Boston and MMT

It has been a difficult three months.

Boston was a huge disappointment. For most people, my time was outstanding - I even qualified for next year. But for ME, it was horrible. My final time was nearly 15 minutes slower than last year. The last 5 miles were very difficult. Yes, it was an unusually cold year, it rained, the wind blew, but cooler weather is better for running. Here are excuses/reasons why I didn't run as well, or rather, lessons learned:

• I wore the wrong shoes. Going for lighter shoes, I used my trail NB 610 shoes.  I'll keep them off the pavement from now on.
• A tendon on the interior of my left leg near the knee has been having issues for a few months.  It was so bad that I took a couple weeks off and rode my bike.  The rest didn't help much, so I kept running on it. It feels okay now, a few months later.
• My training was inconsistent.  Sure, I think I had more miles for the 3 months prior to the race than last year, but a lot of the miles were "junk miles".  And my weekly mileage was all over the place.
• I'm sleep-deprived.  Since I started teaching a precalculus class at the local community college, my time has been a hot commodity. To keep up my training, I cut out some sleep.
• The drive up to Boston zapped my energy.  Driving through New York is very exhausting and stressful.  And the tolls were outrageous!
• My socks were too big, and I got blisters on the bottom of my feet.
• It was cold, wet, and windy.
• I wasn't ready mentally either.

In Pain

After I crossed the finish line, my body temperature plummeted.  But the warming blankets were after the water bottles, medals, and other goodies.  So 300 yards later, I finally got a blanket.  I could barely walk.  I was shivering uncontrollably.  I tried toughing it out and walked about 200 more yards before they put me in a wheel chair and took me to the medical tent.  Once there, they checked me in, disapprovingly checked the back of my bib for medical alert information - it was blank because someone didn't fill it out... ;) .  Then they got me a bag of hot water, warm towels, and layers of blankets after stripping me down to my bra and undies. Talk about awkward!  My temperature was about 92.5 degrees.  So naturally, they kept me there for a while.  While I was laying there on the cot, they practically poured a couple gallons of warm Gatorade down my throat.  My core temp eventually returned to normal, and they released me.  I was in the tent for over an hour!

Wet, Cold, and NOT Happy

My wife was naturally very worried and had been looking for me, dragging the two boys around with her in the cold.  And did I mention, she was 6 months pregnant?  But all was good, I went direct to one of the meeting areas and found her there.  She had barely gotten there, so it was good timing.

The day before, we met a running friend of mine whom I hadn't seen since my move from Arizona.  We went to church together and then picked up our packets and had the pre-race dinner together.  It was real nice to chat with him and his new wife.  I had thought we might meet up after the race, but it was too cold, and I wanted to get going ASAP.  So instead of waiting for them, and after the little reunion with the family, we made our way to the subway.  Boston's transit system is way better than DC's.  It's cheaper and the fees are much easier to understand - one flat rate per trip regardless of distance.  Their monthly passes are much more reasonable too.  We chatted with locals and had a good time.  Even though we had already checked out, the hotel still shuttled us back to our car.  Before leaving the hotel though, we grabbed some hot chocolate from the lobby.  It tasted so good!

Then we hit the road which isn't such a smart thing to do right after a race.  I've never been so sore, not after any of the 50-mile races or even after the Massanutten Mountains Trail 100-miler last year.  Granted, those runs were all on trails and at a slower pace, but you'd think a short 26.2 miles wouldn't phase me.  It was so bad, I couldn't sleep (very well) for a few nights.

So Boston was on Monday.  On Friday, I had my blood tested for ongoing hormone treatment and monitoring.  The endocrinologist had appointed herself as my primary physician and so had ordered a diabetes screening test (Hemoglobin A1c) and cholesterol levels in addition to the regular blood platelet counts (CBC), comprehensive metabolic panel, and hormone levels.  As expected, the enzymes (AST and ALT) that test for decreased liver function were abnormal.  They get elevated not only when the liver is struggling but when muscles are doing extensive repair work - like after a hard race.  The same thing happened when I had my blood work done a day following Ragnar.  So that didn't worry me.  But what did worry me, was the Hemoglobin A1c results. I'm pre-diabetic.

