On August 5, I race-walked the third race of the Alaska Series. Today’s race was at a different venue than the first two races. Our course was a paved trail at Twin Lakes. The Twin Lakes are two narrow lakes just north of Salmon Creek. They’re right next to the highway that runs between downtown Juneau and the Mendenhall Valley.
The trail followed the eastern
shore of both lakes. We started at the
south end of one lake, went all the way past that lake, and about half the
length of the next lake. Then we turned
around and went back. We needed to do 14
laps for a marathon.
Yesterday, I ran most of the
race. I ran more than I planned, and way
more than I probably should have.
Immediately after yesterday’s race, my knee felt OK. A few hours later, my knee started to feel
stiff. I iced it after the race and
again in the evening, but I knew I shouldn’t do any running today.
Yesterday, I forgot to pack a
rain poncho. I had to compensate for my
lack of rain gear by wearing clothes that were warm and didn’t soak up too much
water. Today, I remembered the rain
poncho. I actually packed it last night,
so I wouldn’t forget.
When I looked at the forecast
last night, it seemed likely it would rain for the entire race. When I checked again this morning, the
forecast was slightly more optimistic.
It was still going to rain, but it might clear up a couple hours after
the race started.
As I was getting dressed, I
checked my weather app, and it said it was currently cloudy. I was surprised it wasn’t raining. This is when the probability of rain was the
highest. I wondered if we would get
lucky and it wouldn’t rain after all.
My hopes were dashed as soon as
I stepped outside. It was raining. It might not rain for the whole race, but we
were going to have a wet start. No
matter what happened after that, I would have wet shoes for the entire race.
My goal today was to finish in
less than six hours. Ideally, I wanted
to break 5:47, which is my slowest time for walking a marathon. It wasn’t necessary to go any faster.
When I got to the start, I was
pleased to see that the aid station was inside a small shelter. Our drop bag area was a set of picnic tables
that was also covered.
Before the start, my right knee
still felt stiff. I flexed my knee
several times to loosen it up, but it didn’t seem to help. I wondered how it would feel when I started
walking. Thankfully, it didn’t bother me
at all when I started walking. It
actually felt much better when I was moving.
I expected my walking to be
slow and sluggish. This is the first
time I’ve ever race-walked a marathon after doing a marathon the day
before. It took about a minute to get
into my rhythm, but then it felt surprisingly easy.
About half a mile into the
first lap, I happened to glance at my watch.
It wasn’t running. I remembered
pressing the start button, but I was wearing gloves. I must not have made a firm contact. At this point, the best thing I could do was
to start it at the end of my first lap, and track my lap times from that point
on.
When I finished my first lap, I
asked Daniel how much time had elapsed.
He said I did the first lap in 23:02.
I immediately started my watch and set out on my second lap.
That first lap was surprisingly
fast. It put me on pace for a 5:22
marathon. That’s much faster than I
expected. I slowed down a bit in the
second lap and more in the third.
Eventually, I settled into consistent 24-minute laps. That was still a bit fast, but it wasn’t
crazy fast.
Before the race, it had been
raining steadily. About the same time the
race started, the rain began to let up. I
still felt drops, and I could see them hitting the puddles, but it was just a
sprinkling.
By the time I started my third
lap, it seemed like the rain might be stopping completely. I pushed my hood back, but I kept the poncho
on. By the end of that lap, I realized I
was going to be too warm with the poncho if it was no longer raining. After that lap, I stopped long enough to take
it off and put it in my drop bag.
I was in the second half of my
4th lap, when I glanced over at one of the lakes and saw raindrops hitting the
water. I didn’t feel it yet, but it was raining
again. I didn’t want to have to stop
again to put my poncho on, so I decided to go without it as long as I didn’t
get too cold.
In my next lap, the rain seemed
to stop again. After another lap, I
noticed the sun occasionally shining through a gap in the clouds. By now, I was pretty sure the rain was done. I was starting to feel hot, so I took my
gloves off.
There was a breeze blowing from
the south. In the first half of each lap,
it was at my back, so it didn’t do anything to cool me. That’s when I often felt hot. In the second half of each lap, I was going
into the wind. Then I felt more
comfortable. Sometimes, it even felt
cold. That pattern persisted for the
rest of the race.
I wasn’t quite half done when my
left shoe started to feel funny. I
suspected my insole might be slipping. It
wasn’t too bad, so I did my best to ignore it.
Thankfully, it never got worse.
I was also noticing a painful
blister on one of the toes of that foot.
I don’t usually get blisters on the tips of my toes when I’m
walking. This was a blister that I first
noticed yesterday, when I was running.
Now that it was there, it hurt both running and walking.
When I finished my 7th lap, I
was half done. I was still averaging 24
minutes per lap, which put me on pace to finish in 5:36. I tried to tell myself that I could afford to
slow down, but I was in a nice rhythm. I
continued to consistently click off laps in 24 minutes each.
One of the runners was
celebrating her 100th marathon. She
brought cupcakes. I don’t normally eat
much solid food during a race, but now that I was half done, I grabbed a
cupcake and ate it while I was walking.
When I finished my 10th lap, I
just had four to go. I was still trying
to convince myself to slow down a bit and save some energy for tomorrow. I tried to tell myself I had 18 laps to go
(including 14 tomorrow), and I should pace myself accordingly. I tell myself a lot of things. I usually give myself good advice. The problem is I never seem to listen to
myself. I continued to click off
24-minute laps.
The closer I got to finishing,
the more I became emotionally invested in maintaining the same pace. With only a few laps to go, I wanted to have
even splits.
There’s a runner who lapped me
at least twice on Monday, but never lapped me today. I kept seeing her walking, and I was getting close
to catching her. I picked up my effort
just a bit and caught her just before the end of my 13th lap. I later learned that she ran the first half
of the race and walked the second half.
She was saving something for tomorrow.
Obviously, she’s smarter than I am.
As I finished that lap, Daniel
asked me if I had one lap to go. I said,
“15 laps, including tomorrow.” Even when
I said it out loud, I didn’t listen. As
I started my last lap, I was on pace to do the second half about 30 seconds
faster than the first half.
I was determined to at least do
even splits. As I started my last lap, I
put effort into maintaining my pace. I
didn’t realize it, but I was actually speeding up … a lot.
In between the two lakes, we go
up and down a small hill. For 13 laps, I
never noticed it. In my last lap, I finally
realized there was a hill. As I crested
the hill, I started to get hot. The sun
was out, and I could feel it. I reminded
myself I just had to get to the turnaround, and then I would have the cool
breeze all the way back.
At I reached the turnaround, I
looked at my watch. I did the first half
of that lap in 10:30. Suddenly, I was on
pace to have negative splits by at least two minutes.
Now I wanted to see if I could
keep up the same pace on the way back. I
tried, but I couldn’t quite do it. I
finished the race in 5:33:45. My last
lap was 21:15. To put that in
perspective, if I had done every lap that fast, I would’ve finished in less
than five hours.
I got another medal to add to the chain. The medal for today’s race was
in the shape of a wolf.
Since the race, I didn’t notice
any stiffness in my right knee. Doing
several hours of walking did wonders. Now
that I’ve been sitting for a while, It’s starting to stiffen up again. I’m still worried about the knee, but I’m
pretty sure it won’t be an issue for tomorrow’s race. Instead, I have to worry if I have any gas left
in the tank.
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