Walking up another mountain – the gravel doesn’t flow.
Kicks me in the balls and head – and those who see they know.
The grade it grinds, my soul my mind – so mindlessly I toil.
Buoyed up by my selfless crew – their energy on boil.
Some pizza here, some Red Bull there – somehow the miles pass.
Gotta make the finish line – fo’ I run out of gas.
As usual, it has been awhile since my last Ultra piece. This one starts, just as the second day is wrapping up. Because the seat on my Scott Foil was set too low, I buggered up my right knee. Because I waited too long to sign up for my post-bike massage, I waited two hours to eat anything of substance of my 275 K bike ride on day two. I post-race bonked. All this crap before I attempt to do the longest run of my life. Just freakin’ wonderful!
Once arriving at the Sandman Inn, my crew proved how selfless and well-organized they were. It was almost like a military operation and even though I was feeling like crap, I marveled at their energy level in preparing all my stuff for the next day. All I had to do was whimper in bed. Since my post-race meal had happened so long after I had finished, there was some discussion as to whether or not it would be a good idea if I attended the breakfast the following day. After some texting, or phone calls, or whatever (my mind pretty hazy by then) we decided to skip the breakfast and get an extra thirty or forty minutes of sleep. Since I already had a fridge full of leftovers because I could not finish my supper, this proved to be a wise decision.
The longer I laid in bed dreading the next day, the better my body and spirit began to feel. Pretty strange, eh? One of the reasons that I signed up for this adventure is that I wanted to push myself and find out things about myself and that was certainly happening, at ten at night in a motel in Princeton. From about 10 to 2 I couldn’t sleep too well, so I made the best of it by guzzling water. My appetite even improved, so I managed to finish off a lot of the leftovers from supper. Drinking so much water, naturally meant quite a few trips to the bathroom. To me, this was a good thing as I had a chance to see if my injured knee was doing. I would run on the spot to see what my range of motion was like. Happily, my knee was improving. Around 2:30 or so, I finally fell asleep.
Day 3: Part B – Showtime!
Since we decided to skip the athlete’s breakfast I had an extra forty minutes or so to sleep in. This was a great idea since I didn’t sleep much and I already had some food in the fridge. After having half of a BLT sandwich and some day old fries (yummy) we packed the vehicles for the last day of the expedition. I was very pleased as I jumped into the truck, my injured knee was feeling quite good. We arrived at the run start line very early and had some time to get a short nap in the truck and snap some pictures. Again, I also had to do the usual medical check-in which involved getting weighed, among with my blood pressure and pulse being checked. The nurse told me that my weight and pulse was fine but my blood pressure was quite low. She was going to be keeping an extra close eye on me today. I thought to myself, “she is going to have a VERY long day then” as I anticipated using every minute of the twelve hours we had to run the double marathon.
After the usual pre-race briefing and pictures the gun went off and I started the longest run of my life. I suppressed the many thoughts and feelings that I had including: would my knee be ok? Would my stomach be ok? Would my feet turn to hamburger? Would I be a prick to my crew? Would I be last?
It didn’t take long for one of those fears to be realized. About five minutes into the race, I was in last place. “Whatever,” I thought to myself, “just run your numbers, eat your food, be nice to your crew, and you will finish this thing.” As it turned out I would have another competitor either just ahead of me or behind me for the next eleven hours.
As I have mentioned many, many, times in this race report the main thing that enabled me to finish this who expedition was my crew and day three was perhaps the best example of that. Today was really just a very well-catered hike. A long hike, but nothing really “other-worldly.” Our plan was for me to “run” for the first hour or so by myself to see how I was recovering from the first two days. After that our plan was to have one of our crew members run with me for about an hour or so. In addition to having run pacers, my crew supplied with me a never – ending supply of food and drinks. I had F2C Hydra-Endurance, Glyco-Endurance, Electro-Endurance, Coke, Red Bull, Green Tea, water, Gu Gels, perogies, chocolate bars, and Clif Bars. To make the run more comfortable I had a choice of five different running shoes, four pairs of spare socks, three pairs of extra running shorts, three extra running shirts, a foot bath, and finally, a yoga mat with a foam roller. If I was to not finish, it wouldn’t be because of a lack of food or from being uncomfortable.
Armed with a double-espresso from the Wadena Bakery, our Fitspeek experiment continues, ever-Eastward. Today’s ten minutes of fun features Intern Elise and Kevin Watt with the Instagram shout outs. We also hear about the Judy Factor and fun with monkeys on episode four of Planet Mikey.
Ten years ago Abbotsford’s Marie Lashley took on the challenge as race director of a brand new event called the Santa Shuffle. In today’s Fitspeek on The Fly we hear about Marie’s motivations for investing her time in the event, her recent affinity for trail running, and her changing tastes in post-run nutrition!
As we travel Eastward, the flow of information on Fitspeek on the Fly continues. Today it’s Zack Neufeld with his latest edition of Between The Ears. We hear about the importance of breathing properly for maximum athletic performance.
Happy Saturday from Fitspeek. We are trying a new approach for this week it’s Fitspeek on the Fly.
From growing up on a farm that raised bison, near Vermilion, Alberta, to riding with “the boys” in Phoenix Velo, to the Go Pink/Cogeas cycling team in Italy, Alison Jackson has shown what happens at the confluence of ambition, talent, and grit.
features results from the recent running races in Mission and Boundary Bay, Bryan Wilkinson from Tri*Joy stops by for a chat on off-season nutrition and training, and we have episode four of Planet Mikey. This week has 21 minutes of Fitspeek fun. Hear it by pressing play below
Would you by a used car from this man? Probably not! But you would be well-advised to give a listen to this Fitspeek interview with him. We hear about his transition from a Rugby Player in Australia to a Triathlete in Agassiz. Bryan also has some great advice on off-season training and nutrition. He also answers the question, “What’s with the ‘stache?”