Today was the second day of a series of races called Summer Camp. There are five races in the series, but I’m only doing two of them. I skipped yesterday’s race, because it was on a dirt and grass trail with roots. I can’t race-walk on that surface. Today’s race was on a paved path.
Out route was around a small
pond next to the Sartell Community Center.
For each lap, we went from the aid station to the pond, went counter-clockwise
around the pond, made a U-turn, went clockwise around the pond, and then back
to the aid station. We had to do that 18
time to complete a marathon. I was
already familiar with this course, having done two races here last year.
My biggest concern for this
race was the blood blisters under the toenails of each of my big toes. Those developed during Friday’s race. When fluid builds under a toenail, the
pressure under the nail can get painful.
I didn’t do anything to treat these
blisters yesterday. It was a rest day,
and I waited to see if the fluid would get reabsorbed. During the night, I woke up and had trouble
getting back to sleep, because I was feeling some discomfort from those toes. When I got up this morning, I finally relieved
the pressure by poking a pin under the corner of each of those toenails.
The regular start time for
today’s race was 6:00, but they also offered an early start at 5:00 for people
who expected to be on the course for a long time. It was a hot day, and there’s no shade on
this course, so most people took the early start. I hated getting up that early, but I took the
early start too.
This was Kevin Brosi’s 800th
marathon. Kevin is known for placing rubber
ducks and various plastic animals around the course. In Kevin’s honor, most of us wore yellow
shirts. Some runners also had green hair. I’m not sure what that represented, but I’m
sure there’s a story behind it.
As usual, Kevin had his ducks
in a row. He also brought his usual
sense of humor.
I went too fast in my last
race. I was intending to do a measured
effort, but it turned into an all-out effort.
Today, I didn’t expect to be as fast.
I wore a plain stopwatch
instead of a GPS watch. That gave me the
option of ignoring my pace and just going by how I felt. When I wear a GPS watch, I see all my mile
splits. If I get that much feedback
about my pace, I’m more likely to push to stay on a fast pace. That’s what happened on Friday. If I wanted to know my pace, I could always
check my time at the end of a lap.
On Friday, my time was 5:15 and
change. To finish in 5:15 today, I would
need to average 17:30 per lap. I wasn’t necessarily
trying to walk that fast, but it was a useful benchmark.
The temperature at the start
was in the upper 60s. That was 10
degrees warmer than Friday, in spite of the earlier start. Starting early meant less time in the
sunlight, but it was still going to get hot.
As I started walking, it took a
minute or two to find my rhythm. Then I
settled into a smooth gait with a rapid turnover. I suspect I was going too fast when I started
breathing hard after only a few minutes.
I checked my time after the
first lap. It was 16:53, confirming my
suspicion that I started too fast. Over the
next few laps, my pace gradually slowed.
By the end of three laps, my average pace was already a bit slower than
on Friday.
So far, I wasn’t noticing
either of my big toes. Unfortunately, I
was noticing a blister on the back of my left heel. I was making a concerted effort to make
contact with the middle of my foot, rather than with my heel, but I felt that
blister anyway. By trying so hard to
avoid striking with my heel, I was limiting the length of my stride. That forced me to have a rapid turnover to
compensate for the short stride. For the
first few laps, I was able to do it, but it was tiring. I couldn’t keep it up for the whole race.
As I started my fourth lap, I
saw Gwen and Kristina step off the course to take pictures. I looked across the pond and saw the sun just
above the horizon. It was a deep red
disk, partially obstructed by some short trees just beyond the other end of the
pond.
I walked past this end of the pond
twice per lap. Each time, I looked accross
the pond to see the sun. As it rose
higher above the horizon, it’s color changed from red to dark orange to light
orange and finally to yellow. As soon as
the sun was above the trees, I saw its reflection on the water.
By the end of my fifth lap, I
started to notice some discomfort from the big toe on my left foot. The big toe on my right foot didn’t bother
me.
After six laps, I was on pace
to finish in about 5:20. Even though my
pace was slower than Friday, it was wearing me down. I was already getting tired, and I was only
one third done with the race. Also, it
was going to get hot. I already realized
I was going to blow up badly in the second half.
For the next few laps, I
considered dropping down to the half marathon.
That decision would’ve been easy to justify. Friday’s race was my first marathon in almost
six months, and I didn’t leave any gas in the tank for today. Trying to bounce back and do it again with
only one day off was ambitious.
