One of my goals for the year is to update more frequently! Feel free to nag me about this if I start falling behind.
My first race(s) of the year are coming up already. I've had the Freeze Yer Gizzard Blizzard Run on my list since high school and have never managed to make it up to International Falls for the race despite growing up not all that far of a drive away! Well this year, I'm finally going! And hey, why drive all that way for just a 5K? They've set it up so that the 10K starts an hour after the 5K and that way, a person can run both of them - and you don't even have to pay double the entry fee! Of course, I haven't done anything short and fast in ages so this could be an interesting outing to say the least but it will definitely be a fun time. Then there's the part where the high for next Thursday is -4. Yes, the high. Granted, this IS Minnesota so not only can you not trust that forecast, but the forecast could be completely accurate and it could still be 40 by that Saturday. I'll let you know, though.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Goals from 2012
Happy New Year!
Time to review my goals from 2012:
1. Run at least a 3:30 at Fargo. Not quite. However! I ran a 3:34.24 for a 2 minute PR and good enough to qualify me back into Boston so I can't help but be happy about this one, anyway. I'm in process of figuring out what I want my goal at Boston to be and after that I'm done with road marathons for a little while because I'm sick of roads. Granted, I'm not saying how LONG a little while but at least a year and no reason to plan beyond that, right?
2. Stay injury free! Hmmmm. Another fail. But!! This one being a freak accident and not my fault, I actually feel as though I DID succeed with this since I didn't do anything stupid and this was mainly aimed at not getting injured by over-training or the like. I've just been klutzy this year and have two nice scars on my left leg to show it. Left leg, mind you. Same as the meniscus tear. Same as my two college injuries. Apparently my left leg hates me. Or I stepped on kryptonite that one race . . .
3. Get heat acclimated at least as well as last year/don't be afraid of the heat. Well, success, I guess. I didn't really get to test it out too much being injured for July and not running much in August but I've mostly ceased to view hot gross weather as something I can't handle.
4. See what kind of mileage my legs can handle and confidently make up my mind by June about my fall running plans and train well for whatever the plans end up to be. I did, in fact, make up my mind about the fall. Of course, this was determined for me by an injury . . . but details, details, right?
5. Log. Every. Run. Mostly success here. I know I've missed logging a few runs but less than 50 miles worth, for sure. So that makes this the first year I've had anything like a total yearly mileage. It's a lower number than I wanted but that makes it easy to improve on this year! I'm most happy with the fact that while I could only run 34 injured miles in July, I was able to bike 148.2 during the last three weeks which is pretty cool for someone who's never really biked for fitness before. I'm looking around at some other methods of logging but I think I'm going to stick with just entering it into Google Calendar. It's easy and while it doesn't add things up for me, I like it. Most importantly, it seems to be something that I can keep on top of.
Next post will be my goals for 2013! One goal I suggest for everyone? Volunteer at a race! It's loads of fun and if you run races it just makes sense to give back to the running community by working them. Races can't happen without the help of lots of people, so pick a race that maybe doesn't fit into your racing schedule or maybe it's a distance you aren't ready for yet and sign up to take care of your fellow runners. You'll probably find some inspiration for your next year along the way :) I challenge every single one of you reading this to work at least one race in 2013. No matter where you live, there's a race right down the road you can work at.
And on one last note - one of my goals for next year is to blog more regularly! Feel free to yell at me to help me keep up on that way.
Time to review my goals from 2012:
1. Run at least a 3:30 at Fargo. Not quite. However! I ran a 3:34.24 for a 2 minute PR and good enough to qualify me back into Boston so I can't help but be happy about this one, anyway. I'm in process of figuring out what I want my goal at Boston to be and after that I'm done with road marathons for a little while because I'm sick of roads. Granted, I'm not saying how LONG a little while but at least a year and no reason to plan beyond that, right?
2. Stay injury free! Hmmmm. Another fail. But!! This one being a freak accident and not my fault, I actually feel as though I DID succeed with this since I didn't do anything stupid and this was mainly aimed at not getting injured by over-training or the like. I've just been klutzy this year and have two nice scars on my left leg to show it. Left leg, mind you. Same as the meniscus tear. Same as my two college injuries. Apparently my left leg hates me. Or I stepped on kryptonite that one race . . .
3. Get heat acclimated at least as well as last year/don't be afraid of the heat. Well, success, I guess. I didn't really get to test it out too much being injured for July and not running much in August but I've mostly ceased to view hot gross weather as something I can't handle.
4. See what kind of mileage my legs can handle and confidently make up my mind by June about my fall running plans and train well for whatever the plans end up to be. I did, in fact, make up my mind about the fall. Of course, this was determined for me by an injury . . . but details, details, right?
5. Log. Every. Run. Mostly success here. I know I've missed logging a few runs but less than 50 miles worth, for sure. So that makes this the first year I've had anything like a total yearly mileage. It's a lower number than I wanted but that makes it easy to improve on this year! I'm most happy with the fact that while I could only run 34 injured miles in July, I was able to bike 148.2 during the last three weeks which is pretty cool for someone who's never really biked for fitness before. I'm looking around at some other methods of logging but I think I'm going to stick with just entering it into Google Calendar. It's easy and while it doesn't add things up for me, I like it. Most importantly, it seems to be something that I can keep on top of.
Next post will be my goals for 2013! One goal I suggest for everyone? Volunteer at a race! It's loads of fun and if you run races it just makes sense to give back to the running community by working them. Races can't happen without the help of lots of people, so pick a race that maybe doesn't fit into your racing schedule or maybe it's a distance you aren't ready for yet and sign up to take care of your fellow runners. You'll probably find some inspiration for your next year along the way :) I challenge every single one of you reading this to work at least one race in 2013. No matter where you live, there's a race right down the road you can work at.
And on one last note - one of my goals for next year is to blog more regularly! Feel free to yell at me to help me keep up on that way.
Friday, December 7, 2012
100Ks are awesome!
So! My first 100K! It was awesome and actually hurt much less than I expected. Though, I did start slowing down earlier than I hoped, too . . . Here is a story, told in tidbits:
Tonya and I ran the first pavement section together and chatted. It's tough to know what kind of a speed one should be running when the first half mile or so is flat pavement. As we approached the entrance to the trail, we both slowed down to let the other ahead, which made me giggle. I went for it and hopped in front. Spoiler alert - Tonya glided back by me somewhere around mile 40 and I didn't see her again until the finish.
*************
I had a couple guys who followed close to me for the first few miles, after peaking over Enger. They weren't from Duluth and since I didn't need to look for the markers in the dark, I just knew where to go, I guess it was easier to just follow me. I had to ditch them for a bathroom break not too far in and then spent the next couple of miles trying to remind myself that it was not necessary to sprint to catch back up with them.
