Jose's Flat Foot Blues

The Expo was good as always.  I really enjoyed meeting Bart Yasso and listening to his presentation.  I also really liked the race shirt this year.  This race was neat because my daughter Nikki was running the relay and my other two kids were running the Kids K.  So it was a family event.  I had a perfect experience with the busses and the transportation to the top.  The weather was cold but not too terrible.  The porta-pottie lines before the start were horrendous though.  I laughed my head off when the owner of one of the properties at the start line came out with his dog and started yelling at runners who were peeing on his fence line.  Seriously some runners are just plain old rude.  I can understand why a homeowner would get pissed (pun intended) at that.  Especially when there is a huge empty  field on the other side where they can pretty much take a piss anywhere they want.  Crazy…  Anyhow, we started pretty much on time at 7am and off we went.  Here is the story:

Miles 1-8 -  7:20 Nice downhill grade.  This was a bit too fast but it felt absolutely perfect.  The weather was great and I felt very good and strong.

Miles 9-13.1 - 7:31 Course flattens out and has a few small rolling hills.  This stretch was right on pace and felt very good.  I actually enjoyed the flat parts of the course.

Miles 14-17 - 7:39  This is where you come to the hill around Pineview reservoir right before you hit the major downhill.  Here is also where I lost some of it.  The hill at 15 wasn’t that much of a factor but I ran into a period of fatigue in the middle of 16 and through 17.

Miles 18-23 - 7:36  All steep downhill.  This was very rough.  My fatigue at miles 16 and 17 did not allow me to significantly take advantage of the downhill.  Although I caught a second wind close to the end of this stretch as I approached the trail.

Miles 24-Finish – 8:18  Here the course becomes rolling hills on the trail and then flat for the last ¾ mile.  Once again, the fatigue and the weaving in and out through runners on the trail were too much and I hit a wall big time.  I also hate the running under overpasses in the trail.  This just sucked the life out of me.  I saw Walter running back to get somebody and I thought he had just finished the Full.  I was totally disgusted at how fresh he looked.   Come to find out later he won the Half.  Good job Walter!  That last stretch to the finish was very painful and I even walked for about 10 seconds. The only saving grace was seeing some of the women from the blog who had run the half and were now cheering me on  (I think Rachel and Josee were there but I was too tired to tell).  Thanks girls!!  I don’t think I acknowledged them because I was so tired but I really appreciated it.  I also received some well-appreciated cheers from my son Alex and my youngest girl Sofia.  I ended up with a 3:20:19, missing my BQ attempt by 5 minutes.  Pain, agony, and disappointment…  I guess I should just focus on the fact that it is a PR of 16 minutes.  Oh well, time to get back on the saddle and try again in St. George. 

 As always the finish line is great and the runner’s area is very well stocked.  Nikki did great on her relay.  Her team ended up 19 out of 100 mixed teams and she averaged 8:30pace over her 5 mile leg, which is a PR for them.  Alex and Sofia were also very excited about their times for the Kids K.  6:20 for Alex and 8:00 for Sofia, not bad.  I am proud of my kid’s efforts. 

 The place where they posted the results was totally stupid as it was the highest traffic area and it created a huge bottleneck.  I placed the best I have in any race (top 6% of the field) so that was some comfort.  At least I am making progress.  This is a tough course but I absolutely love Ogden and I will come back often.  Now the only question is:  do I try again at Utah Valley, Des News, or take break until St. George?  Hmmm…  We’ll see.

I don't usually blog anything other than race reports and comments on other blogs but today was a very memorable run.  I decided that I would do a 10 miler, which typically is totally routine but today it was a bad idea.  I have been staying in Puerto Rico since last Wednesday attending to issues related to my grandmother's passing a few weeks ago and I have decided to keep up with my training while I am down here.  Well, since before I got here I had been dealing with a stomach bug that was making me dehydrated but was not really affecting my running, or so I thought.  I had a particular bad night the night before last and the morning was not good either.  I lost a lot of water but by last night I was feeling better and I was able to drink lots of water and even carb up quite a bit.  So, I decided to keep my plans to do my scheduled 10 miler.  Mistake.

 The weather was in the mid-80's with humidity in the high 80's.  The run actually started out very nicely, with a nice rolling downhill.  However, by mile 4 I was really struggling.  The route was turning horribly hilly and I was losing water through sweat like crazy.  By mile 6.5 it started to rain, which I thought would help but it just made me feel more miserable.  The route then turned totally uphill for the last 3 miles and I started taking walking breaks.  I was dead, no energy left.  I was also stressed because I had people from the local ward coming to help move furniture out of the house and I was starting to cut it close to when they were supposed to show up.

By mile eight the rain turned into a torrential downpour and I was walking more.  Miles 8.5 to 9.5 actually felt OK but that last .5 really killed me.  I was dehydrated to the max and then discouraged when I got to the house and saw that the guys from Church were already there moving stuff.  I went in, took a quick glass of water and changed clothes, which didn't help because I kept sweating like a pig which got me all wet again.  I helped to move one piece of furniture and I started to see spots and feel very weak.  I drank another glass of water and laid in the bed for one minute.  I then got up and went to help move a table.  I remember grabbing the table and having my vision covered in spots and my breathing become labored.  I called out to Jolynne so she could get me some juice and next thing I know I am looking up at the ceiling and at two of the guys that came to help with the move who were now taking my pulse and asking if I could hear them.  I said yes and asked what happened.  They said I passed out!

I had never passed out from exhaustion before.  It was a wierd feeling.  The guys helped me to my feet and Jolynne told me what happenned.  She said that after I called out her name I stared out into the distance and became nonresponsive.  I was holding on to the table but was slowly falling to the ground.  Two guys held me and everybody started trying to get me to respond but all I did was look out into nothing.  My face went pale green.  Then after about three minutes or so I finally woke up. 

Well, they took me to bed and I had a few juice drinks and sat in front of the fan until the color came back to my face and I felt better, which took about 10 minutes.  I was totally embarassed and so after I felt better I went back to helping out which I was now able to do without a problem. 

Wow, I guess I need to appreciate my limits.  What if I had passed out on the road somehwere.  I really should have cut my run short or skipped it all together but I was praying to the god of the training schedule and it almost kills me!  This was one of my worst 10 milers ever but definitely one of the most memorable ones.