May
23
Big Lake 1/2 Marathon
May 23, 2008 |
I completed my first half marathon on May 10. My chip time was 2:09:08, but settle in, this race report starts a full week before the race.
I think Supermutt was conspiring against me. He wanted to run the race too, and if he couldn’t run it, neither was I buhahhahahaha(read Supermutt with his evil laugh)! The first “incident” occurred the Monday before the race. We were out for a routine, easy 3 mile run. Everything was going great, I had made it to within a week of the race and I was healthy. Anyway, we were going along down the sidewalk while a large landscaping truck towing a trailer was coming up the opposite side of the road. Now, I knew that Supermutt had issues with trailers, but he was getting better. For the longest time we couldn’t even jog by a parked trailer without Supermutt freaking out. But, as I said, Supermutt was getting better. He really didn’t show any interest in this trailer coming up the road. Until the very last minute. When the trailer was right on top of us. And cars were coming up behind us. Supermutt summoned all of his super strength and charged the trailer intent on destroying it into an unrecognizable junkyard heap. It took my so by surprise that Supermutt had me off balance and fighting just to stay on my feet. I finally managed to put on the brakes and planted my left foot as hard as I could and managed to save us both from death by trailer. For the remainder of that run, my shin and ankle got stiffer and sorer as time went on. I iced everything down that night. The next morning everything felt okay and I let out a sigh of relief as I had escaped any real injury.
The second “incident” occurred on Thursday, just 2 days before the race. I was healthy, I made it through all of my training plan. I was home free. This time I was walking Supermutt and we ran into our nemesis Black Dog. I saw them coming and so did Supermutt, with his super vision he saw them a mile away. As black dog and his person got closer and closer, Supermutt got more and more agitated. I decided to try something my dog trainer friend suggested. I stepped on Supermutt’s leash and pulled it up tight so that Supermutt was pinned to the ground, with only about 6 to 8 inches of leash available to him. The idea is that he is pinned helpless to the ground and can’t really react to Black Dog, and no one gets hurt. I’ve used the technique before with some of Supermutt’s other issues and had success. There would be no success on this day however. If I’ve joked about Supermutt’s super strength before, I can now say with authority that Supermutt unequivocally has super strength. As Black Dog started to pass us, Supermutt just laid there. “This is great” I thought, “it’s working.” Even Black Dog’s person was a little impressed, “Wow, that wasn’t too bad” he said. Just at that moment, Supermutt launched himself with everything he had to give. Yes, he only had 6 or 8 inches of leash to work with. Yes, there was a 190 pound person on that leash. Yes, that same 190 pound person went flying. I imagine it’s like being launched from a catapult, only you didn’t know you were standing on a catapult. I landed squarely on my rear end. Fortunately, I managed to hold on to the leash and my 190 pounds of dead weight on the pavement created too much friction for Supermutt to take me for a drag. Black dog and his person slinked away into their house and everything was right again. Supermutt came over to me, still on the ground, and started jumping, thinking I wanted to play. Again, I managed to escape injury.
Finally it’s race day. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been nervous. My chip time was 2:09:08 I was pretty happy with my time considering it is my first half and there was over 900 feet of ascent on the course (at times, I have to admit it felt like 9 million). The weather was almost perfect, sunny and 60 degrees with just a little breeze.
It went something like this:
Mile 1: flat, held back to 11:37 knowing Mt. Major was looming in my future
Mile 2: the climb starts, still holding back to 11:48 trying to get warmed up
Miles 3 through 6: straight up the side of the mountain, saving grace was the great view of the lake and the disco themed water stop, complete with bubble machine, at “Mile 5 Still Alive”
Miles 7 and 8: drop straight down to the lake with my fastest split of 8:40
Miles 9 through 11: a series of steep ups and downs along the lake, not real sure exactly what happens during this stretch as I seem to have “lost” some time
From mile 11 it was an “easy” cruise down to the finish with some killer road camber and a small blister on each foot, but at this point, I’m too close to the finish to care.
It was kind of funny to look at my splits as my splits all got way faster for a couple miles after each gel I took, regardless of whether I was climbing, going flat, or dropping.
I survived in pretty good shape, my feet were a little tender for few days, but I fetl pretty good, even managed to go grocery shopping without incident the day after the race.
All in all, it was a great time and I had a blast! I’m already planning another one for this fall. This time I will do some things differently. I need to figure out how to hang one of my old race bibs on Supermutt. About a week before the next big race, I’m going to hang the bib onSupermutt and then we’ll go for a fast paced run. I’m thinking we’ll go downtown and run a few laps around the main street loop. Maybe at lunch time, when there’ll be lots of people on the streets. Maybe I’ll even plant a few people on the street to start cheering and ringing cowbells as we go by. Supermutt will think he ran the race with me, and I’ll make it to race day with a little less risk.
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A Restless Supermutt
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