Bonk!

Another two weeks have passed and I have once again failed to get my act together and blog. With the day off, I have a long list of things to do, but blogging about our weekend trip to Spokane is numero uno on my list right now.

The half marathon (13.1 miles or 21.1 kilometers) was Sunday in Spokane, Washington and we were there to partake in the fun. For some, like myself, it was less fun than desired!

Saturday, Laura and I left Missoula a few minutes before 8:00 a.m. and made our way to Spokane - no doubt geocaching along the way. We picked up our numbers that afternoon and went out to check out the route we would be running on Sunday morning. We had been in the area before when we were geocaching last year so we had a good idea what we were in for, but wanted another good look at it before Sunday. We looked over everything and looked forward to running the next day. Here's the map if you know the area:Sunday we went through the usual pre-race warm up that we always did in college - stretching, jogging, relaxing. I had been looking to run the race at 7:30/mile pace, which would be 1 hour 37 minutes (give or take) and Laura wanted to keep her time better than 8:00/mile - or about 1 hour 45 minutes.

The weather was as close to perfect as could be. When the race started for us at 8:45 the temp was around 45. Laura and I rolled along the first mile and with the group of close to 450 folks it felt like a pedestrian pace! Taking up close to three lanes of traffic, we had trouble working our way up in the pack, but soon found our way up where we felt comfortable. The first mile seemed to take awhile to arrive, but once I hit the 'lap' button on my watch I saw 7:28 and I turned to Laura and mentioned we were both going along at a good clip.

I knew at some point in the run I would get away from Laura, I just didn't know exactly when that would be. I thought I would be nice and run the first 6-7 miles with her and then let her finish the last half of the race on her own, so the first few miles we went along together - talking and enjoying the morning. The second mile was a 7:55, the third a 7:20, and from there we were right around 7:30 for the next five miles. In fact, we came through our five mile somewhere in the 37-38 minute range which isn't a bad five mile run for us these days. The next time we checked our overall time was at the 8 mile mark - 1:00.13 - about as close to 7:30 pace as can be! We had been picking people off for the last six miles and slowly working our way into the top 50! We were really feeling good and mentioning how easy the race was going considering the amount of hills and lack of running we had been doing in the past month. In other words, we were getting there and it was like a 'jog in the park' - literally!

About this time I was thinking I should probably consider doing some racing with a few of the folks who were in front of us. Mile 7 and 8 are basically all downhill, and lots of people pick up the pace through here, that's not my running style so we had lost some ground and it was time to gain a little back. Laura and I did a short surge - a 10 second increase in our pace - useful in breaking up running form and getting things shaken out. You'd think after 8 miles we would have things shaken out, but it's actually the other way around - you tend to get into a habit of going a certain pace and that can be a problem.

So we surged along for 10 seconds and it was then I realized I was working far too hard to go the pace we had increased to - it couldn't have been any faster that 6:45/mile pace (AND ONLY FOR 10 SECONDS TO BOOT!)

As we approached mile 9, I could feel things were starting to shut down and I was going to be in trouble soon - how soon I didn't know, but it was coming like a freight train in the dark! I told Laura to go ahead and keep the pace she wanted because I was going to have to slow down to finish the race, but I would likely catch her shortly. This all happened right before a nasty nasty hill that is rightly known as DOOMSDAY HILL! I didn't get a picture of the hill, but here is the elevation chart of the race - you can see it after mile 8 - it's a steep climb, and it's a long climb!

Usually I am a person who attacks a hill and runs the hill to pass people, I like passing people on hills and I like working hard to get over the hill and put some distance on the competition...but not Doomsday Hill, and not at mile 9 of the half marathon. I tried to attack the hill for a short time, I even caught up with Laura for a short while, but then T.B.S. set in. T.B.S. is a term we used in college known as Total Body Shutdown. In the athletic word it's known simply as BONK.

From Wikipedia:

bonk [or bonking] describes a condition when the athlete suddenly loses energy and fatigue sets in, usually caused when glycogen stores in the liver and muscles are depleted, resulting in a major performance drop.

Things went from bad to worse. I managed to run the entire hill - if you can call my jog a run - and I continued on to almost mile 10 before things got real real bad. I desperately did not, I repeat, DID NOT want to stop or walk, but once I realized I could walk faster than I was trying to jog, well, I knew my number had been called and I was spent.

I started walking and tried to regain some energy to get a jog started again, in hopes of getting back to a run and just finishing the race off. Every attempt I made resulted in less than 100 meters of running before my legs shut down and I was back to my crippled walking pace! After I passed mile 11 I began getting dizzy (always a sure sign when you are running that you are dehydrated) and had trouble walking straight down the road. If you've ever been to a cross country race or perhaps at a track meet when a distance runner begins walking but doesn't really seem to know what's going on - that's where I was going... However, I knew what was happening and that I needed to keep my breathing steady and focused. A few moments later I was at the aid station getting a small amount of Gatorade and I was on my way again - chugging along at 14:00 minute pace...

I had some encouraging comments from folks pacing me though - most of whom Laura and I had passed between mile 2 & 8.

"Come on, you didn't run that well the past 10 miles to walk the last three!"

"You've got it, give a little jog going and get on your way"

...

and then the comment that blew me out of the water.

"Come on buddy, you are still on pace to finish under two hours!"

TWO HOURS! I was now struggling to get my self across the finish line in two hours! What was a pedestrian pace of 7:30 and the first 8 miles in an hours time, was now becoming a 14:00 minute pace and the last five miles were going to take me an hour... I managed to get myself together and took the last 1.1 miles in 13:03 to finish at 2:01.30 - the results show 2:01.36 but I figure the six seconds it took for us to get to the starting line after the race started shouldn't count against us, and I obviously need all the help I can get!

I finished 226 overall. Not bad really, but disappointing to myself none-the-less.

Laura on the other hand did really well. She had some troubles too, around mile 11 she stared feeling the gas tank going empty and had to walk for a short minute as well. She lost several spots and her pace slowed, but she still finished with a 1:40.53 - good enough for 54th place and 2nd in her age group. Oh, by the way, the girl that beat her in her age group passed her only a few hundred meters from the finish line and beat her by 8 seconds! DARN! Regardless, still an excellent first showing for Laura and I have a lot of room to improve!

We have already started talking about running the half marathon in May in Lincoln, Nebraska - but who knows. All I know right now is that I am still tired, sore, and should have done a little more training for that race. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twi - you can't get fooled again!"

Until again

-=Nolan=-

**Bonus picture**
This is really how we felt after we were done!