going into this race i thought i did everything right. no, i know i did. taper was great. workouts had been good. but my first clue - and well lesson learned from this whole experience - that i should have paid attention to was the fact that something was not - ahem, solid.. with me in the 24 hrs leading up to the race. thinking back now that could have played a part in the dehydration but its fruitless to make guesses at this point. so anyway - part of the allure of this race was that it was in richmond. my old stomping grounds. where i spent the best parts of my 20s... doing things that all 20 year olds do - you know maxing out my library card and working the homeless shelter breakfast on weekend mornings... so saturday we had dinner at my favorite restaurant - an all veg place - woo woo!- with meghan and rawley . then sat night was spent catching up with court. We had gone to packet pick up that day and also found renne – great to see her. We were both a little nervous about the predicted temperatures the next day… and our late start times..
i went to bed early. i slept great. i got up about 730, ate my normal breakfast and headed to the race. it was pretty ODD to spend the next 3 hours watching the race happen as my wave didnt go off until almost 11 am. the day got hotter and hotter but i was drinking so i figured i would be ok. did my warm up and actually, again, felt ok. better than i normally do so i was ready.
got up to the start - i think the temp was maybe mid 90s?- gun goes off and we head down a pretty steep grade to start the race. i positioned myself with the leaders and just figured i would hang with them. we had gone maybe about 200 or so yards and i realized that something wasn’t right with me. the pace was fast, yes, but i just felt like my body was freezing up or something. but i tried to just push it out of my head and charge on. OK so here is the sort of humorous part of the race.. so we are about 12 minutes in and the run course had taken us across the 14th st bridge and back along the river. we are going up this road and see the entire men’s 30-34 AG standing there, in front of a stopped train. NICE. so we all get up there and the train is not moving and we have no way to get around. a few people actually jumped thru the cars (super dangerous, hello!!) and everyone else was pissed they were essentially cheating since we all were stuck. anyway about 3 minutes after we got there a race official came and we all went to the very end of the train, crossed then came back to the road and re-started. good stuff. so i tried my best to hang on for the rest of the run but some of the girls were just pulling away from me and i was struggling to keep any sort of pace..
so the bike. i was happy to get on the bike thinking i could catch my breath, re group and go hard. never happened. i got a bit worse every loop. bobby later told me he knew something was really wrong because i had absolutely no zip and was struggling to get speed going down across the bridge. again, more girls passing me. my legs were useless. i finished a bottle on the bike, but there was no magical energy in it... mentally at this point i was struggling. because no matter what kind of pep talks i was giving my body was not responding.
by the time i got to t2, i was hating the race, hating myself. i thought i could just muscle thru the 5k at the end, and for the first mile i was shuffling along somewhat ok. but then - BONK. huge bonk. (oops i typed bong there.. now that would have helped had that been on the course!!! ha!) my entire mid section seized up into oblivion and i couldn’t take a step without major pain. so i walked. and i thought about quitting. and i got passed. and then i wanted to sit down and hope that someone would take pity on me and drive me home. no dice. so i tried to run again and immediately looked around for the person who had beat the tar out of me and stole my legs... i ran for about 2 minutes then had to walk again.
part of me was pissed, part of me was scared (because i didn’t know what was wrong) and part of me didn’t care about anything.
but i finished. somehow. kind of blurry, those last 15 or so minutes of the run were. BUT i had 2 great people waiting for me at the finish who were awesome!! and totally brought me back to the land of the living. (thanks kate!!!)
so the silver lining is i SNUCK into world's. literally by the skin of my teeth. they take 12 and i was 12th.(still awaiting the official email so that may change…) so i live to fight another day.
i still really don’t know what happened sunday, and what the exact reasons were for the melt down (heat, sick, bad karma?). part of me wants to go thru every single thing i did in the days leading up to it, and the rest is like "F it". move on. i think the latter part is winning. I’m still feeling a bit of the effects. Still have muscle cramps in my torso area, still a bit wiped out, but all is well. i'm focused on florida and ready to redeem.
7 comments:
It sounds like a rough day out there, but you should feel really good about staying tough and finishing. I can't imagine how miserable it must have been to race in 90 degrees. Even if you didn't have the race you wanted, you should still be psyched about your slot at worlds slot! That is awesome.
Ugh - I have totally been through all those same feelings during a race and it SUCKS! Sometimes you really can't explain it though and you just have to move on. You still have all those great workouts in your bank and they will pay off. Congrats on getting that Worlds slot, you can totally redeem yourself there!
I can't tell you how many other race reports that I've read that talk about the heat AND brutal conditions... BUT YOU DID IT! It doesn't always have to be pretty...right? You survived, got through it, AND get to redeem yourself later at Worlds. THAT is fantastic!!! Besides, any race that has to STOP for a train...wow - that's not cool. But you got through it, pushed as much as you could, and GREW as a result. Nice job - sometimes the easy races aren't always the best... Take this one, remember it, learn from it, and then move on. You'll be ready next time, I promise!
Oh Kerri - we ran this 10K on Saturday in Pittsburgh and it started around 10 am and I seriously thought of walking IN THE 10K and it was so much hotter where you were ANDDDD I didn't have a bike and another 5K to do too!! That kind of heat when you aren't used to it can just suck the life out of your legs and body. But you should be so proud that you hung in there and got your slot to worlds!! Congrats!!! You did what you had to do and that's all that counts - to Florida it is!!!
Who knows. Like you said, let it go. You know you did what you could and it was HOT! So dont beat your self up by rehashing it all. It was great Kate O was there to cheer you up she is super at making a girl laugh.
You survived and finished, in a good enough place to make it to worlds. All of that goes into that "pain bank" to start paying dividends--mental and physical toughness to know that you made it through. You'd be totally hating yourself had you DNF'd. Glad this weeks workouts have gone well! I'm still so proud of you, and was honored to take care of you at the finish line.
Hey, I just came across your blog. I was there in Richmond too, in F30-34 age group. I'm from NC too but I guess we've never met! Don't worry, I felt the exact same way during the race. I was tapered and ready to go, but the heat sucked the life out of me. I can't believe we had the train stop--and the organizers never adjusted our times like they did for the men. I'll be at duathlon worlds, so maybe we can meet before then. Janelle
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