08 Spring Forward 15K

April 6th, 2008

At 7:15 I roll out of the driveway with my running gear and a handful of cheerios in my belly. The temperature is supposed to be in the fifties today, but it's still chilly at this hour. I crack the windows a little to get some fresh air and drive with gloves and my winter coat on.

Races provide good measures of fitness and that's how I'm thinking about the race, because my real concern is the Penn Relays 10K coming up in a couple weeks. I've finally gotten out on the track these past few weeks, but my body's response to the speed has been less than stellar. The first 2 x 2 mile at 15 - 20 seconds slower than goal race pace workout that I ran gave me lower-leg lactic acid burn like I'd never felt before. I pushed through the pain, running stiffly, without finesse, to hit the times. A week later 3 x 2 mile felt better, but that wasn't the end of my worries.

I ran one day without taping my heels and I've been paying for it ever since. The rubbing between my shoe and foot tore the skin open and it hasn't been able to heal because I'm still running on it everyday. (Though one day off and sandals on casual Friday helped the skin tremendously.) I went to a podiatrist about this and he said it looked like retrocalcaneal exostosis, also known more vividly as heel spurs. Luckily, an x-ray showed that my heel bone is not trying to grow its way out of my foot like the monster from Aliens. Instead it's just the worst case of bursitis that the doctor has seen in twelve years.

Ok, enough melodrama out of me. This is in fact good news. It's a much more solvable problem than renegade bone growth. I've got a gauze pad taped over each heel, but the bursas nonetheless feel irritated. I'm concerned about how bad it will be in the race. What if it gets bad? This race isn't that important to me. Should I drop out if it does?

The wind is brisk with a lingering morning chill, but the looming heat is palpable (at least I thought so). I'm on the starting line in a tank top and short shorts. Some other people have hats, gloves, leggings, and jackets.

The race begins and almost immediately it is me and one other guy, Marcus Gage. I'm feeling pretty comfortable, but not eager to push the pace so I float in Marcus's orbit. He drifts away on some uphills and some downhills too, but I always seem to come right back to him, or him to me. I can tell he is working hard, much harder than me, and much too hard for the first few miles of a 9+ mile race. I decide to key off him until 5K and then pick up the pace if I feel like it for the remaining 10K; a decent Penn Relays simulation.

The course on the roads through Mendon Ponds Park comes at you like giant ocean swells. There is a flat portion in the middle of the course, but by the time I realized I was running flat, that portion ended. The hills are large, but with a pleasant moderate grade, and the best part, which makes it all manageable, is that every uphill is immediately followed by a downhill.

Marcus and I reached the 5K mark and I started to pull away. I waited to surge as I looked up an enormous hill, but on the following downhill I poured some more fuel in and sustained it. There weren't any mile or kilometer splits given and I don't wear a watch so I couldn't gauge my speed. Silly worries nagged at me. This is now a training run, you need to speed up. This is too comfortable, but it is a long race. You don't want to speed up too much and then crash before the finish. This has been a big problem for me lately. I've forgotten how to run for fun. It will come back to me, I know. This is normal for this point in the racing cycle: a big race is coming up, training is becoming a bother, yet I know I need to do more to hit my goal.

When I managed to shut up the nagging, life became perfect. The weather could not have been better for a race. The sky was was clear and bright. Running felt easy. I never once thought of my heels and they did not protest. I thought, this must be how photosynthesis feels; warm, comforting, replenishing.

10K came and went. I redoubled my effort, then surged further at the 8 mile mark. I stopped taking the hills easy and started attacking them. I kicked through the downhill finish for a time of 49:49, good for a four minute drop in the 20-24 age group record.

I cooled down with a nice fellow, second place over all finisher Dan Verdi. (Marcus finished third.)

The post race food hit the spot. Truly a brunch of champions. I had: a mound of peanut butter with pretzels, cookies in the same mode, orange slices, cheesy pasta, a hot dog, and a banana.

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