My quads are still screaming; Leadville Aftermath
7.5.2011
And for the first 2 days I was too,
Every time I had to sit down,
stand up, or walk up or down a hill or stairs…
Did I mention getting into or out of a car?!?!
26.2 in 6 hours and 47 minutes.
13.1 in 3 hours in 50 minutes.
This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done.
I feel I could have been better prepared, had I known, or expected what I was embarking on.
Hiking a 14’er a month before would have helped tremendously. I don’t think anything other than running Leadville 26.2 could have prepared me.
I wasn’t really feeling the greatest before the line. My full day of planting and clearing my garden two days before was ill planning on my part. Sometimes I just can’t help myself, I love getting dirty.
The day of, I was already feeling tired,
I had remembered my race espresso,
I had forgotten my morning espresso. I went to Safeway the night before and bought some Starbuck’s Italian Roast Via. I don’t think that did the trick, my insides were rumbling and I just felt ‘off’.
I missed picking up my packet the night before by about 20 minutes, that was rough, so 6:05 I was at the 6th street Gym, early, cause Leadville is so tiny.
Got my number, went back to the car, and laid around. It was 42 degrees, and I thought it was quite cold. I wasn’t shivering, but I did feel cold, I had tons of layers on, and I was laying in the back of my mini me, thinking, if I could just fall asleep for 10 minutes.
I was forcing myself to eat fruit, didn’t feel hungry, felt kinda queezy. I knew, however, that I needed to ingest some carbohydrates.
Went to go line up and ran into Kyle Burns, Teammate and Ultra Runner Extraordinaire. The Team Zoefitness/Classic jersey was a dead give away.
7.6.2011
The results are finally in! I’ve been impatiently waiting for days. Kinda like waiting for my quads to stop screaming.
I got 14th out of 34 women in my age group who completed the race and about 40 women who started the race.
My total time was: 6:46:29.9
I had the 7th fastest return time in my age group.
The start was the worst ever for me. The ascent was even worse. I have never, NEVER, experienced anything like it, I had hundreds of people pass me on the climbs. I thought, my body was going to give way,
I thought I was going to have to be carried off the mountain,
I was confused,
I was suffering mild altitude sickness, my legs felt good, my heart rate felt good, but
I couldn’t move.
I thought I was going to shat myself, that my body was going to rebel and stop working.
I thought Ken, Mayor Ken, and ultimate extreme Grandpa, not to be confused with my hubby, was going to have to throw me on the back of the 4×4 and carry me off the mountain.
Every ONE was passing me, I was at a stand still. I felt like this most of the way out.
Since there was nothing but Ken, a couple of others, and a 4×4 at the top, I thought, well, I’ll see how I feel by the next aid station, it’s all down hill.
So around the little rocks I went, the turn around, and I took off like a giselle.
It was crazy.
My descents were awesome.
The mountain biking helped! I flew, it took me 20 minutes to go down 3.5 miles. Where it took me about an hour and 15 to get up. I never want to feel like I have to force my body to do something again, it was awful.
The mild altitude sickness, I had my espresso, I was saving it, but I couldn’t save it anymore, I knew that the caffeine would help with the sickness, so I began having it on the way up.
The part of this that was great, was the amazing view, all around me, surrounded by 14’ers.
Not a slow, tortoise step went by where I didn’t give thanks to God for all the beauty he has given us. We’re so blessed to have such amazing life around us. There was nothing, the trail, the sky, the clouds, the mountains and all the hundreds of people passing me, as I could barely waddle up the mountain.
The return was awesome, I felt so good.
The part that got to me, and confused me on the way out, is we did this lap around a mountain, it was 3 miles. When I hit it on the way down, I overheard people talking, and then, figured out we would run around the mountain back to the same aid station, about 3 miles, so I dropped everything, all the weight I had and ran as fast as I could.
This part was beautiful, it was tundra, in the midst of tall peaks. My favorite.
I ran as fast as I could.
This is where the snow crossings were.
It was more treacherous downhill than up.
And the snow crossings were not like I thought they were, they were maybe 20 feet long, and they had been nice enough to make a path and stairs.
I felt so amazingly good on the descent. I was normal, after being at 13,200, 12,100 felt like sea level.
The hundreds of people who passed me on the way up, I picked up one by one on the way down.
There were some things I learned about myself on this run.
Like every time I stopped running, I got an amazing shock through my arms.
Lateral movements, and running backwards helps the IT band.
There was a guy who ran up behind me and said, “This SUCKS”
and the mental game involved with not being effected by the negative energy.
I ran fast and faster,
I had the 7th fastest return time in my age group.
I don’t think, I have it in me to do the 50.
Which is better than the last 3 days, which was I AM NOT going to do the 50 miler.
I rode yesterday, average 13 mph. I felt good for about 30 minutes, and then, was off, way off.
I will swim Master’s today, pull focus, maybe a 2000, will go by how I feel.
My quads are still screaming, and I am only sometimes screaming with them.
Unlike the new Classic/Zoefitness teammate Kyle Burns who ran the 26.2, ran 10 the next day, and then, raced a 10k on Monday. His training is a little different than most of ours. He runs 30 one day and 20 the next.
Me, I ran the 26.2, and have been lounging ever since.