Still Feeling Every Mile

It's been four days since I stumbled across the finish line of Hyner, and I'm still nursing tight quads! I don't think Joel believed me when I told him, but that race was the most physically exhausting thing I have ever done. It was my own fault really, I had no idea what to expect or how to train. Being in Waynesburg, there are no trails to get out and run on, just lots of blacktop. That, and i thought that everyone was exaggerating just how tough the course was. I'm here to bear witness: THEY WEREN'T! The first climb, around 1400' of gain, was the worst but also the most rewarding in terms of awesome view of the valley. (I tried to get some video while on the trail, but mainly you see the ground and only really catch a glimpse of the view.) Where I really began to experience problems was about mile seven when I crossed the creek for the third of about 958 times and went in to my knees, soaking my feet which left them feeling like they weighed seven pounds each. I hooked up with two other guys and they sorta prodded me along for the next two miles until we reached the second climb, finally ascending out of the creek! A long line of us hiked to the top of the mountain, where we got to the third aid station. I choked down a banana and some juice and ran/waddled down the trail which led to about a mile and a half descent down a rather technical trail just wide enough for one runner. Problem was, the rocks were all the wrong size which were all kicked up from the 100 other people who ran ahead of me, so there was no real good footing. That plus the fact that one runner tackled me off the trail while passing (I was going pretty slow) made it pretty frustrating. I was glad to finally get off that little rock garden of a trail and climb up the trail to SOB, which honestly was probably the easiest climb of all! When we got to the top we were told that it was all down hill for the next four or so miles. Man I really want to go punch that group of guys right in the throat! Although the uphills were only slight for the next mile or so, they were still most definitely UP! The last two miles is where I hit the wall. It was all down which one would think would be easier, but my quads were perpetually cramped up, my ankles kept giving out on the rocks, and I had nothing left in me to provide any energy. After stopping a few times to dry heave and get out one particularly nasty cramp from climbing up over a tree root, we finally got to sweet, glorious pavement! I've never been so happy to pound pavement in my life! That is until we turned to cross back over the bridge and the 30-40 mph wind gusts hampered all forward motion. So I walked the last .5 or so until I got in sight of the finish line, where I started to slog, giving the illusion that I had indeed ran the whole time. (It didn't work, you could definitely see me walking up the last little hill.) I immediately crashed on a big wooden chair for a few minutes, before lying on a picnic table for a while, and then eventually finding Joel who was all but hypothermic by the time I got him the key to the car.

All in all it was one heck of a race. "This was stupid." is all I could muster to say when I got inside and collapsed on the floor infront of Joel. However, a massage and three hours of missing crossing paths with Brian, talking with fellow runners, put me in a different mindset, and I started thinking about training for next year's race. Stupidity is a slow learner.