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I had a crap day at Lake Sonoma.


 Race morning, when I had no clue it was going to be a crap day. 
Something went wrong. Something went really wrong because I had no legs to run on. I kept waiting for them to warm up, loosen up, wake up...but they felt heavy and fatigued. My quads burned on the rolling singletrack, and it wasn't long before I was walking runnable trail. My mantra became "there are still so many miles in front of me" which is maybe the first time that's ever been a comforting thought in a race. It meant I had plenty of time to work through this. It would pass. My legs would show up, just be patient. 

About mile 10 I gave up on waiting for my legs to show up. If this was the hand I'd been dealt then it was time to face it and readjust. Forget a PR. I ran into Warm Springs at mile 11.6 and heard someone say my name. 
Hey, it's Alvin! This guy is always smiling.
I wished him a good race and hung out a few minutes longer to eat and regroup. Leaving the aid station I focused on a new mantra: You are still moving forward. Just keep moving forward.  On downhills, my legs started giving out. Short hops over creeks or a log in the trail required me to come to a full stop in order to maneuver across. It was getting ugly. And then Alex Varner came tearing down the trail toward me and I got out of my slump to fangirl a little bit. 

I got to Madrone Point, mile 18.8, at the exact moment that Stephanie Howe, the women's leader, was coming in on her return trip at mile 30.9. I left the aid station refocused on knowing I was going to see some of my favorite runners go by. I looked for Meghan Arbogast, Pam Smith, Kaci Lickteig, and Katie Desplinter. It was good times for a little while. 

I was barely staggering up the climbs let alone able to run any of the downhill. I walked almost the entire last four miles to No Name Flat, legs toast. The volunteers there were amazing and took care of me. I cried a little. I watched Gordy Ainsleigh run in and out of the aid station. My race was over at mile 25, after over six hours of struggle. 



That's it. It was a crap day. Maybe this lingering cold/flu thing played a part. Maybe I raced too hard a few weeks ago and my legs hadn't recovered. 24 hours later I'm having a hard time walking, my legs are trashed, and I'm trying to figure out what the hell went so wrong.

Thank you to the awesome volunteers at No Name that took care of me, and thank you to GeNene who went through the rollercoaster of emotions of the weekend with me and came and found me at No Name. 

It was a crap day. It probably won't be my last crap day, but it's what you do with the crap days that matters. I'm putting it behind me. I have more races to run. 



Keep moving forward. 




















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Comments

  1. KarenApril 12, 2015 at 9:03 PM

    I'm sorry you had a bad day, but it sounds like you're handling it well. After such a huge 50K PR, it's not surprising you were still recovering for Lake Sonoma. I'm jealous you were able to fangirl during the race, the field sounded like it was almost as stacked as TNF 50 was.

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  2. notthatlucasApril 13, 2015 at 12:50 PM

    Aw man - crap days are rough and never easy to accept. You will learn from it. In the mean time, getting to see so many elites was something that wouldn't have happened if you had stayed home. Way to give it a great shot!

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  3. LaylaApril 15, 2015 at 4:35 PM

    I'm sorry you had the crap day, but I'm glad you didn't have to get back home by yourself -- GeNene is a keeper. :-) I also wonder if you were still recovering from the 50k, since you ran such a big PR on such a tough course. But you hey, you kept fighting until you had to stop, while also stopping before you did any damage. That's being a smart runner who sees the big picture.

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