On August 4, I ran the second race of the Alaska Series, in Juneau, AK. That’s not a typo. I ran this one. Actually, I did a run/walk mix, but I did a substantial amount of running.
Every so often, I do a run/walk
workout that includes a quarter mile of running for each mile. At first, these workouts aggravated my right
knee, even though the amount of walking was minimal. I would try again every few weeks, usually
with the same result.
More recently, I started doing run/walk
workouts once a week. Two weeks ago, I
did a five-mile run/walk workout and barely noticed any knee discomfort while
running. I still noticed increased
discomfort walking up and down stairs, but not as much as after my previous run/walk
workouts.
Last week, I stepped up to a
seven-mile run/walk workout, and it was encouraging. I didn’t notice any knee discomfort while
running, and I barely noticed a difference afterwards when I walked up and down
stairs.
I felt I was ready to step up
to a longer distance, so I decided to try a run/walk mix during one of the races
of this series. I was originally
planning to wait until the last day.
That was before I saw the courses.
Today’s race was on the same
course as yesterday’s race. It’s mostly
on a dirt trail and there’s a section that isn’t easy to race-walk. By contrast, the course for the last two
races in this series is entirely paved.
It looks like a great surface for race-walking. With that in mind, I decided to try running
today and then race-walk the last two races of the series.
It was about five degrees
warmer than it was at the start of yesterday’s race. There was rain in the forecast, but it wasn’t
raining when I left the hotel. I felt
overdressed in tights yesterday, so I wore shorts today. I wore a fairly warm tech T-shirt, and brought
some other clothes that I could keep in a drop bag.
I opted to wear gaiters again,
but I had mixed feelings. On one hand,
they were effective at keeping dirt out of my shoes yesterday. On the other hand, they would get wet and muddy
if it rained during today’s race.
I wasn’t expecting the rain to
start until an hour or two after the race started. Within minutes of leaving the hotel, it
started to rain. That made me realize I
had forgotten to put my plastic rain poncho in my drop bag.
After getting to the start
area, I made a last-minute decision to put on a long sleeve polypro shirt. My race bib was pinned to my T-shirt, so I
put the polypro shirt under my T-shirt.
I also started the race wearing my jacket and polypro gloves.
Since there was one segment of
the trail that wasn’t easy to race-walk, I decided that would be the section I
would run. Yesterday, I picked two
landmarks that were a quarter mile apart.
I ran the section between them in both directions. That meant I was doing about a half mile of
running during each lap. If I kept that
up for the whole race, it would add up to eight total miles of running.
The section I was running had
some rocks imbedded in the trail. It
also had one awkward down and up crossing a gully. I ran cautiously, taking small steps, going
slowly, and staying on the balls of my feet.
It felt OK, but it didn’t seem like my running pace was much faster than
my race-walking pace. Partly that’s because
of the way I was running, but I doubt if I could run very fast even with an
all-out effort. I’m just not in shape
for it.
I paid close attention to how
my right knee felt. I could detect a
hint of discomfort, but it was barely perceptible. I only noticed it because I was comparing my
right knee to my left knee.
After one complete lap, I
started to feel warm. I unzipped my
jacket. By the middle of my second lap,
I realized the jacket was too warm, in combination with the layers I was wearing
underneath. When I finished my second
lap, I took off my jacket and put it in my drop bag.
For the next two laps, I felt
fairly comfortable. Then the rain
started to let up. Without the rain, I
suddenly felt overdressed. I took off my
gloves and stuffed them in my fanny pack.
That’s about all I could do
without a time-consuming stop. Now that
it wasn’t raining, I was overdressed with both the T-shirt and the polypro
shirt. I couldn’t easily take off the polypro
shirt, because it was underneath my T-shirt.
I couldn’t easily take off the T-shirt, because it had my race bib. Without knowing if it would start raining again,
I left them both on and accepted that I would be a little bit hot.