In related thoughts - when you stop to go to the bathroom in the dark, even if it's just kind of dark/mostly getting light, do NOT set down your turned off flashlight. Especially when it's not even your flashlight to begin with. You've stepped off the trail and it's darker in there. No worries, though, since it was getting light out, I was able to find it again after a few moments of telling myself not to panic.
While I managed to not sprint, I did still catch back up to the two guys and bounced around them. It's definitely a big advantage to be so familiar with the trails - I can think things such as, "Okay, this section is covered in leaves, but I know it's not terrible rocky/rooting so I don't have to slow down and watch footing too much."
*************
Sometime between Haines and Highland/Getchell, I heard these fast steps gaining on me. Along comes Roberto! We greeted each other and then he loped away like a deer through the fog in front of me. He was pretty cool to watch glide away.
*************
I've realized on longer runs lately that sometimes, I just get sick of water. I don't generally drink a sports drink but will often nab some Coke at aid stations and I think the main reason it looks so good is that it's something that's NOT water. I decided, though, to try carrying a flask of something not water, just to have a sip now and then. So I decided on ginger ale, as that could also help settle an angry stomach. Sometime after Highland/Getchell (8ish miles in), I realized my little flask was leaking all over. Yet another Nathan product that leaks terribly. How fabulous. I was, of course, heading into the longest section between aid stations (which still isn't terribly far, but still). At least once it emptied down, it stopped leaking out the top.
*************
One of my favorite sections of in-town SHT (of which I have many, I know) is between the zoo and the stairs going either direction. It's another section that I was very happy to know that the footing would be fine under those leaves and I could just coast. The light was just amazing here, too. The sun was up but couldn't make it through the fog and everything had this gorgeous surreal glow to it. I was grinning through most of this :)
When I got to the stairs (134ish steep stairs which are down in this direction), I looked around for a nice stick. Turns out, going up the stairs is so much nicer with a good hiking stick. So I found a nice one for the way back up and stashed it at the bottom of the stairs. Not in a very smart spot, as it turns out . . .
I was also spending a decent part of this section trying to figure out if I would run into the Half Marathoners after they started. I decided I would just miss them and then figured out later that there was no way I would miss them and couldn't figure out why I never ran into them. Turns out, I had the starting time wrong for them so that would explain it and good to know for the future.
*************
I came into the Magney Aid Station the first time (I'd see them 4 times throughout the race) to be greeted with - COWBELL! Now, I have an irrational love of cowbell during a race, so this was fabulous. Misty could also tell that I enjoyed and so she gave it a few more enthusiastic rings for me. Never enough cowbell! Also a positive - I came into the aid station from the right direction. Apparently some of the people in front of me took a wrong turn and came the wrong way. There was really only one confusing crossing for me. It was a crossing that was talked about in pre-race babble but it was still confusingly marked to me (and apparently to others since that's where they turned wrong). I was able to reason it out without too much difficulty, though.
*************
I started seeing 50kers a lot earlier than I expected (including a guy I recognize from the trail series who was plugged into his iPod and singing along, which was amusing). I decided I wanted to cross Skyline before seeing any women 50kers and I almost made it! Just the women's leader came by me before I hit Skyline, so I figured that was okay :) I just love out and back courses - it's so fun to see everyone. With Wild Duluth, the 50kers start at the 100K turnaround so we get to see all of them, too, so even more fun.
*************
I beat my crew to the Munger aid station. This, of course, being one of the times when I needed more e-gel. Happily, he drove up just as I was trying to decide if I should grab the Hammer gel Molly was offering! And I seem to have only mentioned my awesome crew in terms of where he almost missed me, which simply won't do. My friend Jeremy came up from the Cities just to drive around back roads for 18 hours for me. He's pretty awesome. This is a race that doesn't really need a crew - the aid stations are well spaced, there are drop bag options, and the volunteers are, of course, awesome and helpful. However, I like having crew. It's nice to not have to worry about the number of gels you have or dig/search for a drop bag and then dig in the drop bag. It's also nice for things like switching from a water pack to a hand held - which I did for the middle 14 miles. It was nice to get the pack off my back since I was getting hot with it on and didn't want to shed a layer of clothes. Plus it's just nice to get weight off of your back. I'll have to continue to remember this.
*************
I caught back up to Roberto after the Munger aid station. Which worried me a bit - was I running too fast? I'd wondered this a couple times previously but mostly came up with the same thing - I could tell I was still holding back some but was running a nice, comfortable pace so that must be the pace I should be going.
*************
When the Superior Hiking Trail crosses the four wheeler trail right before the Voyageur course is when we got off the SHT and started on the detoured part of the course for 10 miles or so. Very shortly, we joined back up with the Voyageur trail and headed for the river crossings - three of them. Well, one river (creek, that is. Mission Creek) crossed three times. I decided ahead of time that it would probably be worth taking the time to step on rocks to keep my feet dry and happily, that turned out be very do-able and easy.
*************
The only time my stomach was annoyed the whole race was while running down the flat DWP trail. It was probably the shock of suddenly running a consistent speed! I had caught up to Kevin Mackie coming out of the Skyline/Becks aid station and we ran together and chatted for a while. I let him go ahead and a bit later - BAM out of nowhere I'm dry heaving. Luckily, Lisa had given me some ginger chews to experiment with. I dropped to a walk, popped one of those, and maybe a minute later tried running again and was fine! It was fabulous! I will now have those things on me at all times!
*************
As Ron and I crossed paths, he told me this fabulous rumor that the turnaround had soup! I was very excited for some soup! Yum. Yum. Yum. Time for soup. And then I got to the turnaround and completely forgot to ask for it. Ooops. However, I did have a happy surprise waiting for me - Jeremy had somehow managed to get Kyle to come out. Granted, he didn't look too happy about it, but it was nice to see him anyway and he got a sweaty hug. Even more shocking was seeing him a second time - at my last time through the Magney aid station. Thanks for coming out, husband!
*************
Downhill was starting to be a bit painful now. Not a good sign since I was but halfway through but . . . onward! I also did a lot of walking on the DWP on the way back. This is where I decided that an all flat ultra would be no fun because you feel just plain silly walking a flat. I had some bikers head by me while I was walking. Then I would run some, and walk some, and run some, and I walked through the tunnel since it is all dark and lit by glowsticks (and a hidden Halloween motion detector noise maker which for some reason didn't spook me the first time by). Only to find the same group of bikers sitting on the trail and watching me walk by. I felt like reassuring them that I hadn't been walking this whole time when they asked how far I was going. When they passed me again, I had just finished walked across the last railroad bridge and though I started running after the bridge (which is rather sketchy and not so runnable at that point) I again felt like calling out to them "Look! I'm running now! I haven't been walking this ENTIRE time! Really!" I restrained myself, though :)
*************
Tonya passed me strongly in the next section. I had pulled over to water some leaves and on by she zoomed. I thought I might pull her back in but while my uphills stayed strong, my downhills only got worse so away she continued to zoom :)
Since this was my second bout of leaf watering in a very short period of time, I dug out the wet wipes and have now discovered the (mostly) joy of wet wipes instead of leaves. Next is to search for ones without alcohol and that's all I'll say about that particular topic. . .
