Part One
Turning off the bike path and heading north onto South 25th Street was spirit crushing. The wind was blowing hard and it suddenly felt 20 degrees colder. I tried everything to diminish my profile short of running sideways, and nothing seemed to help. My pace dropped to nearly 6:00 per mile, and I was working as hard as I felt I could only ten miles into the race. At the ten mile mark I was at 58:00, already :50 off of 2:30 pace with all of the minimal wind advantage already behind me. I was racing for places now.
The next several miles were a series of twists and turns through residential areas. It did take the edge off the wind, but it was still there, and still incredibly cold. With fewer spectators, wider streets, and small trees, the scene lacked warmth as well. Cliche as it is to write, I felt small and alone against the elements. I focused instead on getting to halfway, and then to mile 15, where I could pick up my next bottle.
Somewhere in this part of the race, I started getting time checks from my buddies Richie and Mahoney. They were riding around the course on bikes from the start, giving me encouragement during the early miles, and passing me tactical information toward the end. I knew they were going to be at the race, but I had no idea they would be following me around the course. Every few miles, they would show up at a corner and yell, "C'mon SUNDOG!". It was really cool, and another thing that I was able to look forward to during the tough stretches. The first check was probably around 14 miles, and it was 2:00 to first and second. So I learned they had been together basically the whole race up to that point. A bit disheartening knowing they were working together and I was isolated, but I had already made peace with the fact I was running my own race, so it didn't get me down.
The next check came through, still at two minutes, so I started to consider pushing the pace down a bit to see what I could do to that gap between now and twenty miles. It was naive, but I thought I was feeling pretty good, and what could five seconds a mile do to hurt me? I gave it a go, and shortly thereafter got another check from my guys.
"Two minutes to first, one minute to second! He's coming back, Sundog!"
Part Three
Later today--the second half of part two of a two part series! I'm not toying with you, I promise! I am a very slow, dithering writer, and I have to get showered and to work! More later--thanks for reading!
Run Two | Weather | Supplemental | Nutrition | Sleep | Injury
3 comments:
Great posts! Congrats on the race. Yup, the wind when we turned north out of Rose Creek onto 25th Ave S was Brutal -- knock your breath out brutal. I live in that neighborhood, run there all the time, and it was cold and brutal. I wanted to crawl home and go back to bed. I made it because my family met me on 45th where we crossed over the trail and then my co-workers were working the mile 13 aid station.
Dick B. is very encouraging to talk to; he is one of the reasons that I am running now. I lost 90 pounds to get to the start line and Dick provide motivation. I am really glad I met him. He is the same whether he is talking to 500 people at an expo or you stop him on the street while he is painting arrows for his race.
I look forward to the rest of your story.
hi - new reader to your blog. enjoyinng it very much. looking forward to the next segment!!
You're not going to turn into John L. Parker with his "Again to Carthage", are you? I'm dying here!!!
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