I was in my sixth lap when I
felt one of my insoles slipping within the shoe. I wear orthotics, so I always remove the insoles
that come with the shoes, and I replace them with Spenco insoles, so there’s room
for my orthotics. That usually works
well, but if my shoes get too wet, the insoles can slide forward within the
shoes. When that happens, the insole
bunches up in the front of my shoe, and it gets really uncomfortable. I’ve noticed that this is most likely to
happen when I’m running down a steep hill or when I’m doing frequent
transitions between running and walking.
If I only had a few laps to go,
I would live with the discomfort. I
still had 10 laps to go, so I stopped at the aid station to fix it. I had to remove my gaiter, so I could take
off my shoe. It took time to get the
insole back into the proper position and put my shoe back on. I didn’t bother putting my gaiter back
on. The trail was wet enough that I wasn’t
worried about getting loose dirt in my shoes.
Since I had stopped for a few minutes already, I also made a bathroom
stop. Then I started my 7th lap.
If I went back to the same
run/walk mix I was doing before, I would probably have the same issue again
within a lap or two. My knee was feeling
OK, so I decided to just ran the rest of the way. If my knee bothered me, I could always switch
to walking.
After running the next two
laps, I was half done with the race. In
the first six laps, I ran three total miles.
In the next two laps, I ran about 3.3.
At this point, I had already run more miles today than in the previous six
months combined. Running continuously
felt tiring, but it was no more tiring than race-walking. I decided to stick with it as long as my knee
wasn’t bothering me.
My time at the halfway point
was faster than yesterday, but not by that much. So far, I was only five minutes faster, which
was disappointing considering how much running I was doing. I expected the second half to be faster, but
I realized already that I would still take more than five hours to finish.
When I was only running the
most difficult part of the trail, I had to run cautiously. Now that I was also running the easy parts of
the course, I felt like I could open it up a little. Where it was flat, and I had good footing, I started
to run with a more relaxed stride. I
also picked up the pace a little. Still,
it was much slower than the pace I’m accustomed to running.
Early in the second half of the
race, it started to rain again. I wasn’t
sure if that was good news or bad news.
As it turns out, it didn’t matter.
The rain only lasted for about 10 minutes.
With five laps to go, I was
tempted to switch back to run/walk, but I didn’t want to have insole problems
again. I didn’t want to stop again, and
five laps was too far to live with the discomfort if the insole moved forward
within my shoe. I decided to run for at
least one more lap. Then I’d only have
four laps to go.
When I had four laps to go, I
again persuaded myself to run at least one more lap. If I had insole problems, three laps of
run/walk would feel more manageable than four.
With three laps to go, I caught
up to two runners who had been just ahead of me for a long time. They were going at about my pace, but they
were doing a different run/walk mix.
They mostly ran, but sometimes took brief walking breaks going up
hills. I adapted to their run/walk mix,
so I could talk to them for the rest of the race. That made the last three laps seem to go by
quicker.
I finished the race in 5:11:16. I was about 14 minutes faster in the second
half. If I had run the entire race, I
probably would’ve broken five hours, but not by much.
In all, I ran about 19 miles of
the race. Most of that was continuous
running. It wasn’t fast, but it was the
first time in months that I felt like I was doing meaningful training for
running.
When I finished, I got the next piece in my chain of medals. Today’s medal was in the shape of a moose.
When I got back to the hotel, I
wasn’t sure what do first. I reheated
some leftover pizza, so I could refuel.
While I was eating, I iced my knee.
Then I took a hot bath and did some stretching. Finally, I massaged a few muscles with my
massage stick.
I don’t know for sure how this
much running affected my knee. Usually,
the real test is seeing how my knee feels going up or down stairs. When I’m home, I go up or down stairs several
times a day. When I’m staying in a
hotel, I don’t go up or down any stairs.
I feel like I’ve given my knee a test, but the test hasn’t been graded
yet.
There are two more races in
this series. They’ll both be on a different
course. I’ve already gone to check out
that course. It’s paved and looks to be
pretty flat. It should be a good course
for race-walking.
At this point, my plan is to
race-walk both of those races. The only
wildcard is the weather. I’m not sure
what I’ll do if it rains, and I have problems with my insoles.
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