Today was day seven of the
Running Ragged 20in20 Series. We were back
at Quarry Park for the fourth straight day.
Our course today was the same one we ran yesterday. I like this course. It’s all gravel and it’s all runnable. The terrain is rolling, but there aren’t any
steep hills. On this course, I don’t
have to worry about roots, rocks, or uneven footing.
When I weighed myself this
morning, my weight was up for the second straight day. Is it really possible that I’m running
marathons every day, skipping lunch, and still eating more calories than I’m
burning?
It was a chilly morning. When I got up, it was 39 degrees. It was still a few hours before the race, so
it warmed up a bit. It was another day
to wear tights and gloves.
I feel like I’ve been doing a good
job of managing my effort. I sets goals
that are just challenging enough to keep me excited, but I never push so hard
that I’m going to feel like I got hit by a truck. When this series began, my hope was to wake
up each morning feeling like I did the day before. As far as fatigue and soreness go, I think I’m
doing that.
If something’s going to derail
me in this series, it’ll be an injury. I
have a few trouble spots, and I devote time to them before and after each race.
I know my right knee is still
injured, because it hurts when I extend my leg while doing a hamstring
stretch. It’s not getting better, but it’s
also not getting worse. I’ve learned to
avoid squatting down too deeply to pick things up. When I run, I notice it for the first minute
or so, but I stop noticing it once I get warmed up.
My left Achilles tendon has
been an intermittent problem. I’ve had
two races where I really worried about it in the first few miles, but then it
got better. It felt perfectly fine
yesterday. I have three more days on courses
with reliable footing, so I’m optimistic it will continue to be OK.
A blister under the toenail of
one of my big toes was painful for a few days, but has felt better since I
started draining it. I had to drain it
again this morning. It’ll continue to be
an annoyance, but it’s not going to stop me from running.
My newest worry is my right
foot. Toward the end of yesterday’s
race, I felt some momentary discomfort in the arch. My concern is that it could be the early
warning sign that I’m developing plantar fasciitis. I’ll be paying close attention to that. I have a support I could put in my shoe. I don’t want to do that unless I have to,
because it may change the fit of my shoe enough to cause other problems. I’ll keep it in my drop bag, just in case.
This is the first time I’ve run
marathon on this many consecutive days.
My impression so far, is that it’s all about managing small problems so
they don’t become big problems.
I came into today’s race with a
streak. Every day I ran faster than the
day before. For the first few days, that
happened by chance. For the last two
days, I’ve set that as a goal. One of
the decisions I had to make today was whether to try to beat yesterday’s time. I waited to see how I felt in the first lap
or two before making a decision.
As we started running, I didn’t
have any trouble keeping up with the leaders.
Greg and Jessica were in front. I
stayed right behind them. After a few
minutes, I noticed three other runners right behind us. One was Tim, who usually starts near the
front. The other two were Sandee and
Kristina.
Sandee was with us for the
first time. She was doing the 50K race,
but she was starting with fresh legs.
Kristina was with us on the first few days, but had to work the next few
days. She was back today with the
benefit of four days’ rest.
After about half a mile, I felt
a momentary sensation in the arch of my right foot. It was just like the sensation I felt a few
times yesterday. It’s hard to
describe. It wasn’t actually
painful. It was more like a momentary
feeling of weakness. For one stride, it
seemed like my arch might be collapsing a bit.
By the turnaround of the first
lap, Greg and I had moved to the front. A
few minutes later, we reached a hill that I always walked yesterday. I walked the hill and Greg did too. After that, we ran together for the rest of
that lap.
The rest of the leaders reached
the aid station whjle we were still there.
Our time for that lap was almost a minute faster than the pace I
averaged yesterday. I was surprised so
many people were starting that fast.
I had such an easy time with
the pace in that lap, that I immediately made the decision to try to beat my
time form yesterday. As we left the aid
station, Greg and I were both walking. I
wanted to walk for about a minute, but then Sandee passed us. I’ve never met Sandee before, so I didn’t
have any idea how fast she might run. I
didn’t want to risk letting a potential competitor get too far ahead of me, so
I started running again.
It wasn’t long before Greg and
I were out in front again. I was feeling
comfortable with the pace, but I momentarily noticed my right foot again. It made me nervous.
Yesterday, I paced myself by
setting a target time for each lap, and walking if I got there early. Yesterday, my target was 23:27 per lap. Today, I set a target of 23:20 per lap. Greg and I finished our second lap about two
minutes early, so we started the third lap with a two-minute walking
break. This time, we finished our
walking break and resumed running before anyone else caught up to us.
I continued to notice that
sensation in my foot about once per lap.
I’m usually a heel-striker, but I was sometimes running on the balls of
my feet starting up hills. I wondered
which was better for my arch. Without
knowing, I didn’t try to force any changes to my stride. I did start doing something subconsciously. When I felt that sensation in my arch, I
tensed up my foot, so my arch couldn’t flatten out as much. I don’t know if that helped or not.
Greg stayed with me for the
first four laps. Then he told me that he
was going to slow down. I went ahead on
my own. For the next few laps, I was
surprised how easy the pace felt. Yesterday,
I had to pay attention to my pace.
