First off, Joe and i would like to welcome Danny to the BeerMileage crew. As you can probably tell from his first post, he is a talented runner, writer and beer consumer. We are all looking forward to seeing how Danny's beer totals stack up to Joe's and mine because we know he won't slack on the miles. i already have a number of runs planned for the week in anticipation of some heated competition. Of course, i do have to celebrate Veteran's Day, a friends birthday and the coming and the passing of another weekend... We'll report on the "progress" mid-week.
Among the reasons to take a two week break in the BeerMileage Challenge was for my running in the Potomac Heritage 50k on November 1st. i tried as much as i could to make the week of the race a sober one and felt that it would be a bit unfair to rack up a sizable amount of miles and just a few beers the same week as Halloween. Though he would have given a solid effort, Joe faced a severe disadvantage. The week afterwards was spent heavily drinking and i accompanied that with little running. Joe would have crushed me, but we both agree that it should at least be competitive.
Regarding the Potomac Heritage 50k, i would like to commend the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club on a well organized and overall adventurous race. The start and finish were conveniently located a short walking distance from my house, making this a must do "fat-ass." The rain naturally starting picking up immediately as we started, but the NW roots in me didn't seem to mind. Each of the aide stations were prepared, energetic and well spaced, allowing for a relatively fast first half. i ran with my girlfriend Sheila the whole way and as we made the turn under the American Legion Bridge, each of us had a knee that started to feel tight. This was a major turning point in the run for us, for up until that point, we felt pleased with our pace and easily had the physical energy and mental stamina to keep it up. We continued on, but as we reached a downhill section, though short in length, it was excruciating to run/walk down. Quickly we started seeing people that we had passed miles before catch up and overtake us.
i have become accustomed to running with pain and discomfort and i knew that despite how much she hated life at that point, Sheila and i would finish. This was Sheila's first 50k and her overall longest run by a decent margin. Though we both knew she trained enough to go the entire way, it was the extended distance on the knees that was making this run evermore challenging. We kept pushing and pulled ourselves through the mud and rising streams to the final aide station. i don't know if it was the m&m's, the reese's peanut butter cups or the overall competitive nature in us, but as we left that aide station it was easy to tell that we weren't going to give up on this one. The final six miles went by fairly quickly as we maintained a respectable pace (for our current condition) and chatted the last four with a fellow racer. It was a great feeling to finally step inside after finishing knowing that you didn't quit on yourself. For Sheila, i was especially proud of her for running her first (and far from her last) ultra and because this was my idea, i was very thankful she didn't leave me directly after.
For me, it's another race down and another experience to build on come the next adventure. Danny wrote earlier this week that running has a lot left to teach him and I can't agree with this more. I've noticed that one of the great mind games this sport plays is that you train and train for a specific run often to find out that you need to train more. Maybe it's a knee that tells you, 'hey, stretch more often' or 'you're not that young,' but we learn from our aches and try to alleviate the pains. If while respecting the body, you can push the body, then the end result will often be the pain free desired one. So as i look forward to conquering this zen-like conundrum, what better way to do this then through a BeerMileage Challenge.
See you Thursday!
Stumps