*************
Somehow, coming into the Munger aid station, I was all confused and thought I was not making the Munger cut off for some reason. After several minutes of worry, I was able to solve the problem by LOOKING AT MY WATCH. Seriously. This all started because I thought it was much later in the day than it actually was but did I take that first moment of worry to check my watch? Heavens, no. First I stressed for a while. Then I double checked the card I wrote aid station distances and cut offs on. THEN I checked my watch and coming into the aid station, I was three hours ahead of the cutoff. Awesome. No need to worry about that.
Also awesome? It was time to pick up my pacer! I was chanting the list of things I needed to do in my head (and out loud once I came into the aid station), so I didn't forget anything - gloves, gel, body glide, flashlight, not necessarily in that order. I was super worried about forgetting something and while I seemed to have lost my gloves some time during the day, I had packed mittens, too, and so all was good. Time to head up Ely's Peak! Let me tell you - that was something I had been a little worried about ahead of time. Silly me. I was SO EXCITED to head up. Uphill felt great and I was excited to have Marcus with me and excited to head uphill I think I bounced out of that aid station.
*************
Coming over Ely's Peak, there were two high school kids walking around off the trail and singing Phantom of the Opera at the top of their lungs. I don't think they saw us running along and so I sang the next line back to them, which seemed to startle them a bit but I enjoyed it :) The song was then stuck in my head for the next while . . .
*************
Part of what was awesome about Wild Duluth for me is that I knew someone working at almost every aid station. Not only does it make them fun and more comfortable, but you have a new way of mentally going from aid station to aid station - only 2 miles and then I get to see Wayne! Again!
*************
A good thing I learned was that I am not someone who needs to beware the chair. I sat down at Munger to dig through my bag and it was quite comfy and it was no problem getting back up. I was actually really looking forward to being able to sit at aid stations from then on while I guzzled some soup and I had no trouble with getting myself going again. This is good to know! I did, however, avoid any cozy looking campfires, since those DID seem like a bad idea. If I was getting cold, it was clearly time to eat on the move and get going.
*************
Wild Duluth is before Halloween. Which means the Timber Twister at Spirit Mountain has this haunted ride thingy going on. So here we are, running nicely through the woods in the dark among people randomly screeching their way down the hill. Not scary but definitely strange.
Have I mentioned how downhills sucked? It's strange to go through the "W" of the SHT and be excited for the uphills . . . I was telling myself "Okay, only two more downhills left. Except there's that one right before 40th. Three left. Wait, you have to come down off of Piedmont Knob, too. Time to stop counting."
We came to the stairs and I immediately saw that my suspicions from earlier were true - my carefully dropped stick was nowhere to be found. Completely expected since I had dropped it right in front of the direction sign . . . I had realized that was a silly place to put it back when I dropped it there but wasn't going to turn around and move it. It was just as well, though - I was doing uphills just fine so someone who needed it more than me was able to use it.
*************
Right before the 24th Avenue aid station, there were these lovely tin luminaries set along the trail. Quite nice in the dark and they made me smile. Or that could have been the joke Marcus was cracking at the time. We'll go with both.
*************
Somewhere in here I reminded Marcus that I had run up to Enger at every Wild Duluth thus far and he was supposed to remind of that later. Of course, once we got there, I found I didn't so much care, even though two guys came zooming by us and Marcus tried to get me interested in chasing them back down. I decided I need to save my strength for going DOWN the hill. So by now I'm just moving slow in general as opposed to just moving slow on downhills. And downhills were just plain no good. You don't want to know how long that last 3 mile section took me. In fact, apparently, Marcus was laughing at my poor shaking legs! Punk. The happy news is that mostly, it was my IT bands that were weak super early on and that is so very fixable.
*************
Coming over the bridge over the highway, my brain heard a familiar sound but didn't really register it. As we turned the corner and came down the ramp, however, I realized that there was a train coming at us. A train. At whatever middle of the night time it was (somewhere around midnight). And we had to cross railroad tracks and there was NO way in hell I was going to stand there and wait so . . . time to speed up. Turns out we made it to the tracks well before the train and didn't have to worry about it at all. In any case, the trail turned out to be only a single engine chugging along (at midnight? What was it doing?) so it's not as though it would have been a big deal, anyway.
*************
Once we hit the sidewalk, I decided I needed to run the rest of the way in. After all, it was flat - right? My ability to do this clearly indicates that I could have lugged myself up Enger while running and I shouldn't have worried that it would make the downhill worse. I even picked the pace up a little coming into the finish. Waiting for me was the cruel taskmaster who kept making my night happy by showing up at all the aid stations. And here she was, demanding a heal click jump across the finish line. I obliged. Sort of. It felt like a great leap to me, anyway, though I didn't even try for a heal click and I probably got MAYBE a couple inches off the ground. Then I gave Lisa a nice sweaty, tired hug for being out there for me.
Finished!!! Slower than I wanted but happy and Kim gave me my awesome finisher hat, which I now wear everywhere.
Lisa then led me into the building to get warm. Where I was greeted by applause from those who had already finished and were still hanging out. I have to admit, that was pretty cool. I was already grinning from finishing but now I just kind of stood there and grinned more. I also got to pass it on to those who came in after me and it was fun to watch others enter to applause, too.
I really enjoyed this race. The 100K distance is pretty great and I'm sad there aren't more of them around. I also currently live in my hoodie since it's awesome and comfy and I'm damn proud of it.
Tonya and I ran the first pavement section together and chatted. It's tough to know what kind of a speed one should be running when the first half mile or so is flat pavement. As we approached the entrance to the trail, we both slowed down to let the other ahead, which made me giggle. I went for it and hopped in front. Spoiler alert - Tonya glided back by me somewhere around mile 40 and I didn't see her again until the finish.
*************
I had a couple guys who followed close to me for the first few miles, after peaking over Enger. They weren't from Duluth and since I didn't need to look for the markers in the dark, I just knew where to go, I guess it was easier to just follow me. I had to ditch them for a bathroom break not too far in and then spent the next couple of miles trying to remind myself that it was not necessary to sprint to catch back up with them.
In related thoughts - when you stop to go to the bathroom in the dark, even if it's just kind of dark/mostly getting light, do NOT set down your turned off flashlight. Especially when it's not even your flashlight to begin with. You've stepped off the trail and it's darker in there. No worries, though, since it was getting light out, I was able to find it again after a few moments of telling myself not to panic.
While I managed to not sprint, I did still catch back up to the two guys and bounced around them. It's definitely a big advantage to be so familiar with the trails - I can think things such as, "Okay, this section is covered in leaves, but I know it's not terrible rocky/rooting so I don't have to slow down and watch footing too much."