Today, I was running a bit faster, and it came naturally. I just ran at the pace that felt most
comfortable, and I had time to walk for two or three minutes at the start of
each new lap.
I wondered why these races seem
easier, even though I’m running faster each day. One possibility is that I was pacing too
conservatively at the beginning of the series.
Another possibility is that I’m actually getting stronger each day. One person’s race is another person’s
training run. I may be racing myself
into better shape as the series progresses.
My target time for the halfway
mark was 2:20. I got there in 2:17. Before leaving the aid station, I made a
bathroom stop. That still left me about
a minute and a half for a walking break.
There was only point in each
lap where I was tempted to get lazy. We
had to make a 180 degree turn around a cone at the turnaround point. I almost always slowed to a walk going around
the cone, because running such a sharp turn might be harder on my knees. It was downhill before the turn and uphill
afterwards. It would have been tempting
to keep walking going uphill, but I always forced myself to resume running
right away. A few minutes later, I would
reach the hill that I always walked. I coaxed
myself into running after the turnaround by reminding myself that I would get a
walking break soon.
The pace felt easy for two more
laps. After my eighth lap, I found I had
to put a little bit more effort into it.
I could do it, but it no longer felt easy.
In the first half of the race,
I noticed my foot almost every lap. In
the second half of the race, I only noticed it once. It seemed odd that my foot would suddenly get
better. I wasn’t doing anything
different. I could only think of two possible
explanations. The optimistic explanation
is that there wasn’t anything wrong with my foot. Maybe I was so worried about it that my mind
was playing tricks on me. The
pessimistic explanation is that I was tuning it out. I was working harder now, and I can tune out
a lot of pain during a race. This wasn’t
even painful, so it would be pretty easy to tune it out. If that was the case, I’d probably notice it
after the race, when I was no longer exerting myself.
I was surprised how far ahead
of schedule I was after my ninth lap. My
target time Was 3:31. I got there three
and a half minutes before that, giving me my longest walking break of the race.
After my tenth lap, I needed to
make another bathroom stop. My target
time now was 3:54:20. Even after the bathroom
stop, I was able to walk for almost two and a half minutes.
As I finished my walking break,
I computed my next target time by adding 23:20.
I came up with 4:17:40. That
couldn’t be right. I remembered my
target time for the same lap yesterday was 4:17 something. (It was actually 4:17:57.) I was going seven seconds faster per lap, so
my target time for 11 laps should be 77 second faster.
That’s when I realized I made a
mistake. My target time for nine laps
was supposed to be 3:30, not 3:31. I
walked for an extra minute. Then I added
23:20 to that time to get the wrong target time for my next lap as well. Taking a bathroom stop and then walking
longer than I should was a double whammy that set me back on starting my 10th lap. I’m glad I figured that out when I did,
instead of making the same mistake on my last lap.
When I started my last lap, I ended
my walking break at the correct time. I
didn’t get to walk as far at the start of that lap as I did yesterday. My target time for finishing my last lap was
1:24 faster than yesterday, but yesterday I actually finished more than two minutes
ahead of schedule. I would still beat
yesterday’s time if I ran my last lap at the same pace as yesterday, but I wasn’t
completely sure how fast I ran that lap yesterday.
My recollection is that I ran
my last lap yesterday at about the same pace as my other laps. That was my intention, but I have a
subconscious tendency to speed up when I know I’m in my last lap. Did I do that yesterday? If I did, I had to speed up today too, just
to be safe.
On the first half of my lap, I tried
to run at least as fast as my other laps, but I wasn’t really trying to speed
up. At the turnaround, I ran around the
cone. That wasn’t intentional, I was
just in a hurry to finish.
When I got to the one hill that
I always walked, I wondered if I should run it.
I convinced myself that might backfire.
If I tired myself out running up the hill, I might be slower the rest of
the way. It was better to walk the hill,
and then have the energy to run faster for the rest of the lap. That’s what I did.
After that, I could definitely
tell that I was running faster. I was
going to make sure I beat yesterday’s time.
I didn’t want to cut it close.
I finished in 4:36:07. I was three minutes faster than
yesterday. It’ll be interesting to see
if I can go faster tomorrow. It’ll be an
easier course, but I set the bar pretty high.
I usually hang around in the
finish area to wait for some of the other fast runners to finish. The next runner behind me was Jessica, and I
didn’t expect her to finish for about 20 minutes. I was in a rush to get back to the hotel, so
I left right away.
I didn’t notice any discomfort
in my foot walking back to the car or from the car to the hotel. Maybe I was just imagining the discomfort in
my foot. Either that, or it’s really
intermittent. Not wanting to take any
chances, I taped my foot to support my arch before leaving the hotel again.
Now that I’ve completed the
first seven days of this series, doing thirteen more seems less intimidating. I may actually get through this series.
Race Statistics
Distance: 26.2 miles
Time: 4:36:07
Average Pace: 10:32
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:
412
Minnesota Marathons/Ultras:
65
Consecutive Days: 7
Consecutive Wins: 5
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