Runner's Ear

I don't think I ever truly talked about my race a week (and a half?) ago. There was so much going on, it kind of got lost in the miasma of family, friends, work, and all the fun things we were doing. For the second time in a week I find myself confused as I have (a) time off and (b) nothing pressing that needs to take up my time.

Except maybe that ginormous pile of laundry that is sitting clean on my bed and needs to be folded.

But who really needs to fold laundry anyways right? I blame my mother for that oversight in teaching me domesticity (not really, just folding laundry for some reason has ever been the bane of my existence).

And for the record, the first time in a week where I've found myself confused was last Tuesday when my family all left and I came home to...nothing pressing. It's an odd feeling after several weeks of go go go go even on my weekends.

Anyways, my race. I started the race seconds after the gun went off because the line for the restrooms was half an hour long and at the point when everyone was lining up, I had reached the very front of the line and was not about to run for two and a half hours with my bladder bitching at me. I was going to have enough things bitching at me, I didn't need one more.

I needn't have worried (not that I did) though because the first several miles of the race were bottlenecked as only two people side by side could run on the trail. There were several points where runners (myself included) bushwhacked a bit just to pass people because we were slowed to a crawl. Not that I'm speedy or anything, but we were pretty backed up. And then people started walking around mile 3 in the middle of the trail and slowed things further. Idiots.

Around mile 7, while bounding down a particularly technical piece of trail (mountain goats would have found it easy peasy, but humans? not so much) I thought to myself that I was feeling pretty good for where I was at. Time-wise, I was slow, but where I expected to be, and my body felt good and the run felt strong.

Then at mile 9, my feet went numb.

It's an unfortunate side effect of my job being on my feet all day. There are some morning where I'll have pins and needles for an hour or so when I get up, and in the evenings when I get home the balls of my feet will be numb and my arches pins and needles. What I should have done was taken the day prior off as well to give my feet a break.

Once the feet went numb, all havoc broke loose. My knees started bitching and no amount of, "Nothing hurts, nothing hurts, nothing hurts" (my mantra for races when my body whines more than I do) made it stop. Mile 10 was rough as I reached the bottom of the trail that entered Shevlin Park, which was the end point for this point-to-point race (interesting concept I might add) and looked up at my nemesis from training — the hardest trail in the park — and thought to myself, "Really???"

At mile 11.75, a finished runner stood by the side of the trail telling us we had two more miles to go. Luckily, my Garmin knew that was wrong, but for a race that was taking everything that I had mentally and physically, it was the last thing I wanted to hear.

Mile 12 saw me at the entrance to Shevlin, mildly confused at what looked like the finish line until I realized that the course shot us back up the road and down another trail to finish the race. Longest mile of my life.

At mile 13, I put on a burst of speed thinking — wrongly, I might add — that as the race was supposed to be 13.1, I only had a tenth of a mile and should finish strong. That speed petered out at 13.15 when I realized there was no finish line immediately in sight.

Luckily, the race ended at 13.3 and I found an unknown reservoir of speed (from where, I have no freaking clue because I thought I was tapped out, finished, finito) and managed to sprint the last 100 yards, finishing the race dead-on at my predicted time of 2:30:00. A lot slower than my past races, but reasonable considering my shape and the technicality and challenge of my first trail half. 

Also, I wanted to let you all know that I spent last Wednesday sitting next to my tomato plant eating all the ripe tomatoes off of it. All 8 of them. Tiny, juicy and sweet. Yum yum.

Ciao,
kc

TUESDAY: split 9 mile ride
MONDAY: 4 miles (really fast as it got DARK!)
SATURDAY: split 9 mile ride
FRIDAY: 4 miles
WEDNESDAY: 5.5 miles