Addicted to Exercise

I had really been looking forward to a repeat of the fun I had at this race last year, but this one really just wiped me out. I ran a pretty good race, but I felt so meserable at the end that it colored the whole day.

I showed up nice and early to warm up with the whole group. We ran out of the end of the course for a total of 1.8 miles, and I measured a little slower than a 10-minute pace. I felt really good for that. We did all the drills and even a little stretching before it was time to go line up.

I made my way through the crowd so I could start near my normal training group, so that was an improvement over the last one of these races. We started off, and I could tell it was going to be a long day. The first two miles were into a pretty strong headwind. It wasn’t too bad, though, because there were a lot of people in the crowd breaking up the wind. As usual, I wasn’t watching my pace at all and instead just finding a groove.

Mile 1: 6:35
Mile 2: 7:10

Thankfully, in the third mile, we turned and got out of the wind. That mile was pretty nice, and it was good to recover a little bit and let my breathing calm down. At the end of the road was another right turn that went straight into a pretty tough climb. At the top of the hill was the mile 4 marker.

Mile 3: 6:33
Mile 4: 7:14

The running crowd really started to thin out around there. For the next couple of miles we just ran down the country roads, and I wished I had had some music with me.

Mile 5: 6:48
Mile 6: 6:44

All the people from my training group who weren’t running in the race were at the water stop at the 10K point. They were all so excited and jumping up and down. I grabbed a cup in each hand as I went through. Right after the water stop was another turn, and then the course went upward for about a whole mile. I was running pretty fast there, but I could still feel the wind at my back pushing me along. (That should have been a warning, I think!)

Mile 7: 7:02
Mile 8: 6:57

Shortly after the mile 8 marker the biggest climb on the course began. I still felt very strong, and I was looking forward to coasting to the finish.

Mile 9: 7:16

At the top of the hill was another turn, and as I made the turn it felt like I ran right into a wall. The wind was so strong it felt like if I had my feet off the ground it would push me backwards. I looked for someone that I could get behind for some shelter form the wind, but I was out of luck. Those last few miles were an absolute struggle. I could tell that every step was just wearing me down, and every so often the wind threw a freezing gust at me. For two miles it was into the hard wind and mostly uphill. I had not been looking forward to the turnaround in the out and back since right after the turnaround you have to go up a hill, but this time I was so thankful that the wind was gone that I barely noticed the hill. After half a mile the course turned back into the headwind, and by then I was totally worn out. I don’t remember much of the last little bit except finally making the turn away from the wind a couple hundred yards from the finish and running in as fast as I could still manage.

Mile 10: 7:20
Mile 11: 7:11
Mile 12: 7:34
Mile 12.43: 3:06

Total: 1:27:30 (7:03 pace)

I almost collapsed at the finish line. I stumbled over and picked up a drink, my teeth started chattering, I got dizzy, and I lost track of what was going on. I felt so cold I went to my car and put on all the clothes I had in it before I went inside the expo center to look for food. I cannot remember ever feeling that bad after a run. I must have looked the part, too, because some of my running friends sounded really concerned when they saw me.

I stayed in the expo center quite a while before venturing outside in the cold again to head home. I got a short massage and ate lots of food, and by the time I left my face had turned back to its normal color.

So, I’ve clearly got some work to do. It felt the like wind chewed me up and spat me out, so I need to get my legs a lot stronger in case it tries that again. Still, even though I blew up at the end I managed to beat my time on this course from last year, so I’ve got that to be happy about.

I took a nice nap all afternoon and woke up just in time to go devour some pizzas with my running buddies, and that was certainly a nice way to cap off the day.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 4th, 2005 at 8:08 pm and is filed under Race Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.