I have mentioned many times how envious I am of those who live in trail running areas. I listen to podcasts and read blogs about people who wake up, walk out their door and end up on some mountainous trails or scenic area.
I have asphalt and cows when I walk out my door.
When I scheduled a 40 mile training run for Saturday, I tried to think of a good place to run. I knew I needed to go off road, so that meant driving somewhere. No problem, I have all day. But wait, we are going to the East Ascension – Catholic High game on Friday night. Still no problem, I have all Saturday. But wait, the damn greedy TV people moved the LSU-Auburn game to 2:30 PM thereby robbing the LSU faithful of any SEC night game this season in Death Valley. Okay, that may be a problem.
My time frame was reduced. I had between the hours of 10:00 PM Friday night and 2:30 PM on Saturday afternoon. And in that time I needed to sleep, run 40 miles and recover enough to plop on the couch to watch the game. This is getting more challenging.
While walking on the back part of the property at work looking for something, I considered whether the area could be a possible running route. It was a combination of limestone, dirt and grass fields. It may not be a lush mountain trail, but it was off road with some ankle turning, knee wrenching paths. And that is what I needed. I looked at it on Map My Run and figured I could manage a 2 to 3 mile loop of twists, turns and redundancy. What the hell…….
After crashing at around 10 PM on Friday, I woke up around 2 AM to go to “work”. By the time I got everything situated I started running around 2:45 or so. It was dark. But I had my head lamp. I had my phone. I had spare batteries. And I had a pocket knife. Hey, they have some coyotes back there that may be looking for an easy meal!
My first loop was interesting. A dirt road may look flat with a head lamp, but often it is not (face plant narrowly avoided). The grass field was desperately in need of a manicure. It was like running through water at times and I imagine my heart rate was spiking each loop. The fog in the field was so bad that I couldn’t see 2 feet in front of me and I had to wipe my glasses. I wasn’t wearing glasses. By the time I finished the first loop after about 2.35 miles, I was whipped.
But I headed out again anyway. As the loops progressed, I stopped trying to whip my head around to see the monsters following me. I knew they were there. They knew I knew they were there. Stalemate. I settled into a comfortable rhythm with my podcasts, music and the area surrounding the distance my headlamp would shine.
The first problem showed up around 10 miles. I made an almost fatal mental mistake of thinking about how much left I had to run. For the mathematically challenged, it was 30 miles. As I started thinking of reducing my mileage, exit strategies and good excuses for why I wimped out, I changed tactics. Don’t think about the next 30 miles, just think of the next 2.5 miles. Anyway, it will be daylight soon.
Mistake. Big mistake. Huge frickin’ mistake. If only I hadn’t thought about that. Because it was still 4 something and it wasn’t close to daylight. Uggghhhhh. Calgon, take me away!!!! At this point I would now like to thank the 3 Non Joggers podcast for diverting my consciousness for the next 45 minutes. I had to shut off all brain synapse firings except for those needed to make my lungs breathe and legs run. So I did.
By the time the sun came up enough to ditch the head lamp, I was a little over 21 miles in. And I could see where I was running and all the scenery. And this is what it looked like for the next 19 miles.
Now I really needed to turn off my brain. Because I was bored beyond belief.
At 30 miles, I was convinced that it had been a good day and a great run. 30 miles would be plenty! 30 miles would be an awesome day. 30 miles would be perfect…….if I hadn’t planned on running 40 miles. And that was what I was doing. I just told myself that I had until 2:00 to get it done and there was no reason to stop. Pain………not good enough. Fatigue……….not good enough. Boredom……….not good enough. Compound fracture of my femur……….that would be good enough but then you would miss watching the game so watch your step. I had no legitimate reason to quit, so I kept running.
Until I hit 40 miles. And then I stopped. I raised my arms like I had crossed the finish line. Thanked God for keeping me alive (the coyotes were somewhere). And packed my stuff for the ride home. It was done.
I am walking a little slowly today, but better than after many marathons I had run. I ran the 40 miles with an average of about a 11:30 mile. I really need to work on going slower for the long runs. If I go out fast in the 100 miler I will be done long before the finish. At least for now, I know my mind is heading in the right direction.
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