RUN (WALK) 28 miles in 6.5 hours, Weldon Springs
Yesterday's post was all about feeling good, my bounce-back, my return to running after Badger 100K. Today a different story. I'm writing this on Monday when I ran on Saturday, so this is a processed write up I've had time to think about.
I woke up excited to run, still uncertain of my walk/run ratios. By time, by distance, by feel, by terrain? But thought I'd just get out there and see what happens. Figured I'd learn as I go. Stopped by the QT to wait out a brief rain squall and get some run treats. 4 mini chocolate bars for 5, 10, 15, and 20 miles along with 2 tootsie roll pops for whenever. Parked near the Katy/Hamburg connection and the plan was to simulate 10 mile aid stations as best I could. Up to the Mound and back for 10-12 miles, then out n back from there.
Gorgeous day, clouded and sorta warm but definitely not hot. The brief rain left the Hamburg tunnel a muddy mess, so my first mile was slower for trying to avoid wet feet right away. I found myself walking soon, and since it was uphill I just accepted it. Feeling good, kept going.
As I got off the Hamburg and approached the Mound, a flock of yellow/black goldfinches played ahead of me in the wildflowers. They'd take flight, land soon, fly, land, fly, land, repeat, as I came up behind them :) A pretty splash of playful yellow.
'Round the Mound then continued north, this time taking the connectors to the Hwy 94 parking access and turning around at 6.3-ish miles. Up to this point, still lots of walking and lots of pain in the hip. Not so much the groin, but deep in the crotch of the right hip/leg. Once I'd run a bit on it, I either got used to the pain or it numbed up. But the first 30-60 seconds were really burning. So this wore on me.
Snacked on PowerBars, roughly 0.25 bar every hour or so, not at all hungry due to the mental stress. But my podcasts were good, the trail pleasant, and I was happy to be out there. Down hill to the truck at about 12-some miles, refill the Camelbak, then off to the Katy. I was still happy to be out but in rapid decline.
I went north towards St Charles, and now really walking a lot. I'd been targeting what seemed an easy enough goal for the past 13 miles -- keep the average pace <13 10="" 1="" 4="" a="" add="" and="" anymore="" as="" between="" but="" couldn="" d="" doesn="" error="" get="" goals="" head="" i="" in="" into="" late="" like="" m="" math="" mile="" min="" my="" nbsp="" of="" p="" realize="" run.="" run="" some="" t="" that="" the="" then="" thinking="" this="" to="" toy="" up="" walk.="" walk="" way="" with="">
I hit 15 miles, tried to cheer myself up a bit, and got a little nuts at realizing I was only halfway done. Then tried to cheer myself up by saying I'm actually OVER halfway done, and that didn't help.
This hurt. I gotta admit, this hurt to run. Everything else seemed OK, but my head and hip were suffering. Mayhaps I needed more sugar? The chocolate tasted awful and wasn't much to look forward too. I thought I felt some correlation with eating and picking up mentally but when the score is 20 on a 0 to 100 scale, it's a LONG way to a real 'picked up' feeling. Drag, drag, drag. Run to the patch of sun. Run until you come to that tree. OK to walk until the bridge. Maybe 1-2 minute run intervals at the most? And each run start hurt, pulled on this hip as the muscles changed gears.
But mostly too I was losing motivation to run. It was a tug of war. I wanted to run to finish and feel good, but I wanted to walk to avoid the pain. When I calculated my turnaround mileage to be 20.3 miles, I had to repeat the calculations a few times to be sure. Ugh, it seemed forever to that point.
I probably walked most of the last 8 miles, maybe ran only a few minutes. That's fine, I walked 40 miles or so at Kansas R2T and at Badger 100K. I know I can walk. And the goal here is to learn to walk, right? This all seemed OK until I realized when I reached down to knock even more rocks out of my shoes that my lumbar back was very unhappy and inflexible, my hammies were tight and getting pained, and the Badger blister under the ball of my left food was torn wide open. None of this felt good.
But I keep walking. It's harder without a finish line. And I knew that once I was done with this, I wasn't really done. I need to keep training for 50-some more days. I get to do this again next week. This mentality wasn't helpful, and I started to crack.
This crack is a long time coming, and I had time to think on it. The past 2 or so weeks since Badger have been hard, my motivation is remarkably low. My nutrition is way off, I'm still only eating from a short list of foods. My aches and pains haven't improved all that much. Every day is filled with doubts. I'm up, then down, then up, and back down. How much longer can I do this?
The last 4 miles were even harder. I wanted to stop and sit, but I knew that only left-right-left relentless forward progress would get me back to the truck. I wasn't tired. I was worn out. It's a subtle difference. But it's hard to put this into words. Walk. Walk. My pace dropped from the sub-13 to 14, to 15, to finally 19 m/m over the last miles.
I saw LC and I think her DP near the end. I was happy to see the Y- split to Hamburg. I pushed the last 0.25 mile to the truck. Walked the parking lot until 28.0 buzzed on the Garmin. And done. My feet were a wet mess, 6.5 hours of wet sock and motion blew up both blisters on the left foot, the right foot still intact. But no pain thankfully. But new blisters on my left big toe and under the ball of the foot again. My hip screamed, my lower back ached, my quads and hammies stiff and inflexible.
And I want to do 15 more tomorrow? Doubt it will happen.
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