Today was the second day of the Texas Quad. Today’s race was called “The Waddle.” After breaking four hours yesterday, I knew I’d be slower today. I woke up with a certain amount of stiffness and soreness.
Yesterday, I wanted to compete
for the win. Today, I had no illusions
about that. My friend Justin was here,
and I knew he’d win by a wide margin. At
the start of today’s race, I mainly wanted to finish. I’ve run with tired legs before, so the
delayed-onset muscle soreness wasn’t going to deter me. My biggest concern was my left leg. I didn’t know if yesterday’s race would make
it worse. I just had to start running
and find out.
The temperature range wasn’t as
wide today. When I got up, it was
already 54 degrees. The temperature at
the start was about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday, but it wasn’t going to
warm up much. I was originally planning
to wear tights to keep my legs warm, but I made a last-minute decision to wear
shorts.
Just like yesterday, we lined
up according to our bib numbers, with runners expecting to break five hours
lining up in front. I still expected to
break five hours, so I was still near the front. I just wasn’t right at the starting line.
As I started running, my legs
just didn’t want to move. Mostly, they
were sore, but they were also cold. I eased
into running gradually, while I waited for my legs to warm up.
Before long, I started running
with Greg. Neither of us was trying to
run fast. We ran together for the rest
of the first lap.
During the second lap, I
started taking pictures of the course.
The first time I stopped, Greg walked until I caught up. As I stopped to take more pictures, he
started running with Ken, and I fell farther and farther behind them. For the next few laps, I ran by myself.
We could run on either the
concrete path, or the adjacent gravel trail.
The measured route was always the shortest path. Most of the time that was the concrete, but
there was one place where the concrete path began to meander, while the gravel
trail went straight. That was the only
place I ran on the gravel, as I generally prefer a firm surface.
Shortly before the turnaround,
we ran underneath a bridge. You could
tell how far you were from the turnaround by looking for the bridge.
Just after the bridge, we ran
over a footbridge across a drainage canal.
From there, you could see the turnaround.
I had a painful blister on the
ball of my left foot. It was most
painful on sharp turns, so I briefly slowed to a walk whenever I made the 180-degree
turn.
Coming back, it was harder to
tell how far you were from the start/finish area. It was between two bridges, but you couldn’t
see them until you were close. You had
to get around a few bends in the river first.
When you can see this bridge,
you know you’re getting close.
At the end of the lap, we had
to go up a hill. Some people walked this
hill. I always ran it, but I always
slowed down here.
When I finished my second lap,
I stopped to put away my camera. We had
the same views in every lap, so I didn’t need to take any more pictures. As I crossed the start/finish line, I looked
at my watch for the first time. I was on
pace for roughly 4:26.
I always assumed I would start
taking walking breaks at some point, but the wind started to pick up, and I felt
like I would get too cold if I walked. I
continued running, but at a pace that was noticeably slower than yesterday.
Midway through my third lap, I
caught up to Greg again. He was taking a
walking break while talking to another runner.
After I passed Greg, there were just three other runners ahead of me.
Running the whole way was
tiring, but I was now resigned to it. I
was barely managing to keep warm enough.
I started to wonder if I could catch more runners if I kept running.
The next runner ahead of me was
Renee. I could see her ahead of me and
spent the rest of the third lap and all of the fourth lap trying to gain ground
on her.
In the RunningRagged 20in20
Series, I placed in the top three every day.
I also placed in the top three yesterday. That’s a streak of 21 consecutive races with
podium finishes. I started today’s race
without a goal, but now I wanted to see if I could extend that streak to 22.
As I finished my fourth lap, I
was just about to catch up to Renee.
Then I stopped to drink some Gatorade, while she kept running. I think most of the other runners were
carrying fluids with them. I was stopping
to drink each time I went through the aid station. That always caused me to fall behind the
other runners at the start of a lap.
I didn’t expect it to warm up
more than a few degrees, but now that the wind was picking up, it actually felt
colder. I mentioned that to Greg, and he
said the temperature was dropping.
