21.1 Miles and a 27k trail race

Over the past couple of weeks I have been busy with all kinds of things. First, I’m getting back into a routine with the kids all being in school, and this also means it is time for me to go back to second shift at work. Second, my wonderful & beautiful wife has started a new job, so I’m alone during the days now cleaning up most of the messes the kids make the night before. Third, hunting season is rapidly approaching and I have been prepping things at my parents’ house for the deer season to begin. And lastly I am still training for the Chicago Marathon. I haven’t really had much time for writing here at Runner With a Reason (or anywhere else for that matter). But finally, I am getting around to putting some thoughts down.

Two Saturdays ago I set out for the longest of my training runs. The plan was to run between 22 and 24 miles. I miscalculated something somewhere along the route and when I got back to where the car was parked I was only at 21.1 miles. I would have put in the extra few tenths, but that would have required me to run up hill yet again, something I had already had enough of by mile 9! I cut it short, but not horribly so and felt really good after the run. Went out to lunch with my dad after that before heading home.

This past Saturday I found myself at Caesar’s Creek State Park running a trail race. This was a whole new adventure for me. I had been doing some training on trails between the 21.1 and this race, so I felt pretty confident going in that I could get through the course. I had two goals going into the race, 1) finish the race & 2) finish the race without injury. Since this race was four weeks away from Chicago I didn’t want to risk getting some ankle/foot/toe or any other injury that would hinder my running the marathon on October 10th.

The race was called the Broken Toes 27k. I think that says enough about the course by itself, but my body would say otherwise! The first four miles were pretty smooth and easy, but the course took a turn for the worse shortly after that. I hit the half way point and started to wonder how many more hills I would have to face. My pace started to quickly slow and I took more frequent walk breaks (and walked nearly ever hill after mile 8). By the time I hit the last water station (four miles from the finish) I new I was going to finish, but I also new my time would reflect how slow my pace had become. Determined I pushed on.

I think it was somewhere around mile 15 that my body pretty much told my brain to stop. My brain however, said no to the body. As I hit a rather large and steep hill I started walking, but started hearing footsteps behind me. This woman looked to be about my age and she started walking the hill as well. We shared our thoughts about the course and how our bodies were feeling, and by the time we reached the top she was off and running again. I didn’t even think about it, but as she got about 20 yards ahead of me she turned around and said, “No, we’re not walking! You can do this!” She motioned me to catch up, which I did, and we ran together for a few minutes. My body once again said stop, but I continued.

As I got to toward the end I remembered the beginning. The race started on a downhill on an old access road to the lake. This hill was .7 miles to the finish line if I recall correctly. I found it within me to push to the end, running as much as I could, and I did it. From what most of the people I talked to said, this is one of the most difficult courses to run, and it was my first trail race. I finished 17.1 miles of trails without incident or injury.

Now, having run these last two long runs I have to say that I haven’t been out of commission for more than a couple of hours after. The next day I felt fine, and two days later I felt like I hadn’t run at all. Today’s run of only 3.74 miles felt like nothing, but I got out there. Less than four weeks from now I will be preparing to travel to Chicago for my first full marathon - here’s to training, finishing, and carrying on after!