Vintage: I'm not dead

 

Monday, April 2, 2018 (Copied and edited from my previous blog in April 2021)

Last weekend was the Carmel half marathon. I suppose it was also the 5k, 8k, and full marathon as well, but I didn't run those, and their relevance is of slightly less importance in context.

This was one of my hardest half's to date, as well as being my 10th. (11 if one counts the debacle at Columbus a few years back, but hey...) It may have been hard due to lack of training, or that annoying voice in my head that said "you're gonna die." Not my voice, mind you, but my doctor's voice.

I do have a number of health issues, who doesn't, and a few months back, I finally got in to see a doctor. Last week, just days before the race, the doctor outright said "You shouldn't run, you'll have a heart attack and die." Though I guess to be fair, she also said that barring that, I would probably die of cirrhosis of the liver, because of reasons. (Fatty liver, not from drinking. Probably.)

Being the stubborn guy that I am, I arrived at the packet pick up, after driving two hours to Indiana, ready to drop to the 8k instead. Hey, I've done some 3 mile runs, 5 miles wouldn't be too bad. Then I saw it, mocking me.

An innocent shirt?

no...

It literally has my name on it. 

Now, being mocked by a shirt is bad, I guess, but they also told me it would cost ten bucks to downgrade to the 8k. Screw that, I was going to do the half, or die trying. (My deductible for the year is almost fulfilled.)

Now, there were logistical issues to consider with the hotel, which would have been alleviated by downgrading my race, but plan B was for my wife to go back after the race and check out, though that isn't ideal. After having a mishap finding the hotel (the GPS was more thinking Jeep than useful directions after about 275 roundabouts) we were surprised to find that our hotel was a partner hotel for the race, and offered a 2 pm checkout, much better than the 11 am we were expecting. It also gave us a shuttle ride to the start of the race.

Suddenly, almost everything was in place to run the half, except I forgot my hydration belt. By a twist of fate, another runner who we gave a ride to from Dayton gave us a hydration backpack as a thank you for the ride, and I was set to do the half.

In the morning, I got into my corral next to a guy named Greg. Greg had a shirt on that talked about various replacement parts he has received, and he was also a cancer survivor. We talked a bit before the race, and we were together the first few miles. I knew he was a back of packer, and I thought it would be a better idea to hang around him instead of push myself. He made a comment about two miles in about how I was jogging and he was walking, and we were at the same pace. Yes, I am that slow sometimes... He would eventually pass me, and I never caught up. (He finished 15 minutes ahead of me.) I didn't come in last though, by like a dozen people. (I've done worse... )  Still, with an official time of 3:54:55 it was my second worst half marathon. Maybe it would have been better had the first song on my playlist not have been "Climbing a Chair to Bed" by Dropkick Murphys.

You want something out of nothing, you want blood from a stone

To banish all your enemies and wish them safely home

Some would say insanity or crazy, better still

Cut off your nose to spite your face, for life you've lost all will

Now you've mingled with your demons and depression's your excuse

But your lack of conscious effort is a bourbon triple proof

You've expelled the for your lobby but they lurk behind the door

It's a noose of your own making and it's rotten to the core

Are you too afraid of living to make a man's mistakes?

Too afraid of dying 'cause you fear what lies in wait?

Too sad to see the truth never knowing what it takes?

Are you too afraid of dying 'cause you fear what lies in wait?

Seriously, when there is a voice in your head saying you might die, this is not the best song to play. Or maybe it's the best. I really don't know for sure. Either way, this race shows I should be ok for at least the 10k and 5k at the Flying Pig. A bit worried for the half, but still, I am feeling better. I might want to find a doctor that expects me to put up a fight instead of dropping dead though.

Vintage: Qualified for Half Fanatics

Edited from one of my previous blogs... Edited August 2020, originally posted June 2016

Recovering from the Achilles injury sucks. On National Running day last week, I tried running at the track while my kids had track club, and it was a horrible failure. I couldn't do it. I just need more time. Time was something I didn't have, as I was only 4 days out from my next half marathon, the second of two that I would need to qualify for Half Fanatics.

The weekend got off to a cluster of a start. Friday afternoon my wife left for Cincy to prepare to pace the Race 13.1 Cincinnati half marathon, which was Saturday morning. Lacking a car, and the kids lacking the motivation to put down their video games, I made ramen and tea. I then proceeded to sit down to eat, spilling the tea onto my leg, burning myself just below the hip.

