Me and distance races. I swear it's like childbirth. I spend months with some discomfort. Then there is some type of pain involved in the race and I say that I don't want to do this again. Then, at some point, I feel good about the accomplishment and I want to do it again. Sometimes it's right after I finish. Sometimes it takes a couple days or weeks or months... but I always decide to do it again. I forget about the pain and discomfort and decide to do it again.
So... yesterday I signed up for the 2014 500 Festival Mini-Marathon. I want to break 1:50. I realized that my 1:53:00 at the Mill Race Half is technically an official time PR for me. I still think I probably ran a faster half in 1987 but there was no such thing as timing chips back then so your "official" time was whatever gun time you ran.
FLASHING BACK: I ran 1:56:43 in 1987. I was a senior in high school. I ran my first Mini-Marathon in 1984. That is the only race where I have ever "hit the wall." I had never run further than a 10K but thought that breaking 2:00 would be no big deal. The race used to start at Monument Circle downtown and end on the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Race started at 9 am so by the time you hit the shade less 2.5 mile oval of asphalt, it was 11 am with nothing but sun over your head. I remember having way over 10 minutes to run that last mile and I could barely stand up. The sun was bright, the track seemed to be tilting sideways, and if it hadn't been for all the people around me, I didn't even know which way to run. In retrospect, I probably had heat exhaustion in addition to hitting the wall. Anyways, after that experience, I was always fearful of "the wall" and always ran with some reserve.
So back to 1987. The Mini used to be on the last Friday of May before the Indy 500 (unlike the first Saturday in May like it is now). I qualified for the high school track sectionals in the 3200 m. Sectionals was on Tuesday. I had an English term paper due that day too. I was (OK I still am) the queen of cram. I didn't get around to starting that paper until Monday night and pulled an all-nighter to turn it in. By race time Tuesday afternoon I was trashed. Each school gets to put 2 runners in the Sectional race and the 3200 is started off an arc with the highest seeded runners on the inside. I was not a fast runner but my friend who was running was the #2 seed overall. Well, Coach pulled her out of the race, moving me into her #2 seed spot. Not good. I got boxed in with the really fast people at the start and went through 800 m in 2:50 - way too fast for me. I was a 13:30-ish 3200 m runner, NOT a 12:00-ish runner. So, I crashed and ended up running the slowest time of my life, finishing dead last, sobbing through the last half mile, knowing this was the last high school race of my career.
Friday, I missed school to run the Mini. There were no corrals back then and I started way up on the steps of Monument Circle. I think it took me several minutes to get to the starting line. I was wearing a regular digital watch so I could keep some idea of my time. The course used to go 30 blocks straight up Meridian Street. All the office workers would be out on the sidewalk cheering and all the TV and radio stations along Meridian would be blasting "Gonna Fly Now." You turned west on 30th to Martin Luther King Blvd and went up a gradual uphill slope up to 38th Street. The 5 mile mark was at 38th Street. The father of one of my friends used to be the timer calling out times at the 5 mile mark for years. I remember running over walkers up to this point and also realizing I was running a 7:30 pace at 5 miles and my brain screaming at me to slow down because I was going to hit the wall. You then went west on 38th Street to White River Parkway, went down the ramp there and past the Veledrome. At some point you ended up on a mulch path next to the canal. I remember running on the path with people (spectators) screaming at me that there was "a Cathedral girl" in front of me. (I think the Indianapolis running community was MUCH smaller then and we all knew each other.) I went to Chatard. Cathedral HS is one of my high school's major rivals. Finally, I ended up at the track. Then, on the backstretch of the track with only a mile, mile and a half to go, I saw the Cathedral girl. Not any Cathedral girl either. She was the City champion and record holder in the mile at the time. She was dying. I still had some reserve. I passed her. Redemption.
Several weeks later, the Mini people mailed you a results booklet and finisher's certificate. I got that plus this...
I placed 3rd in the 16-19 age group. Back then, the only medals the race gave out were to the overall winners and the top 3 in each age group. I was hooked. I hadn't even trained for the Mini that year, having just ended my track season. I really felt I had run closer to 1:50 or less. I had visions of smashing that time in years to come. I just had to train for a longer distance. That would be easy. I was going to college. Gone were the pressures of high school. I could run whenever I wanted.
Yeah right (sarcasm)...
What followed were years of entering and not training. Sometimes not running at all for a year between races. Then I'd feel crappy, swear I was done, then do it all over again.
NOW TO INTERJECT ANOTHER STORY... Apparently I'm not the only one. One of my best friends from college decided in 1994 that he wanted to run a half-marathon. Sure, run with me... we got some runs in together and it was fun. I actually got more than 3 weeks of training in... then came race day. I believe his exact words after the race were, "F*** this sh**! I'm not doing this again!" Well, then he did it again the next year. But then life happens and he stopped running for awhile.
Several years ago I got invited out to his house for his 40th birthday for the most surreal week of my life. His wife had several of his best friends come out and spend the week with him. By then he was an orthopedic surgeon living in a mansion-like house in Napa. We had private winery tours by limo, we had private dinners with famous chefs, we drank $1000 bottles of wine signed by Robert Mondavi (who I think is dead). Surreal is the only way I can describe it. So, what do you get for the man who has everything for his 40th birthday? I got him a Chicago Marathon entry. He's my bud. I'll admit, it was a throw down of sorts. We're both competitive. I knew he couldn't pass it up. So, we ran Chicago together the next year just to finish. Then he decided to do it again and got me an entry for my birthday. We met to do it again the next year. By then, he was serious. He was putting in heavy mileage. He was already signed up for 2 more marathons. He was going for 4:00. I told him to go for it while I did a sightseeing run through Chicago.
Things didn't go as planned for him. He got a stress fracture in his hip and barely finished the race. Couldn't walk at all after the race. He had to pull out of his other marathons. I thought he was done with running. Then he texts me last December - "just did a 50K." He had hit the trails. Then he signed up for a 50 miler this spring. Got another stress fracture. Had to pull out. Healed and started running again. Tomorrow he is running the Dick Collins Firetrails 50. His first attempt at a 50 miler. So after cursing at the finish line in 1994, he is now an Ultra runner. I hope his wife doesn't hate me for re-introducing running into his life as I know what a time suck it can be, but then again, he's the type of guy that gets up at 4 am to get his run in... unlike moi, who actually overslept and missed a 1 pm lunch date once!
NOW BACK TO CHILDBIRTH... So do I have a screw loose or what? My left leg is killing me and I can't put any weight on my heels but I've signed myself up for yet another Mini Marathon. But my brain is telling me, "You just ran 1:53 in the middle of a crappy training week with no taper. Think of what you can do if you make the Mini a goal race!" I want to run 1:50 to run my fastest time ever - period. No ghost of what I think my real time was in 1987. Your vO2 max and muscle mass start declining at age 40. I'll be 45 next month. If I'm going to compete against time and my 18 year old self, I figure I'd better get it done soon! I promise to let my legs heal after the Monumental but a 1:50 half is my "next thing."
If you made it through this post, excuse my ramblings. I've been up for 36 hours straight. Hoping to sleep well tonight for my 15K in the morning!
very interesting post. I actually read it twice (and some parts more) not that I didn't understand just that I COMPLETELY understood. I wasn't a runner in high school. I was a soccer player. After college I joined on and off soccer adult leagues....bottom line two years ago, I had to quit because being competitive I about killed myself and my husband said: enough. So now I run more to get the "itch out" ;)
ReplyDelete