Bad decisions, thats alright…Welcome to my
silly life!”
The desert. The
mountains. Great people that I have read about have gone
there in certain times of their life. During
struggles, challenges, or in time of reflection. I am not sure our move to Arizona will
qualify as such a magnanimous time. But
it sure does feel like. We touched down
on June 25th. It was well
over 100 degrees. It’s hot here in the
summer, no doubt, but I was adamant that I would adapt and that my running
would not suffer. I got in a lot of
quality running, high heat, lots of climbs, but a little low on the
quantity. Its beautiful out here to run, the
way your sweat works the way it was designed to work, evaporating, cooling you and allowing you
to function, the sunsets, the stars… and the trails, the
mountains! I am not sure what it is
about them , but it’s like they are a lightning rods for all the physical forces
of the Earth; a direct result of the amazing power of the is world.
Enough of waxing poetic, and on to the running. If you talk to me about my running it is no secret
that a race in the Mountains has been on my list of things to do. I am not sure I like the idea of a bucket
list, because I don’t like the thought of mentally checking something off, for
the sake of checking it off… as Mr. Keating said in Dead Poets Society, I want
to “suck the marrow out of life.” This
means to stay a while to hang out, to soak it in… so anyway, I found a race
that I was able to get on the schedule.
The Pass Mountain 50K in Usery Mountain Park in Mesa, AZ. Nothing like running a course sight unseen,
but based upon what I have run in the past… it seemed manageable. Funny how in life you can be both right and
wrong!
I’m not here for your entertainment. You don’t
really want to mess with me tonight”
“Cause you know it’s over, before it began!”
I take the drive out to the park at 5 am, down a Red Bull
and start getting dressed in the Truckster.
It’s cold, like 39… ideal conditions to start a marathon, but when you’ve
been training in 110, a 70 degree swing is a big deal. Few minutes to the start, I breathe in the
cool mountain air and look up to where I will be going. Even though I know I am under trained, when I
get to the starting line, I deep down feel it would be an insult to the racing
gods to not give what I have… at that moment.
The gun goes off and down the trail we go. Looking around, I gauge what trails we are
on and based upon the 2 X 15.5 mile loops we will do, I recalibrate my race
strategy. Instead of taking it easy on
the flats, to have enough for the mountain climbs… I decide… to take it easier
on the climbs so that I can stretch it out on the flat lands. And as we all know
“The best laid plans of mice and men… and those that barely have a 20 mile
training run under their belt…go often awry!” (See Robert Burns) This all made a lot of sense, as I am
trailing two gents when…. CRASH!!!
“I'm
safe up high, nothing can touch me. But why do I feel this party's over?
No
pain inside, you're like perfection. But how do I feel this good sober?”
So I
did it… I got my 31 miles done on a mountain.
And I have to say it feels awesome, and I am ready to get out there
again for more. So the question you may
ask… “Kevin, why the P!nk lyrics?” Well,
other than I dig her music, and that most her songs have close to 180 beats a
minute, which is perfect running cadence.
She has soul, she is brutally honest, and she cuts down to the human
core. Because in the end this whole
running thing for me is my way of, in a microcosm, to capture the joy and pain,
the suffering and the celebration of life.
To embrace it and to take it all in because you only a have a brief
split second window to decide if you are going to live something to its fullest,
or are you going to let it go by. The
choice is ours to make every day, every minute, every second of our lives. Give
Thanks for it. So to give Alecia Beth
Moore of Abington, Pa the final word….
I
missed getting over that rock by half and inch and came slamming down to the
parched, rocky, sunbaked earth. I hit
hard. Those around asked if I was Ok. I
was too stunned to mutter anything, but just scrambled out of the way so that
no one fell over me. It took me a
second… hell no, it actually took me about 9 miles to come back from that. Pain, and dare I say, anger, coursed through
my body… the pack that I had been trailing headed off laughing, and singing like
a pack of mutant clowns, dressed in the colorful shoes and self-absorbed
camelbacks… I hated them… because 1 minute ago, that was me, all happy and shit
and running well. Now I am a crumpled
mess on the side of a cactus! It’s
amazing how quickly your mind can make a situation dark and ugly. And that is one of the real lessons in this
whole life. Can you get into a hole,
and somehow dig back out. So I kept
moving forward,just after my fall is where the
inclines started, so I had to climb with this kind of an attitude. But somehow, I buckled down and got up and
over the mountain. The views so spectacular
its not even fair to describe and a picture does no justice! Finally, I get to the next aid station… at
the half way point and start to refuel.
I am making good time too… 2:45 or so… perhaps a sub 6 hour finish is
possible? At the start of the day if you
told me sub-7 I would be happy… but less than 6 hours! Might have 2 beers for that!
“Tired
of being compared to damn Britney Spears. She's so pretty, that just ain't me.”
It never
ceases to amaze me just how quick the turnaround can be in your mindset. As dark and as deep as you can get, the
resulting high that comes is striking.
People often smirk and snicker at the thought of the “runner’s high” but
I am here to tell you it is real and it is wonderful . The chemicals that your brain can produce are
better than anything you can buy… and they’re safe! Win, win! To feel your body move, cutting
through the air, moving the ground with each pace. It is true transcendence…. Stop reading and
go put your shoes on and move around….
Ok, you’re
back, good. So from mile 15 to mile 20…
pure joy and bliss…. Just as I headed to the last aid station before the 9 mile
un-aided mountain climbing station.
Reality began to sink back in.
All those long runs I wish I had gotten in… well the resulting effects
of them were desperately needed. When
you don’t have that kind of mileage under your belt, you have not trained your body
to be miserly with its glycogen, or its fuel.
Basically, we all have enough energy in our body right now to get
through 20 miles. It’s your training and
your fueling plan that can get you past that.
“When someone said count your blessings now, For they're long gone.
I guess I just didn't know how I was all wrong”
The
best way I can describe what happened to the insides of my legs, is to picture
them turning into wicker and someone lighting a match… yeah, about that good
and I still had a 1,000 ft climb to do.
Nothing to do but suck down the fluid I have and hope for the best and
maybe take a GU…oh yeah, the ones that I left in the car! Damn. Then last ditch effort is to pray that all
the fat in my body can slide into my legs to fuel them up. So I gritted it out for 9 miles to the
final aid station… at mile 30. One mile
left. Being totally depleted, I filled
my bottles, had a chunk of pumpkin pie and some ginger ale and got down the
final stretch of trail. One guy that I
had “competing” with off and on along the course was starting to close in. I tried to call upon one last push, but the
wicker baskets dried up. We gave each
other a laugh, and a “see you at the finish”… he too paused for a second with
about 200 meters to go… but I just had NOTHING in me to pull ahead. See even mid-packers can dual out to the
end. There is nothing better than
testing yourself, along with a fellow competitor to see just how much you can
pull out of each other. Pure Joy! (Especially getting across the line and
clasping hands as worthy combatants!)
Where there is desire,
there is gonna be a flame.
Where there is a flame, someone's bound to get burned.
But just because it burns, doesn't mean you're gonna die.
You've gotta get up and try, try, try. Gotta get up and TRY, TRY, TRY!