Missions Accomplished

What an incredible trip.  I left school at about 2:00 on Friday afternoon to get home and meet up with Dave and Dan and head to the airport.  Looking back, I probably should/could have skipped school altogether and left earlier in the day, but that was only the first rookie mistake.  The three of us sat on one row, with Dan in the middle and Dave on the isle.  I was talking with Dave shortly before takeoff when I saw the funniest thing I've ever seen in my whole life.  I told Dan and Dave that the girl to their right was giving us all a present.  They turned just in time to see the confused look on her face as she examined the seat belt.  

She must have been in her early 20's and she looked around at everyone else to see if they had solved this mind boggling puzzle.  It must have been a little discouraging to see the 4-year old boy sitting next to her with his seat belt securely fastened at his waist.  After a few minutes of rubbing the metal of the buckles together (maybe she thought they were magnetic) and repeating what sounded like magic words (she may have been swearing, but she was not speaking english) she leaned over and asked the guy in front of Dave for help.  The dude must have thought she was joking.  Imagine the conversation.  

The girl, holding up two ends of a seat belt saying, "Excuse me, how does this work?"  The guy looking back and noticing the seat belt and thinking, "this must be a joke.  Is she coming on to me? Are there cameras around?"  Finally he realizes she is serious and slowly shows her the magic of the seat belts coming together.  

All this time I was laughing so hard tears were coming to my eyes.  The whole time I was thinking, "this is why those stewardesses continue to demonstrate this small miracle.  The best part was after she was securely fastened and the stewardesses were going over the seatbelt and life jacket routine, this girl was talking on her phone.  No wonder she doesn't know how to do it.  I'm not sure what asian country she was from, but I can guarantee they do not have seat belts in that country.  She continued to talk on her phone until she lost her signal in the air.  The gift of laughter was awesome.

Of course, what comes around goes around.  The next funny event came at Dan's expense.  I rented the first hotel room, so Dan rented the car and Dave got the second hotel room.  As we were standing at the rental counter the lady asked Dan if he wanted insurance for the car.  She was pressing him pretty hard to get it, so I stepped in and told him that he did not need any insurance because his own would cover him.  Well, I guess she was more convincing than me because she talked Dan into getting his insurance by telling him that he "needed it".  She even said, "You really do need this, I promise."  I didn't say "I promise."  I guess I should have.  So, after doubling the price of the car with insurance, she convinced him to go with the "cheaper" gas solution too.  "If you prepay for the gas, you just bring the car back empty and we take care of it."  Of course, what they forget to mention is that no one uses a full tank of gas in one day.  Sure enough, by the time we were done, we almost used half the tank.  Dan was a good sport about it.  We arranged to only tease him for one year, with a player option for a second year.  

So, we took our minivan to Sports Authority to load up on goo and get a fanny pack for Dave.  They had all the stuff we needed, so we next went for Dinner.  It was about 6:00 by now, so we were all pretty hungry.  Dave saw an Applebees and said that sounded good.  Once we got in the restaurant we didn't see anything that looked like a good pre-race meal, so we left and headed to Whole Foods to eat at their salad and fresh pasta bar.  We ate well and loaded up on food for the morning.  We made one last stop at a gas station to get drinks and some candy for the run and set out for Death Valley.  Unfortunately, we got lost several times trying to find each of these places, so it was almost 9:30 before we made it out of Vegas.  We arrived at our hotel at almost 11:00.  We were all very tired.  Dave and Dan forgot to bring ear plugs, so they had to listen to my deep breathing all night.  I slept like a baby until about 4:30 in the morning.  I drank so much water throughout Friday and that resulted in an early morning wake up.  I went back to sleep until 6:00 and then showered and got ready to run.

I bought a bandana at the general store at the Furnace Creek Ranch.  I didn't want my bald bead to burn during the race.  I ate a Cliff Bar and a bagel before the race and got good and stretched out.  It was about 40 degrees at start time, so I went with just a short sleeve shirt and my running shorts.  There was about 500 people or less at the starting line, but only about 170 running the full marathon.  The three of us started out together near the back of the pack and quickly found a good pace.  I had read that you should divide the race into three 10's.  The first ten miles you run slower than your desired pace.  This keeps you from making a huge rookie mistake of using all your energy trying to stay with the pack.  Your body tells you to go, but you have to control it and stay steady.  We settle in around a 10:15 pace and I felt great.  At about 2.5 miles the first of the half marathoners caught up to us.  They started 10 minutes after us.  This dude was flying.  We were 23 minutes into our race, so he was only 13 and had already gone 2.5 miles.  We saw him again on his way back about 3 miles later.  The race was an out and back, so we go to see all the speedy half marathoners absolutely crushing it.  There were some good runners in that group.  