*************
Sometime between Haines and Highland/Getchell, I heard these fast steps gaining on me. Along comes Roberto! We greeted each other and then he loped away like a deer through the fog in front of me. He was pretty cool to watch glide away.
*************
I've realized on longer runs lately that sometimes, I just get sick of water. I don't generally drink a sports drink but will often nab some Coke at aid stations and I think the main reason it looks so good is that it's something that's NOT water. I decided, though, to try carrying a flask of something not water, just to have a sip now and then. So I decided on ginger ale, as that could also help settle an angry stomach. Sometime after Highland/Getchell (8ish miles in), I realized my little flask was leaking all over. Yet another Nathan product that leaks terribly. How fabulous. I was, of course, heading into the longest section between aid stations (which still isn't terribly far, but still). At least once it emptied down, it stopped leaking out the top.
*************
One of my favorite sections of in-town SHT (of which I have many, I know) is between the zoo and the stairs going either direction. It's another section that I was very happy to know that the footing would be fine under those leaves and I could just coast. The light was just amazing here, too. The sun was up but couldn't make it through the fog and everything had this gorgeous surreal glow to it. I was grinning through most of this :)
When I got to the stairs (134ish steep stairs which are down in this direction), I looked around for a nice stick. Turns out, going up the stairs is so much nicer with a good hiking stick. So I found a nice one for the way back up and stashed it at the bottom of the stairs. Not in a very smart spot, as it turns out . . .
I was also spending a decent part of this section trying to figure out if I would run into the Half Marathoners after they started. I decided I would just miss them and then figured out later that there was no way I would miss them and couldn't figure out why I never ran into them. Turns out, I had the starting time wrong for them so that would explain it and good to know for the future.
*************
I came into the Magney Aid Station the first time (I'd see them 4 times throughout the race) to be greeted with - COWBELL! Now, I have an irrational love of cowbell during a race, so this was fabulous. Misty could also tell that I enjoyed and so she gave it a few more enthusiastic rings for me. Never enough cowbell! Also a positive - I came into the aid station from the right direction. Apparently some of the people in front of me took a wrong turn and came the wrong way. There was really only one confusing crossing for me. It was a crossing that was talked about in pre-race babble but it was still confusingly marked to me (and apparently to others since that's where they turned wrong). I was able to reason it out without too much difficulty, though.
*************
I started seeing 50kers a lot earlier than I expected (including a guy I recognize from the trail series who was plugged into his iPod and singing along, which was amusing). I decided I wanted to cross Skyline before seeing any women 50kers and I almost made it! Just the women's leader came by me before I hit Skyline, so I figured that was okay :) I just love out and back courses - it's so fun to see everyone. With Wild Duluth, the 50kers start at the 100K turnaround so we get to see all of them, too, so even more fun.
*************
I beat my crew to the Munger aid station. This, of course, being one of the times when I needed more e-gel. Happily, he drove up just as I was trying to decide if I should grab the Hammer gel Molly was offering! And I seem to have only mentioned my awesome crew in terms of where he almost missed me, which simply won't do. My friend Jeremy came up from the Cities just to drive around back roads for 18 hours for me. He's pretty awesome. This is a race that doesn't really need a crew - the aid stations are well spaced, there are drop bag options, and the volunteers are, of course, awesome and helpful. However, I like having crew. It's nice to not have to worry about the number of gels you have or dig/search for a drop bag and then dig in the drop bag. It's also nice for things like switching from a water pack to a hand held - which I did for the middle 14 miles. It was nice to get the pack off my back since I was getting hot with it on and didn't want to shed a layer of clothes. Plus it's just nice to get weight off of your back. I'll have to continue to remember this.
*************
I caught back up to Roberto after the Munger aid station. Which worried me a bit - was I running too fast? I'd wondered this a couple times previously but mostly came up with the same thing - I could tell I was still holding back some but was running a nice, comfortable pace so that must be the pace I should be going.
*************
When the Superior Hiking Trail crosses the four wheeler trail right before the Voyageur course is when we got off the SHT and started on the detoured part of the course for 10 miles or so. Very shortly, we joined back up with the Voyageur trail and headed for the river crossings - three of them. Well, one river (creek, that is. Mission Creek) crossed three times. I decided ahead of time that it would probably be worth taking the time to step on rocks to keep my feet dry and happily, that turned out be very do-able and easy.
*************
The only time my stomach was annoyed the whole race was while running down the flat DWP trail. It was probably the shock of suddenly running a consistent speed! I had caught up to Kevin Mackie coming out of the Skyline/Becks aid station and we ran together and chatted for a while. I let him go ahead and a bit later - BAM out of nowhere I'm dry heaving. Luckily, Lisa had given me some ginger chews to experiment with. I dropped to a walk, popped one of those, and maybe a minute later tried running again and was fine! It was fabulous! I will now have those things on me at all times!
*************
As Ron and I crossed paths, he told me this fabulous rumor that the turnaround had soup! I was very excited for some soup! Yum. Yum. Yum. Time for soup. And then I got to the turnaround and completely forgot to ask for it. Ooops. However, I did have a happy surprise waiting for me - Jeremy had somehow managed to get Kyle to come out. Granted, he didn't look too happy about it, but it was nice to see him anyway and he got a sweaty hug. Even more shocking was seeing him a second time - at my last time through the Magney aid station. Thanks for coming out, husband!
*************
Downhill was starting to be a bit painful now. Not a good sign since I was but halfway through but . . . onward! I also did a lot of walking on the DWP on the way back. This is where I decided that an all flat ultra would be no fun because you feel just plain silly walking a flat. I had some bikers head by me while I was walking. Then I would run some, and walk some, and run some, and I walked through the tunnel since it is all dark and lit by glowsticks (and a hidden Halloween motion detector noise maker which for some reason didn't spook me the first time by). Only to find the same group of bikers sitting on the trail and watching me walk by. I felt like reassuring them that I hadn't been walking this whole time when they asked how far I was going. When they passed me again, I had just finished walked across the last railroad bridge and though I started running after the bridge (which is rather sketchy and not so runnable at that point) I again felt like calling out to them "Look! I'm running now! I haven't been walking this ENTIRE time! Really!" I restrained myself, though :)
*************
Tonya passed me strongly in the next section. I had pulled over to water some leaves and on by she zoomed. I thought I might pull her back in but while my uphills stayed strong, my downhills only got worse so away she continued to zoom :)
Since this was my second bout of leaf watering in a very short period of time, I dug out the wet wipes and have now discovered the (mostly) joy of wet wipes instead of leaves. Next is to search for ones without alcohol and that's all I'll say about that particular topic. . .
*************
Somehow, coming into the Munger aid station, I was all confused and thought I was not making the Munger cut off for some reason. After several minutes of worry, I was able to solve the problem by LOOKING AT MY WATCH. Seriously. This all started because I thought it was much later in the day than it actually was but did I take that first moment of worry to check my watch? Heavens, no. First I stressed for a while. Then I double checked the card I wrote aid station distances and cut offs on. THEN I checked my watch and coming into the aid station, I was three hours ahead of the cutoff. Awesome. No need to worry about that.