Halfway through my fifth lap, I
finally caught up to Renee. Now I was in
third place. After the turnaround, I
started looking for Ken. By now, Justin
was at least a lap ahead of everyone.
Ken was in second place.
Sometimes, on a straight section of trail, I would see Ken way ahead in
the distance. Then he would disappear
around a bend. When I could see him, I
tried to focus on gaining ground.
As I started my sixth lap, I
saw Ken beginning to take walking breaks.
He never walked for long, but it allowed me to gradually make up some
ground.
I saw Greg again. He had checked the temperature with his
phone. It was now 52 degrees. That was three degrees colder than it was at
the start. On top of that, there was
more wind. That’s why I wasn’t comfortable
taking walking breaks. At this point, it
no longer mattered. I was now emotionally
invested in a top three finish, even if it meant going all-out for a second
straight day.
I kept getting closer to Ken. I was only 50 yards behind him when he
reached the turnaround. After making the
turn myself, I saw that Renee was right behind me.
I was currently in third
place. If I could catch Ken, I could
move into second place. On the other
hand, if I slowed down even a little, Renee would pass me, and I would drop
back to fourth place. I couldn’t let up.
I was right behind Ken when he
took his next walking break. Then I
moved ahead of him. With Renee and Ken
both right behind me, I felt like I couldn’t let up.
When I finished my sixth lap,
Renee was so close that she passed me as I stopped to drink. I worked a little harder to catch up to
her. I saw Ken going up the hill just as
we were passing by on the lower trail.
We were ahead of him by a couple minutes now.
I ran the entire seventh lap with
Renee. For the first half of that lap,
it felt like I had to work hard to stay with her. In the second half, she eased up a bit, and I
didn’t have to work as hard.
By now, I knew her only goal
was to be the first-place woman, and she knew my only goal was to place in the
top three overall. We didn’t actually need
to compete with each other. We could
each reach our goals. I just needed to
stay ahead of Ken, who was falling farther behind. Renee was keeping an eye on the second woman,
but she had what seemed like a safe lead.
As we started our last lap, we
were on pace for 4:22. That’s always been
a big goal for me, since it’s an average pace of 10 minutes per mile. We might do it, but it would be close.
Renee seemed to slow down in the
first half of that lap. Without trying,
I started to pull away from her. When I
was about halfway to the turnaround, I suddenly felt overwhelming soreness in
both legs. My quads were suddenly
killing me. That came out of
nowhere. Running at my limit two days in
a row had caught up to me. I was hitting
the wall in a big way.
I fought through the pain to
maintain my pace as best I could. Renee
caught up to me just past the turnaround.
We ran together the rest of the
way, but I once again had to work to keep up with her. With about a mile to go, I could tell we were
speeding up. Renee was feeling good, and
she was going to finish strong. I told
her I would keep up with her as long as I could.
As we got closer to the end of
the lap, I found it easier to stay with her.
For the longest time, I assumed she would drop me. Now, as my legs seemed to be recovering, I
told her I was going to race her to the finish line. She didn’t care. She didn’t feel the need to compete with me.
I didn’t know how my legs would
respond going up that last hill, but they handled it fine. I sprinted to the line, finishing in
4:22:04. Renee finished a few second behind
me and got her award.
There aren’t any awards for
second place, but that’s OK. I extended
my streak of top three finishes to 22 consecutive races. I expect that streak to end tomorrow, when
there will be more competition. Besides,
I’m not going to be in any shape to compete.
I think my legs are done, and the next two days will be a struggle just
to finish.
When I got back to the hotel, I
took an ice bath. It must have been the
coldest ice bath I’ve ever taken. I
stayed in it for 20 minutes. Then I took
a long hot shower to warm up. Even with
hot water spraying on me, my hands turned white. After drying off, I got cold again. I quickly got dressed, but I was shivering
for the next half hour. Ice baths really
work, but I sometimes think the cure is worse than the disease.
I expect the next two days to
be rough. When I race on consecutive
days, I usually hold back until the last day.
I didn’t hold back yesterday, and I didn’t hold back today. I’m really going to pay for that tomorrow and
Sunday. On top of that, tomorrow will be
colder and it may rain during the race.
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