The Joy of Running

CHRISTIAN

February 21st 2010 ~ Ft. Lauderdale ½ Marathon

I did not want to run the Ft. Lauderdale Half. It’s really early in the morning, it’s cold, and you have to deal with down town traffic and parking. But I signed up because the mileage worked perfectly into my training, and I might as well get an official time and pace out of it. And Maria was running it too.

Yeah, nothing really worked out very well.

Maria took a nasty spill a couple of weeks before the race and by race time her knee looked like she was smuggling plums along side her kneecap. And the forecast called for really cold weather for the weekend. I don’t really care for running in the first place, but running in the cold is not my cup of tea.

My longest run before the race was an easy 10 miles I completed with under 8 minute miles in a strong wind. But that was in the middle of the day with a warm sun beating down. I had to wake up at 4:30am to get to the starting line by 5:30. I tried to warm up and stretch a little before taking place in the shoulder to shoulder corral of runners who would be slowing me down at the start. The horn signaled the start and we were off to a blistering pace of a 15 minute mile trying to get out of downtown Ft. Lauderdale. I could have power-walked faster than that. In fact I think I saw someone coming out of the 24 hour supermarket carrying heavy bags keeping pace with me as she walked to her car…

I stopped just short of the 2 mile mark to use the toilet, when a cramp hit my right calf so hard that I almost fell down before I could slow down. I never cramp. And having something like a calf cramp 10 minutes into a run seemed impossible.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t going away. I tried every conceivable stretch I could think of as I watched the most unfit looking people run past me. I was wasting valuable time. And the thought crossed my mind that it would be a relatively short walk back to the car and I could be home asleep before 7am. But I started back up. I now had a modified limp stride that was pretty painful, and must have looked pretty foolish. We headed North up A1A (the beachside road) and got to see the sun coming up over the Atlantic.

Next to cramp was my stomach. While easier to run through, it was considerably less fun dealing with the portable toilets. I do not recommend having to use the portable toilets.

I must have broken through some pain threshold at about mile 7 because if became easier to run. I don’t thing my cramp went away, I just think my stubborn brain got tired of sending alerts to my body. Mile 10 had the best station of the whole race. A few kind souls manned an unsanctioned beer station, pouring ice-cold beer for runners. I stopped and grabbed a beer and it was so delicious that I had them pour me another. I slowed relished my beer as I walked the distance it took for me to drink every last drop.

Then I had an easy 3 miles to the finish. It was fairly anticlimactic, to be honest. I was just happy to be off my right foot. My limp stride was wreaking havoc on the rest of my right leg that was trying to take the weight off my calf. Walking was tremendously painful. But there was a beer truck pouring pints of beer to runners and cheerers-on alike. Maria met me at the finish and we had a few beers before heading out for breakfast.

I ended up finishing 13.1 miles in 1 hour, 48 minutes and 56 seconds. My pace was just under 8 ½ minute miles. Not too bad considering the time spent on the side of the road dealing with my various cramps. That is the last time I slam beer and oyster shooters the night before a race…