Also awesome? It was time to pick up my pacer! I was chanting the list of things I needed to do in my head (and out loud once I came into the aid station), so I didn't forget anything - gloves, gel, body glide, flashlight, not necessarily in that order. I was super worried about forgetting something and while I seemed to have lost my gloves some time during the day, I had packed mittens, too, and so all was good. Time to head up Ely's Peak! Let me tell you - that was something I had been a little worried about ahead of time. Silly me. I was SO EXCITED to head up. Uphill felt great and I was excited to have Marcus with me and excited to head uphill I think I bounced out of that aid station.
*************
Coming over Ely's Peak, there were two high school kids walking around off the trail and singing Phantom of the Opera at the top of their lungs. I don't think they saw us running along and so I sang the next line back to them, which seemed to startle them a bit but I enjoyed it :) The song was then stuck in my head for the next while . . .
*************
Part of what was awesome about Wild Duluth for me is that I knew someone working at almost every aid station. Not only does it make them fun and more comfortable, but you have a new way of mentally going from aid station to aid station - only 2 miles and then I get to see Wayne! Again!
*************
A good thing I learned was that I am not someone who needs to beware the chair. I sat down at Munger to dig through my bag and it was quite comfy and it was no problem getting back up. I was actually really looking forward to being able to sit at aid stations from then on while I guzzled some soup and I had no trouble with getting myself going again. This is good to know! I did, however, avoid any cozy looking campfires, since those DID seem like a bad idea. If I was getting cold, it was clearly time to eat on the move and get going.
*************
Wild Duluth is before Halloween. Which means the Timber Twister at Spirit Mountain has this haunted ride thingy going on. So here we are, running nicely through the woods in the dark among people randomly screeching their way down the hill. Not scary but definitely strange.
Have I mentioned how downhills sucked? It's strange to go through the "W" of the SHT and be excited for the uphills . . . I was telling myself "Okay, only two more downhills left. Except there's that one right before 40th. Three left. Wait, you have to come down off of Piedmont Knob, too. Time to stop counting."
We came to the stairs and I immediately saw that my suspicions from earlier were true - my carefully dropped stick was nowhere to be found. Completely expected since I had dropped it right in front of the direction sign . . . I had realized that was a silly place to put it back when I dropped it there but wasn't going to turn around and move it. It was just as well, though - I was doing uphills just fine so someone who needed it more than me was able to use it.
*************
Right before the 24th Avenue aid station, there were these lovely tin luminaries set along the trail. Quite nice in the dark and they made me smile. Or that could have been the joke Marcus was cracking at the time. We'll go with both.
*************
Somewhere in here I reminded Marcus that I had run up to Enger at every Wild Duluth thus far and he was supposed to remind of that later. Of course, once we got there, I found I didn't so much care, even though two guys came zooming by us and Marcus tried to get me interested in chasing them back down. I decided I need to save my strength for going DOWN the hill. So by now I'm just moving slow in general as opposed to just moving slow on downhills. And downhills were just plain no good. You don't want to know how long that last 3 mile section took me. In fact, apparently, Marcus was laughing at my poor shaking legs! Punk. The happy news is that mostly, it was my IT bands that were weak super early on and that is so very fixable.
*************
Coming over the bridge over the highway, my brain heard a familiar sound but didn't really register it. As we turned the corner and came down the ramp, however, I realized that there was a train coming at us. A train. At whatever middle of the night time it was (somewhere around midnight). And we had to cross railroad tracks and there was NO way in hell I was going to stand there and wait so . . . time to speed up. Turns out we made it to the tracks well before the train and didn't have to worry about it at all. In any case, the trail turned out to be only a single engine chugging along (at midnight? What was it doing?) so it's not as though it would have been a big deal, anyway.
*************
Once we hit the sidewalk, I decided I needed to run the rest of the way in. After all, it was flat - right? My ability to do this clearly indicates that I could have lugged myself up Enger while running and I shouldn't have worried that it would make the downhill worse. I even picked the pace up a little coming into the finish. Waiting for me was the cruel taskmaster who kept making my night happy by showing up at all the aid stations. And here she was, demanding a heal click jump across the finish line. I obliged. Sort of. It felt like a great leap to me, anyway, though I didn't even try for a heal click and I probably got MAYBE a couple inches off the ground. Then I gave Lisa a nice sweaty, tired hug for being out there for me.
Finished!!! Slower than I wanted but happy and Kim gave me my awesome finisher hat, which I now wear everywhere.
Lisa then led me into the building to get warm. Where I was greeted by applause from those who had already finished and were still hanging out. I have to admit, that was pretty cool. I was already grinning from finishing but now I just kind of stood there and grinned more. I also got to pass it on to those who came in after me and it was fun to watch others enter to applause, too.
I really enjoyed this race. The 100K distance is pretty great and I'm sad there aren't more of them around. I also currently live in my hoodie since it's awesome and comfy and I'm damn proud of it.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Quick update
I apologize - I won't have time to do a good report on my first 100K until I get back from deer hunting next weekend.
But, it was fabulous! I had a ton of fun and I love the 100K distance. I slowed down a lot more than I wanted due to the inability to advance downhill with anything resembling speed but that was simply due to weak muscles - so fixable!
A more proper report (though most likely more of a highlights reel) to follow next week.
But, it was fabulous! I had a ton of fun and I love the 100K distance. I slowed down a lot more than I wanted due to the inability to advance downhill with anything resembling speed but that was simply due to weak muscles - so fixable!
A more proper report (though most likely more of a highlights reel) to follow next week.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Here comes my first 100K!
So here we are, two weeks out from Wild Duluth. I signed up for the 100K mostly because that was sort of my plan earlier in the year. I've been a bit nervous since - in not really feeling ready. I haven't raced an ultra at all yet this year (though I have done training runs over 26 miles) since I was focused on Fargo in the spring and then was injured all summer and doubt, doubt, doubt. So I just finished a series of 20ish mile runs - Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday whose purpose was mostly to remind myself that I was going to be okay. Yesterday, my legs were tired during the run but not crazy so and not right from the beginning and I felt pretty good overall. I wasn't sore or tight or overly tired afterwards (well, I was super sleepy but not leg tired). I have a crew (friend from the Cities!), I have a pacer (Marcus!), and now I just have to spend the next two weeks being calm, not being stupid, and getting those calves to be not crazy tight. And get my Nathan back. Have I whined about my Nathan, yet? I finally bought a new hydration pack this summer and then promptly got injured. So I wasn't able to use it all that often. In fact, pacing Marcus was my second time wearing it with water, I believe. It's a mostly great thing - I LOVE having pockets in front and the bladder is much easier for people to fill, both big reasons for switching from my Camelback. Just one problem with mine . . . it leaks. Horribly and instantly. I spent the entire time pacing SOAKED and at the finish I was very excited to change into dry pants. No problem, though, I brought it back to be sent in for a new one. Only, it's on backorder right now. It's due in anytime, though, so as long as I get it back before Friday the 19th, I'm good.
