I was going to start off this post with the line "I did something crazy," but I'm pretty sure that has already been the first line of another post, which tells me 2 things: 1) I'm already running out of witty lead sentences for this training blog, and 2) I should have my mental health checked by a professional. That is all to say, I did something crazy this weekend.
But let's start at the beginning. This weekend of Dopey Challenge training called for my first back-to-back long runs. That's a big enough challenge for anyone, but when you run the, uh, shall we say leisurely pace I do these days, getting long runs in on a work day is especially tricky. Luckily, I think ahead. Several weeks ago I alerted my boss that I was planning on taking a couple of hours of vacation on various days to accommodate some extra mid-week long runs, and this was the first time I was putting the plan into motion.
My friend Sarah has Fridays off so I coerced invited her to get up early and bike alongside me for 7 miles. She showed up wearing 2 coats and was still cold. But she did get the benefit of seeing a glorious sunrise.
Little did I know when I invited her along that she was going to make me work. At various times during the run, she'd say, "We're gonna race. Ready, go!" and she'd take off yelling for me to stay on her rear wheel. There were several times during that run that I questioned our friendship, but she did carry my bottle of Powerade in her backpack so I guess she's still OK.
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| Me and my |
The next day I was supposed to do 15 miles. But a little challenge from a friend changed that. And this is where the crazy part comes in. You see, it was apparently possible on that day to run 4 different races in town. All in one day. My friend Julie, and owner of the local Fleet Feet store, thought someone ought to do it. She tried to convince me that it would be better training for Dopey than a simple 15 mile run. I hesitated at the idea. Then she sweetened the pot by offering a $25 gift card to anyone who did all 4 races wearing a Fleet Feet shirt. I was in. I found 2 other crazy ladies, Jane and Erin, to take on the challenge with me. So our Saturday would look like this:
8:00 am - Town and Gown 5K
9:00 am - Wishbone 5K-9
3:00 pm - Heart of the Eagles 5K
6:00 pm Dusk to Dark 5K
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| Jane, me and Erin - the 4 race challenge 'crazies' |
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| Ashley agreed to run the 1st 2 races with me. A decision she probably later regretted. |
Race #1 was on the ISU campus to celebrate homecoming. The trickiest part of my day would be running this race, getting off campus through parade road closures and getting across town all in less than an hour. My friend Ashley took on the challenge of the first 2 races with me. We finished within 30 seconds of each other. As I waited for Ashley to come across the finish line a friend grabbed me a bottle of water and a banana and told me to get out of there. We hopped in the car and took off.
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| Nothing like having to race across town in parade traffic. |
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| Let's do this...but first, let's take a selfie. |
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| Jane, Erin and me happy to have finished race #2 |
After race #2, I had the luxury of having a couple hours' break. I went home and showered and then had a bite to eat. Intellectually I knew I probably needed a decent amount of calories but I didn't want to eat too close to race #3 so all I ended up eating was some of the post-race snacks and a bagel about an hour later. I spent about 30 minutes with my foam roller willing my muscles to loosen up enough to make it through the last half of the challenge. Soon enough it was time to put on a new race outfit and head out for race #3.
The Heart of the Eagles race was at Evans Jr. High on the opposite side of town. I still needed to register for this one so I left early. The race organizer learned I was doing this crazy 4 race challenge and offered me a discount for the race, which I gladly took as this day was becoming very expensive. By this time in the afternoon the wind had kicked up considerably. I spent the majority of my pre-race energy worrying about the crazy wind and the fact that almost a mile of the course was off-road (the threat of injury is ever present for people training for marathons). Given those preoccupations, I completely forgot to worry about whether the course had any hills. It did.
I was doing pretty well, if I do say so myself, when I hit the 2nd sizable hill and my quads began their protest of what I was asking of them. It was at this point somewhere in mile 2 that people started passing me. Consistently. At one point a little girl, who looked about 8 years old, ran past me. Only a good deal of self-restraint and the inability to form complete sentences prevented me from yelling at her, "Oh yeah? I bet it's your FIRST race of the day. Let's see what you could do after 6 additional miles missy!" Turns out she won her age group. But the big surprise was that I got 3rd place in mine. Who woulda thought I'd place in my 3rd race of the day? Fellow 4 race challenger Jane also placed, as well as our friend Denise who would be running 2 races that day. And not to be outdone, our friend Meta got a PR on that crazy tough course.
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| Erin, Jane and I met up with Denise at race #3 |
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| Look at that - we placed! |
Three races down and one to go. It was getting colder and I knew it was going to be rough to get myself out of the house again for the last race of the day. I drove back to my side of town, stopping at the packet pickup for race #4 before heading home for a little bit. By the time I got back there I didn't really have time for a shower, and even if I did I feared getting all nice and warm and clean would negate my ability to go out again. So I changed out of my sweaty running clothes into a new outfit, hit the foam roller some more and headed out again.
At race #4 Jane, Erin and I knew several other people running so we had a nice little group to see us finish our challenge. By now it was getting cold. I knew it was still good short-sleeve running weather for me so I grabbed a cover up for post-race, along my knuckle lights. It seemed that we waited forever for the race start. I was cold. I was tired. I was hungry and I was ready to be done.
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| Last race - Meta, Judy and Denise joined our trio. |
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| The three crazies before race #4 |
The horn went off and we started the race. From step one, my quads made it very clear they were losing patience with me and were screaming in protest. It turns out having a little bit of rest between miles is worse than having no rest. Every step of that race was a battle of wills. Thankfully, the course was near my home and I knew the trail there very well. One of the things I knew about it was that it was downhill after the turn around. Thank the Lord for small miracles.
I finished, went to find Jane and waited for Erin. Our celebration for completing this task probably would have been more spectacular had we not been barely able to move at this point. So we stood around eating the 3rd set of Avanti's Gondola sandwiches presented to us that day. (I have no idea if the race #1 served them as well - we had no time to enjoy post-race snacks there.) We had done it. We had survived 4 races in one day. And. I. Was. Done.
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| So. Done. What's to eat? |
And so after 19 miles in two days, today I unabashedly wore compression socks all day for recovery even though I looked like this.
Such is the price of glory.
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