Day 4 (part 1)

“Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.”

~Douglas MacArthur








Last night after my run, shower and dinner I gave myself a "treat". As I was getting read for bed, I smeared "Pain-a-trate" in massive quantities all over my legs. It is the Melaleuca version of "Icy-Hot" and it smells like wintergreen Altoids. It could be worse. It feels WONDERFUL as it heats up, like a massage. It was a great way to celebrate being more than halfway complete.

I woke up this morning and my legs felt different. They felt distinctly different from other mornings. My quads weren't all rubbery like before, they almost felt, dare I say, normal. Heavy and tired, but normal. My calves were almost sore, as if they were recovering from a race. The other mornings, my legs were just dead, like they weren't even CONSIDERING recovering. But this morning, there was a hint of recovery in the air.

Or so I thought. It is hard to say.

All I know is, I walked down to the light hoping it would change. It didn't. I stood around and waited until finally, it changed. There are a ton of cars waiting, so I always feel obligated to cross quickly so they can make their left turn, and so when the light flipped I started jogging across the street. Oh man, it felt TERRIBLE. It felt like I had NO BUSINESS running. Sensations were coming out of nowhere telling me to do ANYTHING but run, lights and alarms in my head were going off, the control room was mayhem. Houston, we have a problem.

This would not normally be a problem, because my legs feel kinda trashed anyway and I know it will get better as I work into my run. But this morning, THIS morning, my legs felt so good before the run, I expected better things when I started. And now, after a few steps, my heart sank because it felt awful.

I walked a hundred yards. I stopped and shook everything out, and stretched easy. I took a deep breath, set my eyes on the trail, and just went.

I can't describe to you just how I feel when I am working so hard at ignoring discomfort. I have never ever experienced anything like this in any other setting other than long-distance running. If you stop, you don't go anywhere, so you have to keep moving. And I hate walking, so I choose to run. But it did not feel good. It didn't hurt, really, but it did. It wasn't pain, but it hurt.

I probably sound pompous saying this, but I do not know anyone, I don't think, who would have kept running if they felt like I felt this morning. And, oddly enough, this thought buoyed me a little. I went DEEP into the playbook and pulled out a game I play with myself to help pass the really hard miles: I work on my mile pacing. Pretty complex, I know.

My first mile was in 10:00. Its hard to believe I was actually RUNNING. I decided to see how closely I could take off 15 seconds per mile until I could only take off 5 seconds per mile and then I would just hold.

10:00.
9:47 (DAMN IT)
9:31 (BETTER, BUT NOT PERFECT!!!!)
9:15 (AH YEAH)
...

I made it to 9:00. I could not go faster. I decided to just run 9:00 per mile the rest of the way until SOMETHING told me to do different. Whatever that something might be, I do not know.

It was going well until mile 11. It wasn't raining, I was warm, I felt okay. Then the oddest thing happened, and this is the very first time I have ever experienced this. My leg muscles, the big quad muscles and hamstrings, just started throbbing. Like deep muscle pain. I stopped running, the pain stopped. My legs felt good again, and I could hold a brisk walk just fine. I start running, the pain is back instantly. Oh crap.

I decided to just "survival shuffle" as far as I could. It got to be so painful at mile 12 I started walking again. My knees and toes and joints were fine, but my muscles were really hurting. I walked the next half mile, then ran the last half mile to the end just because I did NOT want to be out here any longer.

What happened? I was doing so well, and now it feels like the bottom has just dropped out. And the really strange thing is, my legs feel great, again, now that I am finished. Nothing hurts. They are tired, for sure, but everything feels awesome.

So, now I am really scared. I don't want to walk 13 miles. I don't want to walk 5 miles. Heck, I don't want to walk any of it!!!

I still finished in 2:00, but maybe I should just be happy I finished. I have 3 more 13 mile runs to go, and I am terrified of starting the next one. I have lab meeting until 5 pm today, too, so I wont even start running until after that. How quickly things change.

My goal is to hydrate as much as possible and get plenty of potassium. I am a bit nervous about my electrolyte balance and calcium, but I do not have anyway to know for sure without a blood test and by the time I get results, I will be done, I guess.

Well, stay tuned.