes, i decided to go visit the medics. i spent about 40 minutes at the medics, warming up, trying to take in fluids, and getting oxygen. it was a little scary--i went there because i wasn't sure i would make it to the car, and if i did would i be able to drive. but i am fine now--sore but fine.
my end time 3:44--minutes before the 4 hour cut-off time.
2 comments:
One word for you, Crage: OUTSTANDING! I was not terribly up on how challenging that race was, but now that I did a bit of research, I'm very impressed. Also, how the heck did you find your way into that newspaper article again? I was also quoted recently in the paper, but for work which is stupid. I really hope my knee gets better so that I can make some race reports for you soon.
doost: i think i may have told you, but they called me. the north face called be back in april (early i think) and asked if they could give my name out to people doing a story on it. i said sure. so they called be several weeks ago, interviewed, and then put me in the paper. what i didn't realize is that the story would have no one else. i was the story and that was part of why, in my nervousness i knew i couldn't back out.
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