On June 23, I ran the Asphalt Jackal Marathon. This was the third race of The Jackal Marathons. As the name implies, this course was paved. After two days of running on trails with an insane number of roots, I was looking forward to running on pavement.
I slept well, but I woke
up feeling stiff. My lower back was
still bothering me from the fall I took in Saturday’s race. I managed to do my morning stretches, but
some of them were difficult.
After doing my stretches,
I worked on my legs with a massage stick.
There wasn’t much I could do for my back. Little things, like putting on socks, were
difficult.
My hotel was undergoing
renovations. Most days that didn’t
affect me. When I got back from
yesterday’s race, I saw a notice that they would need to shut the water off today,
starting at 8:00 AM. That’s after I
needed to leave this morning, so my morning routine was unaffected. I didn’t know if the water would be back on
when I got back from the race, so I filled the bathtub with water. If necessary, I could use that water for
washing when I got back.
The venue for today’s
race was Pinson Mounds State Park, which is near Henderson, TN. The gates to the park didn’t open until 7:00,
so the race wasn’t scheduled to start until 7:30. We actually started about 10 minutes later.
We were running a 2.91-mile
loop through the park. To complete a
marathon, I needed to do nine laps.
As usual, it was hot and
humid. It was already 80 degrees when we
started. About two thirds of this course
is exposed to the sun, so that part of the loop was scorching hot.
Most of the other runners
were also at the races on Saturday or Sunday.
I saw one new face that I recognized.
Tim, who often does Mainly Marathons series, didn’t do the trail races,
but he’s here today and tomorrow.
Tim and I usually run at
a similar pace, so I was able to run most of the race with Tim. As it got hotter, and we were forced to take
walking breaks, we usually took them at the same time.
This course was much
easier than the course for the first two days.
It was all paved, and it was mostly flat. The only thing that made it difficult was the
weather.
We ran our first lap in
about 31 minutes. After that, we got a
little bit slower with each subsequent lap.
I continued my strategy
of cooling myself by putting crushed ice in my hat. Compared to the first two races, the loop was
shorter and my pace was faster. I was
finishing laps quicker, so I could add ice more frequently. It never seemed to help enough. It never took more than a mile for the ice to
help. It never made me feel cooler. It just temporarily kept me from getting
hotter.
By the third lap, I
noticed that I had drops of sweat all over my arms. The humidity was high enough that my sweat
wasn’t evaporating. It saturated my
clothes and shoes and beaded up on my skin.
By the fourth lap, I was
really noticing the sun. The first mile
of the loop was mostly shaded, but the rest of the loop was mostly exposed to
the sun. I noticed it more with each
successive lap.
I sometimes fell behind
Tim at the aid station. We both refilled
our bottles, but I also had to take the time to put more ice in my hat. The first mile was the easier part of the
loop, so I was usually able to catch up to Tim in that mile. I forced myself to run that whole mile. After that, we needed walking breaks, as the
heat gradually made us tired.
I had heard that horseflies
can be bad, but only for about an hour.
I didn’t notice any in the first three laps. Starting with lap four, I was getting bitten
about twice per lap. They were particularly
bad in the middle third of the loop.
I was using a 22 oz.
bottle, which I filled with Gatorade before every lap. Early in the race, I wondered if that might
me excessive. Later in the race, I
realized I needed to drink that much.
Where we were out in the
open, the pavement heated up in the sun.
I started to notice that in the fourth or fifth lap. After that, I noticed it more and more. Between the air temperature, the heat of the
sun, and the heat radiating from the pavement, I felt like I was in an
over. On top of that, my sweat just
wouldn’t evaporate.
I usually find walking
breaks to be an effective way to cool down.
Today, they didn’t help at all. I
had to take walking breaks, because I was getting too tired. I never felt like I cooled down though. The problem is that it wasn’t my own exertion
that was making me hot. It was the external
conditions.
Starting with lap six, we
had to do more walking. The heat was wearing
us down. I was really struggling, but we
still had three laps to go.
We heard thunder a few
times, but it was far in the distance.
Rain, at this point, would’ve really felt good. My clothes were already soaked, so there wasn’t
any downside. Unfortunately, it never
rained where we were.
Late in the seventh lap,
I needed to take a walking break and drink some Gatorade. Tim went ahead on his own. After that, I was on my own for the rest of
the race. Later in that same lap, I
needed a bathroom stop, so I stopped at a building with bathrooms. Inside the bathroom, it was air
conditioned. I would’ve loved to stay
inside long enough to cool down, but that would’ve taken too long. I forced myself to get back out into the heat
and run.
I was frustrated by the
lack of wind. The previous two days, we
were running through the forest, so wind couldn’t reach us. Here, we were out in the open, but there just
wasn’t any wind.
In my last two laps, I
still forced myself to run the first mile.
After that, I needed occasional walking breaks, but I tried to keep them
short. I was forcing myself to run as
far as I could before the next one.
Finally, in the last lap,
conditions got better. First, I started
to feel a breeze. Later in the lap, it
got cloudy. That made a huge
difference. The biggest obstacle in that
last lap was the horseflies. Suddenly,
they were all over me. I had applied bug
spray before the race, but my sweat rinsed it away. I think the flies were attracted to the sweat. In a one mile stretch of that last lap, I was
bitten 10 times.
I finished the race in
5:24:04. The heat slowed me down, but
not nearly as much as the trail conditions slowed me down the previous two
days.
The design of the medal
was similar to the first two races. The
only difference was the color and the name of the race.
Afterwards, I had to
borrow a chair and sit for a few minutes.
I needed time to cool down before I could drive back to the hotel. I brought a clean pair of shoes and socks, so
I wouldn’t have to drive back in shoes and socks that were soaked with sweat.
My socks were so wet that
I was able to wring them out. Putting on
the clean socks was a challenge. I could
get one on, but I needed help to get the other sock on. The problem was my lower back. Reaching my feet was just too painful. Once I had my socks on, getting the shoes on
was easier.
During the race, I was
drinking at least 20 ounces of Gatorade per lap. That’s more than a quart per hour. Still, I don’t think it was enough. As I was driving back to the hotel, my throat
started to feel dry. That’s how much I
was sweating.
When I got back to the
hotel, I immediately asked about the water.
As it turns out, they never needed to shut it off. I drained the water in the tub, so I could take
a warm bath to soothe my sore muscles.
Before taking a bath, I
needed to make one more trip to the car to finish bringing things in. After a few minutes in the air-conditioned
hotel while still wearing wet clothes, I started to get cold. It actually felt good to go back outside in
the heat.
Tomorrow’s race will be
on the same course. The temperature and
humidity will be about the same. The best
I can hope for is clouds and a breeze.
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