9 Months to Tri

56:51 - 1:47:42

Well, its Friday night. The race was Tuesday. Its getting harder to remember the little details, but I’ve still got enough to finish this up, I suppose. First off, while I went for a 5k run today at lunch, my muscles seem to still be wiped out. It was just very difficult to get things going. I finished the run in about 47 minutes, and stopped several times to shake my legs out.

But, enough about today’s run. That’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re talking about a 5k that I had to run after I had been going full out for an hour already, right?

So, after finishing my bike ride 25 minutes over my target, I headed out towards the trail. However, I’m declaring the run at least mostly ‘On Target’, since even tho the bike had blown the race for me, I still finished the 5k run within a few minutes of the 40-45 minutes I had allotted.

As I passed Mike on the way out (that’s him, in the black shirt behind me in the photo above), he said in his best coaching manner, “You can do it Chris, just remember, pace yourself.” I almost laughed. Pace myself? I’d be lucky if I didn’t walk the entire course. My lower quadriceps, all around the top of my knee, were burning with fatigue. There was no way I was going to get up to a 10 minute mile pace. I’d be happy at 12.

As I headed out of the transition area, there were several boys manning the hydration station. “Water! Want some water?”

“Gatorade?” I asked, wanting something with a little more kick.

“You can close your eyes and imagine its Gatorade,” one kid said. What a wiseacre. I grabbed two small cups of water, downed them, and headed on out to the trail, crossing the wooden bridge to the trails.  I had only planned on a quick drink at this juncture.  Of course, my plans had been to hit the water station 25 minutes earlier, but I didn’t’ think that this might be a good time to start changing plans.

The run started on the same stretch that the bike ride started on. And a few dozen yards in, I came to the same hill I had had to walk my bike up. The first of many, actually. I ran up it, but realized that I would have spent less energy and still climbed it at the same speed if I had just walked it. I remembered that for several other hills along the way.

After the hill, I walked. That first climb had been too much. I thought about going back. I even walked backwards, looking at where I had come from. I couldn’t see anyone. No one could see me. Maybe I should just quit and go back.

I began reasoning on it, and in the end I realized that if worse came to worse, I could walk the course in an hour. I was at least going to keep trying. My body wouldn’t let me walk, tho. Every time I stopped to walk to catch my breath, my body would start bouncing, so I gave in and just kept jogging, even tho I could have walked at roughly the same pace. The next day, Erik would inform me that they call this “yeah, I look like I’m jogging, but I’m barely moving” form of running the “stupid shuffle”. Not because its stupid, but because you’re just so out of it that YOU are stupid.

This part of the race I actually had mile markers for. They were the jeep trails for the electric lines. Every time I crossed one, it was a mile. So, at about mile 1, the first signs of cramping started in. I had to stop and stretch my quads. I did this again about half way to mile 2, then again at mile 2. I began recalling Brett’s story of his triathlon when both of his legs cramped up and he couldn’t even stand under his own power. I looked around. I hadn’t seen anyone coming up behind me, nor had I caught up to anyone. What would happen if my legs locked up while I was out here? How long before my wife and kid talked the race coordinators to come looking for me?

The good news is that, while I was really muscle-tired, my breathing had recovered from the bike ride, and I was actually very awake and could jog without running out of air.

I also noticed that while I was on the trail, it was getting dark. When I got to the jeep trail for mile 2 and entered the clearing tho, I saw that it was actually pretty light, so I figured I was OK. At this point, I was over half-way thru the course, anyway, so it made no sense to go back now, cramps or not, light or not.

Then I reentered the woods. As the trees blotted out the sky, it became MUCH darker than the jeep trail. But it was just an illusion caused by the trees, right? It looks dark out, but the sun is still there. So, on I went. I think I stretched one more time about a quarter mile in, but fortunately, that was it for the cramps. However, the trail was getting darker. I could no longer make out details, just contrasts between light and dark. The signs were white with dark arrows against dark trees, so they were easy enough to see. The dirt of the trail was lighter than the ground around it, so I was able to see the boundaries of the trail well enough.

I started noticing how bright the lights inside the homes whose back yards bordered the woods were. “At least, if I cramp or can no longer see the trail, I can go to one of these homes and call my wife on her cell”, I told myself. Then, my pacing actually got stronger. I was actually able to run. Apparently enough of the fatigue from the bike ride had worn off, and I was able to pull out a nice strong pace. Still probably not a 10 minute mile pace, but far better than the jog I had been going at.

The light dropped drastically over the next 5-10 minutes, to the point that I was now just following signs.  The woods were too dark to see into.  Then I saw the blue arrows that showed I had just merged with the bike trails. I knew the finish was just ahead, and I refused to jog over those darned timing plates. I picked up the pace to a full on run.

The trail was near the parking lot, and anything I could see was illuminated only by headlights and flood lights at the transition area. A lady getting into her car to leave spotted me and yelled “keep going! You’re almost there!” I kicked it in with whatever I had, crossed the wooden bridge, crossed the timing plates and there was Mike, Steve, Mandy and my wife and kid. I was wearing a big grin and they were all clapping. I can’t even begin to tell you how happy I was. Not just because i had finished, but also because everyone had stuck around and waited for me. Mike said, “We were getting worried. Thought we’d have to send a search party for you.” I laughed.

My time was 1:47:42. I asked, half jokingly, if I was last, dreading it would be true. They said I was. So, I asked, “does that mean I was the last one in on the bikes? Because no one passed me on the run.” But it turns out that I was the last person to start the run. They stopped letting people go because they were afraid they’d be stuck out on the trail in the dark.

So, officially in last place of those who finished. Nice.  Another few minutes on the bike trail, and I might not have been allowed to finish, either, so I’m very glad I slipped by.

“There’s Gatorade over there,” someone said, and I immediately began downing several paper cups of the stuff. They were asking me how I felt, how things went, and I answered them, telling them about my cramps and how I had been getting worried because it was getting so dark.

There was a big cookout that night, since it was the last race of the season for Winding Trails. But my little girl was SOOO tired, and there was a very long line for food, so I just changed, said goodbye and thanked everyone again, and we left.

Of course, we were still VERY hungry, so we treated ourselves to Bertucci’s. I downed an entire bottle of Gatorade from my duffle on the way, and once at the restaurant, I ate just about anything I could get my hands on. It has been a LONG time since I’ve been that kind of hungry. If it wasn’t for my wife and the fact that I could feel myself getting full, I would’ve just kept on eating. Salad, pasta and broccoli and chicken. And of course, several of their rolls.  My wife wisely counseled that if I ate too much I might toss it all back up. So, I stopped, wishing I could keep eating.

At home, the muscles around the sides of my lower back were killing me. I even got the hiccups on the way home, and each one cause jolts of pain up my sides. I popped 2 Aleve, took a shower, jumped on Twitter for a few minutes to let everyone know how I had done, then hit the sac. I couldn’t breathe too deep, or my back would get stabbed with pain. I couldn’t get comfortable on my stomach or sides, so I had to lay flat on my back.

Then, I was out.

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