The Veteran

Finished 4th in the Piney Woods 20 miler in 3:51 Saturday.  Last years winning time in my age group was 4:02 so I was targeting a sub 4hr to try and get a medal.  I've been battling some niggling injuries along with not eating right and probably drinking too much beer since Thanksgiving.  If I'd been taking care of business a sub 4hr 20 mile really shouldn't have been a big deal but in this case it was.

The 1st mile marker I saw was the 7 mile and I was at the 1;19 mark.  At that point I picked up the pace just a bit until I went down in some muddy slop in mile 10.  I got in and Misty was waiting there like she always has.  My watch said 1:53 and I was gassed.  I totally felt like I had pushed too hard trying to put myself in position to get under 4hrs.  I was out of the aid station quickly (under 2 minutes) after Misty gave me some gels.

As I headed back out I decided I'd eat a gel every 30 minutes instead of 40 and that might help me along a bit.  I kept what felt like a nice even pace and also mixed in some short walking.

At the race start their was a guy that was surely a combat veteran in a wheelchair with a race bib on.  At the time I thought briefly to myself that I'd never seen anyone in a wheelchair do a trail race before and then I refocused on myself and didn't give it anymore thought until I saw him at the 2:37 mark of the race.  I'm guessing I was close to the 4 mile mark and had been lamenting my lack of preparedness for this race since getting out on this 2nd loop.  I'd carried over my  holiday slothfulness completely through the month of January.  My grandmothers passing didn't help but it's not a reasonable excuse for being completely undisciplined either.

Upon seeing the veteran in the distance my first thought was, how the hell did he get that wheelchair through the super muddy, sloppy parts of the early part of the trail.  As I got closer I saw that he was hopping on his one foot with the wheelchair in front to steady himself and he had a lady companion with him.

Needless to say I stopped feeling sorry for myself pretty quickly and turned my thoughts to what I'd say to him as I ran by.  I didn't know what service he was in but decided to keep it simple and let him know I'm an ex Marine and simply say semper fi as I ran by.  He had just as simple an answer,  a very subdued, I'm conserving my energy, "oorah".  Wow, pretty amazing.  Not sure if that encounter empowered me but the first mile marker I saw was the 5 mile.  I really could not believe when I looked at my watch and saw that I had a legitimate chance at coming in under 4hrs.  I was tiring but continued to push as much as I could.  At the 7 mile marker I had a 40 minute window and continued to push as much as could but there was no avoiding walk breaks.

I got on the road and was really running out of gas and knew I'd be seeing Misty, her nephew Vincent and his girlfriend Bailey but was walking a lot.  I didn't want them to see me walking but misjudged where I was and sure enough I rounded a curve and there they were, waiting on me.  I shifted into a shuffle and ran by them as they encouraged me and I mumbled that I "had a chance".   I felt a bit energized after seeing them and was able to run some, but encountered some really muddy trail and continued on as best I could.  Finally I'm on the road and the finish is almost in sight.  I now know for sure that I'm going to make my goal of finishing under 4hrs for sure.  I allow myself to walk until I was about 50yds from the finish and ran it on in.

In the last mile or so it dawned on me that it has been a long time since I'd really pushed myself on a run longer than our Thursday morning 7 milers.  I could tell I really pushed myself because I was feeling mentally goofy well into Sunday.  It was great day and seeing the veteran out there pushing himself really kept things in perspective.