I must confess, I'm feeling pretty blessed right about now. My last post was all about how I stupidly hurt my hamstring attempting cartwheels for the first time in years. Yep, cartwheels are for the young. Or the gymnastic inclined folk. I am neither. I used to at least fall into the young category but life rudely and brutally informed me I have passed that category right on by! Life could use some skills in how to deliver bad news. Ha! Anyway, there hasn't been much running to report as I spent a good deal of summer resting that muscle and then trying to strengthen and lengthen it again. Honestly, it could have been so much worse. I was able to get back out on the roads fairly quickly. I did, however, find it really slowed me down. I had to introduce a lot more walk breaks and a shorter stride and this greatly impacted my pace. I also found running uphill was not a happy place. Goodbye to all the hard work I'd put in running hills. Goodbye to all the work I'd spent running sprints and fartleks. Once again, running fast and uphill seems impossibly hard. But if these last two weekends have taught me nothing, it's taught me that hard is a perspective and as I said, I am feeling blessed!
Why?
Because I am able to run and get in miles despite my slower pace. I didn't have to give up the races on my agenda. By taking it easy and lowering my expectations I am at least able to participate in this sport I love. Hurray!
I slowly built my distance back up, utlizing a mostly a 2:2 run/walk ratio, sometimes 3:2 and eventually I increased my running duration to 4 or 5 minutes and decreased my walking to a minute. When I did a long run I adjusted even more as needed. If the leg began to feel tired I adjusted some more. I threw away all time expectations and simply focused on mileage and how I felt. I used my foam roller and a tennis ball, I stretched, I did hamstring specific exercises and it worked! Whew! Relief!
On September 9th, 2 months after the dreaded injury, I was actually at the start line for the Hamster Endurance 12 hour feeling confident I could at least do a marathon and hopeful I could hit 50K. My original goal of 50 miles was long since set aside and it was nice to have that pressure taken off (even though I would have loved to have another 50 miles under my belt). But I knew I could probably reach 50K in 12 hours as long as I was patient and walked when I needed to. I actually may have pushed this race harder except I also knew that I had signed up for Beat the Blerch Marathon the following weekend so with this realization firmly planted in my brain, I set off with my conservative running plan.
My husband had signed up for the 6 hour but had also been dealing with his own injury issues (a cranky case of runner's knee) so we ran the first two loops together. Eventually, we harmoniously parted ways as he needed to speed up for his knee and I needed to slow down (shorten my stride) for my hamstring. Plus, he was tired of the frequent walk breaks. He changed his mind about those later in the day.
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| My awesome built in running partner |
After a super hot and record breaking dry summer in the PNW we wound up with rain on race day. It was supposed to be light showers on and off but instead we had full on rain for most of the day. There was also wind. In other words, it was actually somewhat cold! In the later miles I was actually thinking gloves would have been nice to have on my frozen fingers. Also by later miles I was super happy I'd brought my Skirt Sports Bolero to keep the rain and wind off my arms and shoulders. It was a lifesaver! But otherwise, I felt pretty good in the cooler temps. If my leg had been pre-injury shape I think I could have gotten that 50 mile goal. Oh well. No sense thinking about that now!
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| Ducks at the aid station |
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| The course is a 2.6 mile loop around Lake Padden in Bellingham, WA |
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| Gloomy day at the lake |
I was nearing 3 1/2 hours into the race when I finally saw Skirt Sports Ambassador, Kim Ratliff, on the course. We met up at the beginning of the race, took a photo, and then set off on our own paces with the promise we'd do a couple loops together later in the day. Kim was battling her own issues with things that slow down your goals and had decided to walk much of the time with as much running as she could. Like my husband, she too had signed up for the 6 hour. It's amazing how just a little bit of timing sequence can put you off of catching someone on a loop. I had hoped to catch her sooner but in the end, 3.5 hours was pretty perfect because it gave me a rest from running and gave her a push as her time neared its end. I walked 2.5 loops with her and enjoyed every minute of the companionship! Eventually, my husband looped us both and joined us in our walking. His knee was not happy at this point and he had been ready to call it quits when he saw us. We all reached the aid station with both Kim and Chris (my hubby) talking about that being it for them but somehow, they both found it in them to walk one more loop. Kim ended with 18 miles which was her longest distance in years! So proud of her! My husband got 23'sh miles in for the day which was more than he had planned on so kudos to him, too! They both got to leave at this point while I had to wander on by myself. Oh, woe is me! Ha ha!
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| Fellow Skirt Sports Ambassador, Kim and me pre-race! |
Actually, at this point I had a second wind and I felt pretty strong for my next two loops. I ran quite a bit and my spirits were high. I found myself chatting with others on the course here and there and enjoying the solitude when I was alone. It was here when I started considering going just beyond the 50K mark. People had actually been dropping out due to the weather and I while I knew I wouldn't be in running for 1st place I wondered if I could perhaps finish somewhere near the top if I could just eek out a few extra miles. It really was a battle between my body and my mind at this point with neither of them able to figure out what they wanted to do. Sometimes my body would resist and tell me my feet hurt. Other times it would say it felt pretty good and this weather was perfect running temps for me. My brain would say I still had plenty of energy left and was still smiling so I should go on but then in the next moment it would remind me I still had a marathon the next weekend and a still healing leg. And then my body and brain worked together to give me an ocular migraine, yet, despite it, I still felt pretty okay. In the end, they agreed that one more loop beyond 50K would be my ending point. They came to this agreement during that final loop. My feet were so sore and my hamstring, while not hurting, was feeling tired and I knew I needed to take it easy if I wanted to accomplish a marathon in a week. I'm happy to say that energy wise I still felt pretty good. Had my leg not been the iffy thing it was, or had I not had another race around the corner, I would have continued on easily. Well, not easily but nothing is easy at that point! I stopped at 33.8 miles in 9 hours and 56 minutes and felt happy and content with my end result. And I ended up getting 4th place in the women's 12 hour. I got 4th place the first year I did this race in 2015, only that year I did 46.8 miles. I guess I like 4th place.
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| Bling from the Hamster Endurance Run |
As always, the aid station, the volunteers and Kelly, the race director, were all awesome. I can't give them enough props for standing outside all those hours in the rain and wind. Funny thing was, the wind was really only bad right there at the aid station where they all had to stand.
At some point I had texted my husband to come get me at 6:00 p.m. so I didn't have to wait long for him to arrive once I called it "good enough". We were camping nearby at Larrabee State park so he only had a short jaunt to get me and we had a short jaunt back to the camper where I was happy to jump into a tiny rv sized, yet warm, shower. The good thing about finishing 2 hours early was we had plenty of time to clean me up and head into town for some dinner. Chris chose burgers from a local burger joint. The food was good but unfortunately for me, my appetite hadn't kicked in yet so I really only nibbled at my food despite thinking I'd devour it before we arrived. The appetite, post long endurance push, can be fickle. At least mine is! Don't worry though, I spent the following two days eating everything around me. I had to not only refuel what I'd used up but stock up for the next push. I'm really good at this part of training. Speaking of being good at the eating part of marathon training ... check back in and I'll rehash my time at the Blerch Marathon!
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| Who doesn't want to eat back a bunch of burned calories? |
