Ok, so it’s been a while since my last post. I won’t bother making up for lost time, but I will sum up a few things. Last weekend I ran my first race ever. Greg, Zach, Taylor and myself all participated in the Anthem 5k in Louisville. Everyone did well and finished in the top 1/4 (or better) of all runners. The Monday before that was when I had a bad ankle sprain (which is still tender when I rotate my foot the wrong way). I went out of town that week and was still too sore to run the mid-week 10 miler. So, besides a 7 miler last Thursday, the longest run prior to yesterdays 17 miler was the 15 miler two weeks ago…not good for the training.
Yesterday was by far the hardest thing, both physically and mentally, I’ve ever gone through. Friday and Saturday provided the biggest snow storm we’ve had in central KY in some time. When we got to the park Saturday morning, the neighborhood roads had not been cleared, but as Chuck put it, this was not just about running 17 miles, it was a quest…something we could tell our grandkids about. Mike, Zach and Bobby decided to put the run off until today…probably a smart move.
The first 3 or so miles were actually kind of fun…like an adventure. At about the 3 mile mark, David asked me how I felt and if I thought I could do 14 more….at the time I felt good and said I believe I can….boy did I have some news coming. By the time we got to about mile 7 or so I realized this run was taking its toll on me. It was at that time that I took half of my only package of shot block energy. Just as we were finishing the first loop, my feet went out from under me and before I knew what happened I was on my rump (feels a little bruised today, but not bad). At the halfway point I was already physically exhausted, so I took the remainder of my energy pack. It was also at this time that I realized I was getting pretty dehydrated. I could only pee about two tablespoons and the color was extremely dark and orange/yellow…not good.
By mile 10, my body was pretty much shot, and it was at this time that I started getting very bad chafing (sp?) going on in my upper, inner thigh area. It was a struggle to even put one foot infront of the other. The pain and fatigue were setting in quickly and hard. I had to walk several times for the last 7 miles. I also could not get enough water to drink…thanks Greg for giving me your water bottle. I mentioned to Taylor how exhausted I was and he agreed and mentioned that he was also chafing and in pain. He also mentioned something else that hadn’t occured to me. When running in the snow, you are using almost every muscle in your body to stablize yourself. When he said that, it hit me that not only were my legs extremely exhausted, but also my entire back and shoulders. Chuck and Taylor really stuck it out with me for about the last 7 miles; encouraging me to run some and walk some. Taylor actually came up with the idea that we’d run for 5 minutes and walk for one….everytime he said it was time to run, it was like someone was punching me in the face.
At about the 15.5 mile mark, we realized we didn’t know where we were. So, we wandered around for a while until we found a nice lady to tell us how to get where we were going. At this time I must have looked to that lady like someone on psychodelic drugs. Looking back on it, being as dehydrated and exhausted as I was, I was probably in that state of mind.
The ride home was also an adventure because the exhaustion actually caused me to have a hard time staying awake. My eyes were heavy most of the ride home. I took about 3 naps yesterday afternoon for a combined 7 hrs. BTW, I weighed myself yesterday morning (before the run) and when I got home…dropped 3 lbs…that’s a lot of weight to lose in that short of time.
I’ve got to give mad props to Chuck and Taylor for hanging back with me and helping me struggle to the finish. Sorry if I held you all back. I hope you all realize what it means to me that you all did that.
This morning I was physically ill from about 12 am until around 11ish. I assume it was just a bug…or did I get something from Doug (my boss who showed up to work Thursday after being sick in a hotel room for 2 days while on a business trip)?
A lot of feelings are running through my head as I write this blog. I can’t figure out why I was so dehydrated. I drank probably a gallon of water Friday. Was the dehydration the cause of my exhaustion? Afterall, even though I hadn’t had a real long run in two weeks, I only missed a 10 and 4 miler, but to make up for it, I went on an extremely difficult mountain bike ride for 4.5 hrs last sunday. The chafing was pretty bad (got some blood from it), but was it really that bad? Did I not have enough energy blocks? Probably not, but was that really it? Was it the snow? Everyone else did ok with the snow. Did I already have the bug that made me so sick this morning and was it already affecting me? Was it a combination of everything? I feel like I’ve proven I can do this, the 15 miler was tough, but not too bad and I felt like I finished fine…this time, though, I only got to about 10 miles before I felt like I hit the wall. What happened?
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