Sunday, September 20, 2020

Race Report: Running Ragged 20in20, Day 9


For day nine of the Running Ragged 20in20 Series, we returned to the Sartell Community Center.  This is a paved trail going around a pond.  It’s a nice surface for race-walking, so my plan today was to walk half of every lap.
Each out-and-back lap included going twice around a pond.  First, we went counter-clockwise, then we turned around and went clockwise.  When we were here a week ago, I ran the first half of each lap and race-walked the second half.  Today, I reversed it and did the race-walking first.
Doing a substantial amount of race-walking would slow me down, but it’s also much easier on my body.  I wanted to make today an easier day for my knees, Achilles tendons, and quads.  Instead, I worked my glutes much harder.
Up until now, I’ve been faster every day.  With so much walking, I knew I wouldn’t be as fast as yesterday’s race.  I also knew I wouldn’t be able to win today.  My friend Justin was here, and he’s much faster than I am.
The temperature at the start was in the mid-50s, and it was forecast to get up to 70s by the time I finished.  Ordinarily, I would wear something sleeveless in those conditions.  I decided instead to wear my T-shirt from the We Walk! Marathon.  I thought that would be appropriate, since I was going to do a significant amount of walking today.  I wasn’t sure if I would get too hot wearing a T-shirt, but I went with it anyway.
When I got to the race, I discovered it was much windier than I expected, as you can see from these flags.

With the wind, it was cold at the start, and never felt that hot.  I had no regrets about wearing the T-shirt.
In the first lap, I started out walking at the fastest pace I thought I could sustain.  When I reached the turnaround point, only three runners were ahead of me, despite the fact that I was walking.  One of them was Justin.
As I transitioned to running, I felt a little discomfort in my right knee.  I thought half a lap of walking would be enough of a warm-up, but my legs were still cold and stiff.  When I made the same walk to run transition in my second lap, I didn’t notice as much discomfort.
I knew the other runners would eventually start taking walking breaks, by the end of my second lap, the only person still ahead of me was Justin.  I was barely into my third lap when Justin lapped me for the first time.
On my third lap, I no longer noticed any discomfort in my knee when I started running.  By now, I was sufficiently warmed up.
Through my first three laps, I averaged about 15:30 per lap.  That was faster than last week, when I was averaging 16 minutes per lap.  I’m not sure if I was walking faster, runner faster, or both.  I was putting a lot of effort into walking as fast as I could.  On the other hand, the cold wind might have been making me tense up and run faster than usual.  Ideally, I wanted my running to be as relaxed as possible.  When I’m cold, I have trouble relaxing.
After my first three laps, my lap times slowed a little, but I was still averaging 16 minutes per lap.  I kept up that pace for most of the race.
The wind kept getting stronger.  There was one point on each lap, where I was always afraid it would rip my race bib right off my shirt.  There was a fountain in the pond we were running around.  When I was near the turnaround point, I could feel spray from the fountain.

I was almost to the middle of my fifth lap when Justin lapped my for the second time.  The first two times he passed me, I was walking.  A few laps later, I asked him if he could try to time it so he would pass me while I was running.  He took a walking break and talked to Angela, so he wouldn’t pass me at the wrong time.  Finally, when I was in my 9th lap, he caught up to me while I was running.
I ran with Justin for the rest of that lap.  He slowed down for me, but I still had to speed up a little to stay with him.
I reached the halfway mark in 2:21, putting me on pace for 4:42.  That’s much faster than I expected, but I knew I would slow down in the second half.  I could keep up the same running pace, but my walking would inevitably get less efficient as I got fatigued.
Justin slowed down so he could run with me again in my 10th and 11th laps.  He was three laps ahead of me, so when I finished my 11th lap, he was already done with 14.  We needed to do 18 laps in all, so he just had four to go.  Justin sped up and ran the next few laps on his own.  I had to remind myself that I still had seven laps to go.
I started noticing some discomfort at the top of my left calf whenever I made the transition from walking to running.  I don’t think it was actually the running that was making it sore.  It was the race-walking.  Besides working my glutes harder, I was also working my calves harder.
I also began to notice some sore muscles around my hip.  That was to be expected.  I kept reminding myself that the whole point of the race-walking was to use different muscles.  I might have some soreness tomorrow in a few muscles, but others were getting a long-overdue rest.
On my 13th lap, I started to feel warm for the first time.  I was on a side of the pond where the wind was at my back.  As soon as I turned and felt the wind again, I went back to feeling chilly.  It was sunny and the temperature was rising, but the wind was nullifying that.  The only times I ever briefly felt warm were when the wind was behind me.
At the end of my 13th lap, I had to make a bathroom stop.  I’ve been careful to drink enough to stay hydrated.  Most days, I need to stop once or twice to pee.  I was glad I made it this far before needed to use the bathroom.  I was pacing myself very consistently, so I hated to lose any time, but I felt much more comfortable afterwards.
As I neared the middle of my 15th lap, I saw Justin walking.  He was in his last lap, so I assumed he was waiting for me to catch up to him.  As I made the turnaround and resumed running, I began to catch up to him.  As it turns out, he was getting dehydrated, and some of his muscles were cramping up.  After I caught up to him, we ran together for the rest of that lap.
Justin finished his race in 3:58, easily winning the race.  I was his closest competition, and I still had three laps to go.
During those last three laps, I was tempted to just run the rest of the way.  At this point, running felt more comfortable and it took less effort.  I reminded myself why I was doing the race-walking.  It took effort, but I wanted today to be an easier day for my knees, ankles, and quads.  Every time I finished a lap, I was tempted to just keep on running.  Every time, I switched to race-walking to begin the next lap.
I eventually finished the race in 4:46:57.  I was almost five minutes slower in the second half.  That was entirely due to a slower walking pace.  The good news is that I was more than seven minutes faster than I was on this same course a week ago, when I was doing the same mixture of running and race-walking.
I’ve finished nine consecutive marathons.  I’m almost to the halfway point of this series.  Hopefully, the race-walking I did today will make it easier to keep running in the races still ahead.

During the race, I was noticing some discomfort in my big toe.  That toe still has a blister under the toenail that I first noticed a week ago.  I think something about my walking motion makes that toe rub against the top of my shoe.  When I got back to the hotel, I drained it.  There wasn’t much additional fluid.
I also noticed a small blister had formed on the back of one of my heels.  I’m prone to getting blisters on my heel when I race-walk.  The good news is that it didn’t hurt at all.  The bad news is that heel blisters tend to form deep under thick layers of calloused skin.  It’s very hard to drain them, and once they form, they cause more friction on the back of the heel.  I don’t think it’ll bother me when I’m running, but I’ll be hesitant to do much more race-walking during this series.
Race Statistics
Distance:  26.2 miles
Time:  4:46:57
Average Pace: 10:57
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  414
Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:  67
Consecutive Days:  9

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