I've had some really pretty runs on the trails lately. The colors on the shore have been just amazing - I wish cameras could capture it better. Yesterday, I came over a hill (by myself at this point) and looking down was a stand of maybe 8 year old maple trees. They were all a beautiful red and since they were younger, they were still sparse and you could see through one tree to the next and it was just gorgeous. It's too bad the leaves will pretty much be gone in two weeks during the race - both for pretty-factor and because that means all those lovely leaves will be filling the trail and hiding rocks/roots/etc.
In other super exciting news - I made it back to Boston!! I was telling myself that it was okay to not get in, that I really wasn't all that excited about it, and there's even another race that weekend that I'd like to do. I even almost convinced myself. Clearly, the way I was haunting the Boston website at 4:00 the Friday registration ended betrayed what I really felt . . . Now follows Boston registration babble so feel free to skip if you aren't interested: So the way the registration works now is that running a Boston Qualifying time doesn't necessarily guarantee you a spot, anymore. A couple years ago, Boston filled up in 8 hours so they revamped the process to not be first come first served - now registration opens the first week on Monday for people who have beat their time by 15 minutes. Then by 10 minutes on Wednesday and 5 minutes on Friday. The next week, anyone else who has qualified can register during. It stays open all week and at the end of the week, if too many people have registered, then they accept the runners from that week based on who beat their BQ time by the most. Last year, you had to beat your time by 1:14 in order to get in. However, this year, they made the qualifying times 5 minutes faster and got rid of the 'grace minute' (ie, you had to run UNDER 3:35, 3:35:xx no longer counts). Anyway, I had no idea when to expect an announcement but then someone pointed out that if they announced that registration would re-open the next week, that had to mean everyone who already registered was in and it didn't fill - right?
END REGISTRATION BABBLE
So the short of it was that registration is STILL open now and I'm heading to Boston again next April! There's actually a pretty decent Duluth contingent going, so that'll be neat. I plan for that to be my last road marathon for a while - what a while means, I'm not sure yet. Just a year? A few years? It doesn't really matter, just that I have some other races to focus on and trying to throw in a road marathon musses with training.
But for now, it's my first 100K time! Which means watching (re: obsessing over) the weather soon, packing/figuring out a bag for my crew to lug around, getting directions for my crew (both driving directions to aid stations and directions about what I'll need), figuring out what I want to wear, etc . . .
I've had some really pretty runs on the trails lately. The colors on the shore have been just amazing - I wish cameras could capture it better. Yesterday, I came over a hill (by myself at this point) and looking down was a stand of maybe 8 year old maple trees. They were all a beautiful red and since they were younger, they were still sparse and you could see through one tree to the next and it was just gorgeous. It's too bad the leaves will pretty much be gone in two weeks during the race - both for pretty-factor and because that means all those lovely leaves will be filling the trail and hiding rocks/roots/etc.
In other super exciting news - I made it back to Boston!! I was telling myself that it was okay to not get in, that I really wasn't all that excited about it, and there's even another race that weekend that I'd like to do. I even almost convinced myself. Clearly, the way I was haunting the Boston website at 4:00 the Friday registration ended betrayed what I really felt . . . Now follows Boston registration babble so feel free to skip if you aren't interested: So the way the registration works now is that running a Boston Qualifying time doesn't necessarily guarantee you a spot, anymore. A couple years ago, Boston filled up in 8 hours so they revamped the process to not be first come first served - now registration opens the first week on Monday for people who have beat their time by 15 minutes. Then by 10 minutes on Wednesday and 5 minutes on Friday. The next week, anyone else who has qualified can register during. It stays open all week and at the end of the week, if too many people have registered, then they accept the runners from that week based on who beat their BQ time by the most. Last year, you had to beat your time by 1:14 in order to get in. However, this year, they made the qualifying times 5 minutes faster and got rid of the 'grace minute' (ie, you had to run UNDER 3:35, 3:35:xx no longer counts). Anyway, I had no idea when to expect an announcement but then someone pointed out that if they announced that registration would re-open the next week, that had to mean everyone who already registered was in and it didn't fill - right?
END REGISTRATION BABBLE
So the short of it was that registration is STILL open now and I'm heading to Boston again next April! There's actually a pretty decent Duluth contingent going, so that'll be neat. I plan for that to be my last road marathon for a while - what a while means, I'm not sure yet. Just a year? A few years? It doesn't really matter, just that I have some other races to focus on and trying to throw in a road marathon musses with training.
But for now, it's my first 100K time! Which means watching (re: obsessing over) the weather soon, packing/figuring out a bag for my crew to lug around, getting directions for my crew (both driving directions to aid stations and directions about what I'll need), figuring out what I want to wear, etc . . .
Thursday, September 27, 2012
In which I regain my title or . . .
. . . in which neither Rochelle nor Marlo showed up and so I was able to win the Port Wing Fall Festival 10K again. Whichever :) But hey, like my teammate's dad told me in high school - you can only race the people who show up, right? I actually almost didn't do the race. I ran 15 miles the day before and was worried about messing with me knee. Except, as I was talking to Leslie in a run earlier in the week, I realized that mostly I was worried about not being as fast as I wanted to be. Which is a stupid reason to not do a race, especially a race I want to support, so I did it. I started out super conservative and picked it up a bit as I went, let a guy push me to a 7 minute mile in the middle and finished feeling good. The roads were not great to run on since they had just re-graveled it due to some rain damage so the footing was lousy but my knee had no issues with it. It was fun to win, even if my time wasn't all that spectacular. Then I had two pieces of pie. Yum. But seriously, guys, I had no business winning with that time so I better see some more people there next year!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next weekend I spent pacing a friend through the woods of the Sawtooth 100 mile. After work Friday night, I headed to Finland to hopscotch/help crew until my pacing duties started around Cramer for the last 26 miles. So, way back when, post-injury, pre-night run, I was going to pace for 30 miles. Then I did that night run and realized I'd be doing a disservice to Marcus if I tried to keep up for 30 miles since I just wasn't in that shape yet. So I figured on 15-20. Then various events led to me doing the last 26, which was close enough, right? Marcus' parents then arrived at Finland and let me know Marcus was ready for company so I suited up and jumped on board for the next 12 mile section. His brothers then took over for the next two legs and then I brought him in to the finish for 38 miles for me. Sounds so easy, huh? We were moving a lot slower than Marcus wanted to go, which is the only reason I could stay with him. I became rather possessive towards the end and wanted to keep behind my runner the whole way. So the most important outcome, Marcus finished his first 100 mile and beat the sun, finishing in the light. I'm very proud of "my" runner - a lot of you know he got the cursed Sawtooth Shin and every step was painful with the added mental pain of the legs working fine otherwise. So I got a good lesson in being tough which will serve me well next year. And maybe even in a few weeks since I seem to have signed up for the Wild Duluth 100K . . . More on that later.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next weekend I spent pacing a friend through the woods of the Sawtooth 100 mile. After work Friday night, I headed to Finland to hopscotch/help crew until my pacing duties started around Cramer for the last 26 miles. So, way back when, post-injury, pre-night run, I was going to pace for 30 miles. Then I did that night run and realized I'd be doing a disservice to Marcus if I tried to keep up for 30 miles since I just wasn't in that shape yet. So I figured on 15-20. Then various events led to me doing the last 26, which was close enough, right? Marcus' parents then arrived at Finland and let me know Marcus was ready for company so I suited up and jumped on board for the next 12 mile section. His brothers then took over for the next two legs and then I brought him in to the finish for 38 miles for me. Sounds so easy, huh? We were moving a lot slower than Marcus wanted to go, which is the only reason I could stay with him. I became rather possessive towards the end and wanted to keep behind my runner the whole way. So the most important outcome, Marcus finished his first 100 mile and beat the sun, finishing in the light. I'm very proud of "my" runner - a lot of you know he got the cursed Sawtooth Shin and every step was painful with the added mental pain of the legs working fine otherwise. So I got a good lesson in being tough which will serve me well next year. And maybe even in a few weeks since I seem to have signed up for the Wild Duluth 100K . . . More on that later.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Recovering
You should all be very proud of me, because I'm rather proud of myself. I've been very careful with upping my mileage and with easing out of the brace. I haven't upped mileage more than I should and I've been smart about transitioning to braceless.
