I kept going, passing a couple of people who looked like they were having some kind of garage sale which was very peculiar up here on this long winding mountain road. I kept on and began a very long decline… Down and down and down for 2 miles to the aid station at mile 17. I stopped here for the first time for about 30 seconds and grabbed a salted potato and some pretzels. I took a swig of some Heed drink that they had. Never had that stuff before but when I drank it, it felt like it was good to drink. The guy at the aid station said, “You look terrible!” I looked at him and said, “What?!” And he laughed and responded, “We keep telling everyone how great they look. I wanted to try telling someone that they looked terrible.” I then said, “Why don’t you try picking on one of those young guys. I’m 40!” He said, “If you’re 40, you ARE a young guy in this race!” I smiled and moved on. Down and down and down. I had my headphones on and was listening to my old college mix of music with lots of Police and Peter Gabriel songs (showing my age, I know). I looked at my right side and a short woman appeared. Whoah! Did NOT see her coming! I took the headphones off. We said hello. She didn’t seem intent on starting a conversation but I continued anyway. She then started talking.
Her name was Claudia and she lives in New York (actually works 2 blocks from me). She’s originally from Argentina. I told her about my cousins down there. We kept talking and she told me about her training. Everyone I spoke to seemed to have trained less than me… very strange considering a lot of them ended up passing me… uh well. I wasn’t in this to win or to break any records. I wanted to finish under 12 hours. And one of the things that really hit home after all of this was that I ended up doing exactly what I planned to do... in other words, had I planned on going harder, I believe I could have and would have. But I will get to that later. The important thing to me at this point was to accomplish my goal.
Claudia told me that she wanted to finish the run in 10 hours. She said that she had run her last marathon without really training appropriately. I just don’t understand people like this… but I’ve seen them with my own eyes. To run a marathon without training just seems like utter torture to me but a lot of people seem to do it and finish with respectable times. She seemed like one of those women who are both very sweet and very tough. We ran down the long hill quickly. And we kept on with each other from about mile 20 to the mile 22 aid station. She had a real determined intensity to her. Her eyes were on the road and she moved on and on. She had one of those Garmin-type watches that kept track of miles. I asked her about 3 times what mile we were on before I realized that I was too preoccupied with that this early in the run. I relaxed myself with this. I was beginning to feel a trace of fatigue and I didn’t want to start counting miles at mile 21. So I pushed the mile count out of my head.
At mile 22 aid station I stopped for a couple of minutes to call Liz. I took off my Camelbak to get my phone out. There was a lawn chair with one of those beer holder pouches in the arm. The people at the station brought chairs to sit down. I asked if I could take a seat for a second. “Sure, sure, go ahead!” I have to say the aid station people were fantastic… really, really great… very attentive and helpful. I sat down for about a minute while I opened up the pack to get the phone… Got it, back on my feet, dialed Liz… “Where are you?” she asked. “Mile 22” I said, “Oh wow!” she said, “You’re doing awesome!” I think she was relieved that I made it there in just over 4 hours. Knowing her she was preparing herself for the worst-case scenario. And with her imagination it probably went something like me falling off a cliff somewhere and her having to lead a search team in one of those coast guard-like helicopters with the two kids… “Thanks,” I said, “I think I’m starting to slow a little though.”
I was starting to slow down but not much at all. I still felt very strong. I was just hyper aware of how I felt and I was trying very hard to conserve energy as much as possible while still keeping a strong pace moving forward. Liz wasn’t expecting me to be going this fast so she sounded like she was scrambling a bit to see what aid station she could meet me at. We had planned on meeting up at the mile 27 marker which didn’t seem feasible at this point. So they were now going to aim for the mile 32 marker. This gave me confidence. I was exceeding expectations. I was doing well. Liz asked about the aid station. I said it was great. I was eating pretzels and salted potatoes. I told her, “I’m eating potatoes right now. Its like Thanksgiving dinner!” The folks at the aid station chuckled. Good ole’ long distance runner cornball humor. Gotta love it…
Back to the road. It began easing away from the fishing houses along the lakeside into the “middle of nowhere” part of the run. The route wound around the back of the lakeside mountains for about the next 16 miles or so… lots of trees, farm land and long stretches of road. I kept on trucking, listening to music and soaking up the scenery. After a bit another woman crept up behind me. I had exchanged a few words with her back at around mile 8 or so and went on ahead. She was a run/walker. She would run faster than me, then start walking, I would pass her, then she would run and creep up and pass me again. I think some people really like this type of running. Its like a tag team approach… not me. It drives me nuts. Nothing against this woman… we all had different approaches coming into the run. I just like to run it for as long as I can and then walk if I need it. That was my approach and I found it very effective. Later on at about mile 28 she commented that I was like the Energizer bunny… just kept going and going while others would walk and then run. There was truth to this. And its also why I didn’t really care if people passed me or not. I was in this to finish. Up until this point I had absolutely no idea what running 50 miles would feel like so I was as conservative about it as I could be.
We did the run/walk dance for about 4 or 5 turns and I finally thought, “I have to put an end to this.” So on her next run past me I sped up and stuck with her until she walked. Then I past her so that I would be far enough ahead that she would have to double-time her pace to reach me again. As I past her I saw the 25 mile marker. “We’re halfway!” I exclaimed. “Just turnaround now!” she replied.
I kept on at a pretty good pace until the mile 27 aid station. The station was at the foot of a long gradual incline that ran up the side of one of the big lake hills. I looked behind me. There was a whole group of runners following me. My pace was beginning to slow. I still felt pretty good though.
At the station I asked if they could refill my Camelbak. I noticed a woman holding a gallon of water. Then one of the men grabbed it from her, unhooked my pack, took it off me and started filling it up. “You don’t have to do all that.” I said. Too late. He was already doing it. That was really great. The aid station people were excellent the whole way through.
still more coming...
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