The sounds I made scared the kids a bit, and I got out of my shorts really quickly. I'm sure it could have been worse, so there is that. Also, my mutant superpower is that I shrug off most burns. My wife was always concerned about me because I just tend to get sunburns, and then I act like I don't have a sunburn. I need to actually blister from a sunburn before I really even notice it because it really doesn't cause me pain. This burn is one I can hardly feel, but I felt it a bit during the race, though it was distant. 

My wife came home after pacing and we packed for the Sunday race. As I mentioned before, this would qualify me for Half Fanatics, though for my wife, it would 'moon' her up a few planets for doing two half marathons back to back. So, we left just after 5 pm for the wastelands of northwest Ohio, as the storms rolled in.

We had decided to leave on Saturday instead of Sunday for the race, because the GPS suggested it would be a 2-hour drive, and neither of us wanted to leave at 3 AM. On the plus side, the car's GPS pointed out it was a 3-hour drive instead and that would have cost us the race. As it was, there really weren't a lot of hotel options in the area of Bryan, so we packed up the camping gear, and aimed for Harrison Lake State Park. As we pulled into a gas station just outside Defiance, due to rain too hard to see through, we really questioned the sanity of camping. 

The rain let up, and we got to the campground about 7:30 or so, and being tired of driving, I got an electric campsite. The tent isn't electric compatible, but I wasn't driving around the lake to the non-electric side. If we were staying longer, the extra $6 would have been really worth it, but our portable phone chargers did their jobs quite well.

My wife watched me set the tent up from the car, while I worked in the rain. I think she really thought I would have just given up and gotten a hotel room, but those were starting out at $125+, if I could even find a room, and the campsite was $25. We unloaded the car, and made a quick drive to Burger King. Really, for the region around the Park, the options were local places, and Burger King. For the night before a race, Burger King was the better choice, which is really sad. If not for the race, or if we were staying an extra night, local places would have been great.

I actually got a decent night's sleep, though forcing myself to go to sleep earlier than normal wasn't easy. The last two times I camped, there was a party going on until midnight, so the quiet was nice and strange at the same time. We could hear people in the park, though the noise level was much better than many hotels we have stayed in, especially one rather nice place near Columbus that had a very noisy toilet in the room above us. The double sleeping bag worked great (for me) and my pad under the sleeping bag held up sort of well, as long as I was on my back. (Sleeping on the burn wasn't really an option anyway.) My wife, however, did not like the hard ground, even with the pad under her. Next time, she is demanding an air mattress. (Which sure as beats "never again") She also didn't think to unzip the bag a little for ventilation, but one learns as they go.

We headed over to the race site for the Mainly Marathons Heartland Series day 1 race, and got set up. We were originally signed up for the full, but there was no way I could have done a full that day. With the half two weeks ago put on by my son's scout troop, and the potential for HF qualification, it was a reasonable downgrade.

The course was an out and back, repeated 8 times for the half. This was rather mind-numbing, but you saw the same people a lot.

Like the (in)famous Larry, whom I
encountered once before at the Flying Pig

My wife ran with me for the first 7 laps, and the first 2 were decent. Then, something went awry. I was fighting dizziness, the Achilles pain, one of my knees began to hurt, and a blister formed on both of my feet. The remains of my blister from the previous HM got its own blister. I really had hoped to push for another PR, but ultimately got my worst finish ever for a HM.

My wife told me later that she was really concerned about me because while I had slowed down, I wasn't complaining and whining, which was strange enough that she became concerned about my health. Still, I carried on and finished. It wasn't a good time for me, about 30-40 minutes slower than the Half I ran two weeks ago. I got my medal piece, synced the run to Strava, and put together my medal.

At least I didn't need pliers to assemble it.

We headed back to the camp, where we relaxed a bit, changed clothes, packed up the car, and came home. We ended up on Ohio 66 rather quickly, which was laughed about as the GPS tried to trick us onto the Toll road. I had one dollar in cash and I refused to use it for a toll road. Also, even though we were two and a half hours from home, it just so happens that Ohio 66 ends behind the running store, one mile from our house. I really didn't care if I took it all the way home. We did eventually end up on I-75 though, which was a bit easier than going through a bunch of tiny towns that only had Subways. Seriously, tiny towns in that area all had Subways, and McDonalds were really rare. It was strange.

At any rate, I'm glad to be home. I am not looking forward to actually climbing the stairs to bed, but at least I know I will sleep well tonight.