Well, smart about mileage uppage until a couple weekends ago, anyway . . .
See, I have two friends (Lisa and Marcus) who are both running their first 100 mile at Sawtooth. We'd been planning an overnight run on the Superior Hiking Trail for a while and I'd been very excited about the idea and now, here it was - time to run it! My previous long run had gotten up to 11 miles - woot. So I was originally planning on going 15-16, a reasonable jump. However, it turned out that we were planning on starting in a different spot than I thought, which meant that I'd be stopping just before the Sonju section. The section so many people complain about and that I really wanted to see. It meant running just under 24 miles instead of 15ish, but hey, we'd be going slow so I'd be fine, right? Silly Sam.
It was a fabulous run for most of it. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the stars were amazing. It was funny coming to what you knew to be a beautiful overlook just to see a black drop off into nothingness.
I made it about 20 miles just fine. And then my legs realized that I was more than doubling their mileage. And then we got to this little sign near when we should have been done. A sign which indicated we had 2.5 more miles to go since we didn't park in the parking lot . . . Since I had just spent the last mile convincing my poor legs that they only had to go one more mile it was rather a shock. The last section was a slow crawl and I felt bad for slowing down Lisa and Marcus who still had another 12 miles to go once they dropped me. I kept trying to make them go in front of me so they could hit the car and do their aid station stuff while I was following but it was a no-go. So that made for a total of 26.something miles. Oops.
I did learn that it wasn't a problem staying up all night while moving. Of course, how that works out when I've already been moving for 12 hours and have much more to go when it gets light again I don't know yet . . .
I have more to talk about, but we'll save that for later so that I actually get this one posted.
Up next is pacing Marcus at Sawtooth this weekend. I know a ton of people running it (extra good luck to Marcus, Lisa, and Christi in their first go at it) and so good luck to everyone! Exactly when/how far I'll be pacing is still up in the air, but I'll see people out there, and I'll be at the finish. Good luck everyone! And to those doing one of the many OTHER races this weekend, too.
Well, smart about mileage uppage until a couple weekends ago, anyway . . .
See, I have two friends (Lisa and Marcus) who are both running their first 100 mile at Sawtooth. We'd been planning an overnight run on the Superior Hiking Trail for a while and I'd been very excited about the idea and now, here it was - time to run it! My previous long run had gotten up to 11 miles - woot. So I was originally planning on going 15-16, a reasonable jump. However, it turned out that we were planning on starting in a different spot than I thought, which meant that I'd be stopping just before the Sonju section. The section so many people complain about and that I really wanted to see. It meant running just under 24 miles instead of 15ish, but hey, we'd be going slow so I'd be fine, right? Silly Sam.
I made it about 20 miles just fine. And then my legs realized that I was more than doubling their mileage. And then we got to this little sign near when we should have been done. A sign which indicated we had 2.5 more miles to go since we didn't park in the parking lot . . . Since I had just spent the last mile convincing my poor legs that they only had to go one more mile it was rather a shock. The last section was a slow crawl and I felt bad for slowing down Lisa and Marcus who still had another 12 miles to go once they dropped me. I kept trying to make them go in front of me so they could hit the car and do their aid station stuff while I was following but it was a no-go. So that made for a total of 26.something miles. Oops.
I did learn that it wasn't a problem staying up all night while moving. Of course, how that works out when I've already been moving for 12 hours and have much more to go when it gets light again I don't know yet . . .
I have more to talk about, but we'll save that for later so that I actually get this one posted.
Up next is pacing Marcus at Sawtooth this weekend. I know a ton of people running it (extra good luck to Marcus, Lisa, and Christi in their first go at it) and so good luck to everyone! Exactly when/how far I'll be pacing is still up in the air, but I'll see people out there, and I'll be at the finish. Good luck everyone! And to those doing one of the many OTHER races this weekend, too.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Four Weeks Out
It's been a solid four weeks and knee healing is going well. What I wanted to do was make my doctor sit down and write me out a get-back-to-training schedule complete with when and how to transition back to my single track trails. Sadly, that is not quite his job. I'm likely to err on the side of caution for a while and then suddenly jump back in so I need to be careful of that.
So I started with just a bit of running (my allotted two miles at a time)and all was well. I also started biking to work again. I biked to work a couple of times this spring and loved it enough to invest in good commuter tires so my mountain bike is now my commuter bike. I quit for a time, though, when I realized how dead it made my legs and this was soonish before Fargo so I didn't want to mess anything up. Really, though, it's amazing how fast it took for my legs to NOT get tired. I can now bike almost every hill involved (there's a couple of nasty hills between me and work, including getting up to Skyline) and while my legs are tired, they aren't completely done in by the time I get home. I don't bike every day, yet as Kyle and I carpool a some days, too.
Last week, I ran a 5K! Nothing too serious - just an uptempo pace from what I had been running but not too hard. I told Lisa I wouldn't go around her and she yelled at me a few times but kept me to what I said :) I'm getting sick of tiny runs, though, and getting I-haven't-run-long-in-ages grumpy and so upped to a whopping 5 miles on Saturday, which turned out to be just over 5 miles and even better - all on trails. Started out on ski trails and moved on to a fairly non-technical single track (for the SHT) and it all felt fine.