There, I said it.  I'm diabetic.  (I'm having trouble accepting that fact, much less embracing it.) So what do I do now?  Lose weight?  I can't or I'll truly be skin and bones.  Exercise?  Some might say I exercise too much at about 10 hours per week.  So I'll have to change my diet.  Throughout my life, I've had the luxury of not having to worry about what I eat.  I've always eaten whatever I wanted.  That's great, except that my sweet tooth directed most of my diet.  So I persuaded the doctor that I didn't need medication, that I'd work on my diet first before even considering that drastic measure.  (I don't like any medication and would drop the estrace and spironolactone if I could.)  So, for the past couple months, I've been trying to cut out sugars and ease back on carbs in general.  Last week, we took it a step further and have been easing our way into a Paleo diet.  I'll see in a few weeks what the results of my efforts are with another round of blood work.

Next on my calendar was MMT.  I ran it last year, and except for the last 30-ish miles, I did great.  This year, I just didn't have it in me to run those same 30 miles at the end that I trudged through last year.  So I dropped at the 70-mile mark.  And here are my excuses for dropping:

• I wore the wrong shoes.  At the New River Trail 50K last October, I earned a pair of La Sportiva Raptor shoes for winning the race.  Prior to MMT, I had run in them quite a bit and loved the superior traction.  But they were brutal to my feet on longer runs.  My feet simply need more padding than what they provide.  So I put different soles in thinking that would help.  It didn't.
• My left knee was still bothering me.
• My training was still inconsistent.  Sure, it was only a month since Boston which doesn't give much time to properly prepare for a 100-miler.
• I need lots more sleep.  Getting by on 5 and 6 hours per night eventually snowballs into a disaster.
• Mentally, I wasn't ready.  I simply didn't have that resolve to finish that I had last year.
• My crew (my wife) was now 7-months pregnant.  She was just as tired.
• My knees hate downhills.  From experience (last year), I knew I had to work on the downhill running to help alleviate the stress and amplified forces put on my knees.  So I borrowed some trekking poles.  They helped but were somewhat of a hindrance from having to carry them.
• It was a hot, humid day.  Almost record-setting hot.
• I had the wrong shirt on.  It did a very poor job at wicking away sweat and moisture.  Instead, it collected all of my sweat.  And it is too big for my lithe body.
• My braided hair chafed my neck.
• I ran too fast during the heat of the day.  If I were smart, I would have taken it a lot easier until it cooled down at night.
• It rained the last 10 miles that I ran.  Last year it rained the day before leaving the trails full of water.  The nightmarish prospect of running in water for 30 miles frightened me.
• I HATE rocks.  MMT is known for it's overabundance of rocks.  Rocks of all sizes.  Some have to be scaled and crawled over.  Some are hidden on the trail just barely out of sight and just barely big enough to trip you.  Experienced runners of the area counsel younger folk like me to "embrace the rocks", to dance through them.  No thank you.  I'm not a dancer and much less an embracer of inanimate objects, especially of hard, unforgiving, and immovable ones.  
• I didn't have a pacer.  Last year I was lucky enough to get someone else's pacer (they didn't show).  I had been prepared to run solo.  And last year, I don't think it would have made any difference.  I don't feel he helped me finish.  That may sound cocky and rude to him, but I really believe that I would have finished in the same time or maybe even faster.  He didn't push me.  That said, I am grateful for his companionship during the wee hours of the night.
• Supposedly, my blood says I'm diabetic.  I don't believe it.  The jury's still out on that.  But I do know that I struggle to get energy from food and keep enough energy in me (look at how I crashed at Boston).
• Boston threw me off, mentally.  I had a mini bout of depression from performing so horribly.
• and the list goes on

All in all, there were a lot of lessons learned from both races.  Sleep more, use the proper equipment, and somehow get back to enjoying the experience.