I still had three laps to think
about it. During that time, I reminded
myself that I’m training to walk marathons on four consecutive days. If I couldn’t do this, how would I do
that? I was going to crash and burn today,
but maybe that was the purpose of today’s race.
I had to go through this experience as a harsh reminder of what happens
when you pace yourself too aggressively.
If you start a race too fast, the second half is going to be slow and
uncomfortable. The more important lesson
is that you always have to leave some gas in the tank for the next day. I was learning those lessons, but I had to
learn them in slow motion. By the time I
reached the halfway point, I was committed to finishing the race. I was still on pace for 5:20, but I expected
to slow down. My hope was that I would
break 5:30.
Having committed to finishing,
I found the next few laps easier. They
weren’t any easier physically, but I had more motivation to keep up my
effort. I still had too many laps
remaining to think about the remaining distance. Instead, I continually told myself to keep
doing what I was doing. My cadence
gradually slowed down. I tried to keep
it up, but I was getting fatigued.
I started to notice the sun again. Now, instead of seeing it across the pond, I
was feeling its radiant heat. It was going
to get hot soon.
I felt the need to make a
bathroom stop, but I waited as long as I could.
I was afraid after stopping I would have trouble getting back into the
same rhythm. I postponed my bathroom
stop as long as I could. After 12 laps,
I couldn’t wait any longer.
I was right to be afraid. After my bathroom stop, I struggled to get
moving again. My legs were suddenly
stiff. It took an effort just to get
back into any kind of rhythm. I managed
to get back into it, but my cadence was slow.
Next, I forced myself to pick up my pace. I put more effort into my pace in that lap
than in any previous lap. I got back
into a decent rhythm, but I don’t know if it was as fast as before.
By now, the temperature had
climbed into the upper 70s. On top of
that, the sun was getting higher in the sky, and I rarely felt any breeze. I was running out of gas, I was feeling the
heat, and my legs were stiff. Nothing was
going to be easy. One lap at a time, I
just forced myself to keep on keeping on.
Every so often, I would look at
my watch. My pace continued to
deteriorate, but I was still on pace to break 5:30. That was the only thing that kept me
motivated to maintain my effort.
I got a lot of encouragement
from the runners. Everyone complimented
me on my fast walking pace. I didn’t say
it, but I was disappointed with my pace.
Finally, as I began my last lap,
I found the strength to really pick up my cadence. Knowing I only had one lap to go made the
effort seem sustainable. When I reached
the midpoint of the lap, I checked my watch.
That lap was my fastest since the beginning of the race. If I could maintain the same pace in the
second half, I would come close to breaking 5:25.
Now I really pushed. I walked as rapidly as I could. I didn’t quite break 5:25, but I was close. I finished in 5:25:24.
The second half of the race was
five minutes slower than the first half.
I’m not generally happy with positive splits, but I expected it to be
much worse. I thought it would be closer
to 10 minutes. I felt miserable, but I
actually held up better than I thought.
After finishing, I ate one of
the cookies made in honor of Kevin’s 800th marathon. I also had some chocolate milk and some
pickle juice. If you saw all the salt
crystals on my skin, you’d understand why I would want to drink pickle juice.
The Summer Camp Series is a
rebranding of a series that used to be called the Minnesota Brothers Trail Series. They got rid of one race venue, but added two
others. This was one of the new
venues. Each race in the series has a
name and a corresponding medal. This
race was called Lazy Loon.
This race venue was just a
couple blocks from a good pizzeria. I
picked up a take-out pizza on my way back to the hotel. I ate half for lunch and saved the other half
for dinner.
After taking a bath and
stretching, I started working on my blisters.
To drain the blisters under my toenails, I had to poke a pin under my
toenail, surround the toe with a tissue, and apply enough pressure to force the
fluid out. In the short term, that was
painful, but relieving the pressure will make it less painful in the future. For the next few days, this may be a daily
ritual.
I couldn’t do much about the
blister on my heel. It’s deep under
thick layers of skin. It also seems to
be underneath the empty chamber of an older blister that I already
drained. When you have blisters
underneath older blisters, it gets increasingly difficult to drain them. The long-term solution is to adjust my gait
until I’m no longer making contact with my heel. I’ve been working on that, but it’s a
long-term project.
I have another race on
Tuesday. I’m going to have to give some
thought to what pace is realistic. My
average pace today was 12:25, but I did it the hard way. It would’ve been easier if I was averaging
12:25 from the beginning, instead of starting faster and slowing down as I got
fatigued.
I’m viewing today’s race as being about learning a lesson the hard way. On Tuesday, we’ll see how well I learned.
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