Voyageur is this weekend. I won't be running it, in the interest of not re-tearing things and messing things up more. My goal now is Wild Duluth 100K. I will be working Voyageur, though, so good luck to everyone and I'll see you out there.
So I started with just a bit of running (my allotted two miles at a time)and all was well. I also started biking to work again. I biked to work a couple of times this spring and loved it enough to invest in good commuter tires so my mountain bike is now my commuter bike. I quit for a time, though, when I realized how dead it made my legs and this was soonish before Fargo so I didn't want to mess anything up. Really, though, it's amazing how fast it took for my legs to NOT get tired. I can now bike almost every hill involved (there's a couple of nasty hills between me and work, including getting up to Skyline) and while my legs are tired, they aren't completely done in by the time I get home. I don't bike every day, yet as Kyle and I carpool a some days, too.
Last week, I ran a 5K! Nothing too serious - just an uptempo pace from what I had been running but not too hard. I told Lisa I wouldn't go around her and she yelled at me a few times but kept me to what I said :) I'm getting sick of tiny runs, though, and getting I-haven't-run-long-in-ages grumpy and so upped to a whopping 5 miles on Saturday, which turned out to be just over 5 miles and even better - all on trails. Started out on ski trails and moved on to a fairly non-technical single track (for the SHT) and it all felt fine.
Voyageur is this weekend. I won't be running it, in the interest of not re-tearing things and messing things up more. My goal now is Wild Duluth 100K. I will be working Voyageur, though, so good luck to everyone and I'll see you out there.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Update
Went to my followup appointment today and had good news!
Dr. Sudoh thinks my meniscus is healing itself! There wasn't any bad pain today after my run yesterday, which is great. So the focus now is to make sure I don't mess anything up since I can still tear it worse if I give it another good yoink right now. I'm allowed to hit the crosstraining hard (which I guess means biking at this point . . .) and ease back into running, keeping off technical for a couple of weeks. If the pain doesn't keep going away or increases, then it's back in for an MRI.
I've been kind of . . . proud isn't the right word but maybe happy? Anyway - about this injury not being something that I really caused. Even though I hate random acts of injury since there's nothing you can do to prevent them and I like to have control over my body, it was nice to know that I didn't personally mess anything up. But, turns out that there's something I can do to help it not happen again, so I guess in a way, it was sort of caused by myself. I have muscles that are very weak, which I've KNOWN and I need to be vigilant about working on strengthening them. My knees want very badly to turn in a lot and I need to get various muscles strong enough to keep things straight.
So, that means my thoughts of Sawtooth are on hold until next year but it should mean that I can finally earn that coveted hoodie on October 20. The big question - is it silly of me to be thinking about the Voyageur 50 mile in two and a half weeks? The thing is, with the flooding damage and Jay Cooke State Park being closed, the course is different this year and only for this year and I want to be part of that. However, it's probably not worth messing up my knee, requiring surgery, and being out for several months, right? I'm already registered so perhaps I just wait until closer to the race and see how my knee is then.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Down for the Count
So, two weeks ago, I did a recon run with a small group to check out how the Voyageur trails fared after the Duluth flood. The answer being not great in many places but just fine in others and we had a great time checking things out and having our minds blown at the destruction in some places. However, since it took us 5 hours to go 14 miles, a few of us decided to head up the shore Sunday and get a long trail run in that would allow us to actually run for most of it, as opposed to slogging through knee deep mud :) The four of us arranged a point to point run and headed off.
So there I was, running along behind Marcus. We just finished a technical downhill, bouncing between rocks and roots and I was at the bottom, coming off of a boardwalk into a small mud hole. Where my left foot went down, slid, twisted and just like that I felt things move in my knee that shouldn't be moving and watched my trail running flash before my eyes. I ended up clutched to a small Popple tree on the side of the trail while Lisa tried to convince that I should try taking a step. No way, I said! Steps not necessary! I'll just stay here with my new best friend, Mr. Tree.
She did eventually convince me to try a step. I could move so nothing was terribly out of place (say, a torn ACL or the like). But I wasn't moving well or quickly (ie, very gimpy and painfully). After 30-40 minutes of walking, I knew I wasn't running out of there but at least there was a place for me to bow out early and head to Tettegouche. Of course, that ended up being an additional 8 miles, but there wasn't really another feasible way out. Happily, after that initial bout of walking, I could do a sort of ultra-shuffle for most of the rest of the way and Shane was nice enough to hang out with me in what was probably a painfully slow but too fast to walk pace. We also managed to botch where we were supposed to cut down off the trail and did a few more miles than was probably necessary. Oops.
I iced it a ton on the ride back and stuff seemed okay. I was barely limping by the time we headed home. And then came Monday! I couldn't bend my knee the entire way (turns out that was due to lots of swelling) and things just felt wrong so I was easily convinced to make an appointment to see a specialist (Dr Kenji Sudoh is amazing, by the way). Fearful internet googling had me convinced I had a meniscus tear and I was not excited to head in to a doctor but knew it needed to be done as this was something that trying to push through could make drastically worse. Dr. Sudoh confirmed that nothing super, crazy serious was wrong (no ACL tear, no broken bone from the previous weeks fall that was exacerbated by the twist, yay!) but also said the best bet was a meniscus tear. First prescription was for rest, a fancy hinged knee brace (surprisingly comfortable), and some strengthening exercises once the swelling was gone. I had permission to try running in a week IF the swelling and pain were both gone and then no more than 2 miles. We made a follow up appointment for two weeks. If a tear is small enough and in the right place, it can heal itself and show significant improvement in that time. If not, other things like surgery could be required but we didn't talk about that much and he said he wasn't ruling Voyageur out for me quite yet.
Of course, I was just about to head on my week long vacation in Bozeman. So much for all that glorious trail running . . . He didn't specify, but I presumed that my 2 miles was to be more on a flat, even surface rather than a mountain trail. Bummer.
I did get a decent amount of hiking in, though. Nothing over 4 miles at a time (or was the longest 5? I can't remember) but we went out a couple times a day. I elliptical-ed once for just over 10 minutes before the knee started feeling weak and I decided to call it there. The one time I "ran" (maybe a quarter mile down the trail during one of the hikes) it did bad things so I didn't try again and stuck to hiking. It turns out swimming also makes it uncomfortable. I didn't get to try biking since the bike rack wasn't behaving with the rental car. I'm pleased with my ability to not push it too much (even if that meant I couldn't carry my favorite nephew much!).
So I have my two weekend appointment tomorrow.
I did try running today and that went well! I did my full allotted two miles with basically no pain. I stopped a few times to adjust the tightness on the knee brace (which is sort of awkward to run with so it'll be good when that's gone) and once to stretch my crazy tight calves. It's as though I haven't run for two weeks or something . . . So we'll see how it feels tomorrow morning and what the doctor thinks. Running today seems like a good sign. I'll let you know what I find out!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)