Now that I've had a week and a half's time to decompress, recover, and reflect on the time spent in New Hampshire and Maine, I thought it was appropriate to update the blog on finishing my first double.
First off, big, huge thank you to my sister and my wife (better known as Team Double Trouble) for running besides me in Maine. Chrissy had the fun half with the longer leg but far more rain and hills, and Aud had the other half where she had to reel me back from my mind melt late in the race. You guys were true sports to splash around with me for five plus hours in the pouring rain.
So the double itself!
NH was a fairly challenging course with multiple rolling hills but beautiful scenery around Newfound Lake. A very small but well organized race that started later than usual at 9:00AM. It rained moderately throughout on that Sat. Oct 1, 2011 with temperature hovering around the low 60. Very nice day for running. I really took the advice of many 50 Staters and slowed down on this first race. I even took a photo at every mile marker by coming to a walk each time. Finish time, 4:19.
A little fun story was that I had begged the Hotel to allow me with a late checkout at 2:00PM. That gave me exactly 5 hours to finish the race and drive back to the hotel (exactly 30 min drive away from start/finish). Between running another 0.5 miles to my car and chugging a couple of chocolate milk in the ride, I got back to the hotel at 1:55. Just enough time for me to shower up! My wonderful wife had packed 4 gallon bags of ice for me to then ice down in the car on our drive to Maine immediately after the shower...
I was sore and a little worried. BUT, I was not broken the following morning. That gave me some confidence that I would finish the second race without crippling myself. The 7:45 start plus the hard rain was a little intimidating at the start. I was literally shivering and shaking as we waited for the start... Chris and I ran the first mile at about 10:15 pace... and the rain did not let up for the first 12 miles or so. Oh, and the rain caused my over-sensitive Garmin 405 to run out of battery at about mile 7.
Running with a giant trash bag is interesting. You stay warm but then you get too hot. So I had to constantly cover and uncover my body to regulate my temperature. Once a few miles in and realizing that this WAS going to be another race in the rain; I thought I'd just roll with the absurdity of it. We goofed off and posed and took funny photos at each mile mark. We walked some hills and made friends along the way. At the exchange, my wife joined me from 14.8 to the finish. There were a few miles in the 20s where I think a sugar low really caused my mind to wonder (hallucinate perhaps). Aud kept talking to me and all I could do in response was saying "I’m okay." I upped the GU intake and caught a second wind... we finished the last few miles jogging all the way through.
So, the double is in the bag. Was it tough? No doubt. But not as hard as I thought it might have been. Will I do it again? Most likely. The question is should a time goal be imposed? Or should I try to enjoy the runs as I did in NH and ME? Not having a time goal was so different for me that it was a little difficult to cope at times? I kept looking at my dead Garmin in ME even though I knew that it had gone to sleep at mile 7. I did really enjoy the difference. I got to look at the sights, smell the pines, and talked to people. So maybe, just maybe, a yearly double without time goals should be worked into the routine...
We'll see. I fear that I am too competitive for that...
Food for thought: 50M ultra in the future??? TBD...
One race, one mile, and one step at a time
Jeff
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