We made it out of the first aide station (which were every three miles) at about 31 minutes.  I was real happy with our pace.  Dan had gone ahead, but we caught up to him on a big hill.  I was shocked at how many hills there were on this course.  I had guessed that it would be mostly flat, but there were a couple of real beasts.  The aide stations had gatorade, pretzels, trail mix, red vines and water.  Plenty of good stuff.  It was already getting warm, so I took a cup of gatorade and a cup of water.  The food and drinks were all on the tables, so you kind of had to stop to get your stuff each time.  No big deal.  We headed out and I still felt great.  The three of us stayed together almost until the 6 mile aide station.  Then Dan left us.  Dave and I made it to the second aide station at around 61 minutes, but we had some trouble getting our water bottles filled and our goos out, so we were there for almost 4 minutes.  No big deal though, as I just wanted to finish the first 10 miles close to an hour and 50 minutes.  We were still ahead of that pace.  Around mile 7 Dave said he was struggling.  We walked for a minute and then started up again, but then right after the aide station at mile 9 Dave told me to go ahead.  He didn't sleep well the previous night and was about ready to just stop.  Even though I felt bad about it, I left him and got back on my pace.

Dave's sister and her husband and her husband's brother all came down and ran in the various races.  The brother is a Boston Qualifier and took 11th overall in this race.  I saw him at mile 10.  He was on his way back from the turnaround and was talking on the phone.  As I said hi to him I heard Dave about 50 feet behind me and I thought he was back so I slowed my pace a bit.  At mile 11 I couldn't see him anymore, so I just kept going.  Dan passed me on his way back from the turn at 12.75 miles.  I felt pretty good knowing I was less than a mile behind Dan and nothing really hurt on my body.  I was right on my planned pace of 2:20 at the turn and I debated whether or not to go for 4:30 or not.  I knew it would be tough, so I decided another 2:20 would be fine and I would be stoked to finish in 4:40.  So I stuck to my plan and kept running at about 10:15, only stopping at aide stations.  Between miles 14 and 15 I saw Dave and gave him an Aleve and kept going.  At mile 16 my total time was 2:49 and with only 10 miles left I really thought 4:40 was going to be easy.  11 minute miles for 10 miles?  No problem.  About half way to mile 17 the tickle that had been in my left hamstring a mile earlier turned into a full blown cramp and almost took me to the ground.  I had not even really let it sink in, but a mile or so earlier I noticed that my bandana was completely dry and I was not sweating anymore.  I'm sure I was starting to get dehydrated.  I stood there for about 2 minutes, trying to stretch it out, but it hurt really bad.  I drank all the water I had left in my bottle and started walking.  The intense pain went away after a few more minutes, so I started jogging again.  4:40 was still possible, but now it was going to be a challenge.  About 400 yards before the aide station at 18, the cramp came back and really never left me again.  I got to 18 at 3:20, meaning it took me 30 minutes to go those two miles.  The rest of the race was much the same.  I would take 100 steps and my hamstring would hurt so bad I would have to limp for a minute or so before doing that again.  At mile 19 the race director pulled up beside me and asked if I wanted a ride back in.  I told him no even though my body was screaming to be put out of its misery.

Dan walked back on the course to meet me.  I saw him around the 25.5 mile mark.  We walked together for about half a mile before I limp/jogged the final .2 miles and across the finish line.  So it is a little funny.  When this thing started I would have been overjoyed to finish in 5 hours 27 minutes.  16 miles into the race though, I was sure I would beat 4 hours 40 minutes.  Several people asked me when I was planning to do my next race, thinking I had caught the marathon fever that some people get.  My answer every time was, "Never."  Two days later, my body still hurts bad enough that the answer is still the same, but I have to admit, there is a part of me that wonders what the race would have been like if I didn't cramp up.  Training in 18 degree weather and then running in 60+ is a big deal.  My lungs were never tested in this race, as the elevation was below sea level the entire time, but the heat really got to me. 

So, there are a few things I would do differently if I ever did this again.  First, I would choose a race that is close enough to drive to on race day.  Next, I would chose a race that I could train for in warmer weather.   Also, I would watch my diet much better and lose some weight.  I think 170 pounds would have been a lot easier to haul around for 26 miles.  I would also choose a race that didn't have a ton of up hill running.  Since this was an out and back we got to go down the uphills and up the downhills on the way back, but the uphills seemed a lot harder than the benefit I got from the downhills.  Finally, I would train a little longer than 16 weeks.  One of the hardest parts of this was running again the week after a long run of 15 plus miles.  Our training schedule never really let up on that.  Maybe 24 weeks or something like that I guess.  All of this is really just a waste of time though, because I am definitely never running another one...probably.