la chanson de ma vie: Hammond Trail Half Marathon Race Report

I’ve run a lot of half marathons over the course of my running career and I’ve never felt as horrible as going into this one. The sinus infection seems to be letting up, but the side effects from such a strong antibiotic (including nausea, severe dizziness, and stomachache when I ate anything) made me feel worse than the infection did. Matt was specifically instructed to rest until his course of meds was complete, that got me thinking about whether I should run.

By 2am today, I was still awake, pondering the risks of running on an antibiotic whose very serious side effect of tendon rupture, Matt flopped around in the bed, alternating coughing with thrashing around. I made a deal with myself about the race, I’d go for the AG win in the half marathon, but if I felt a niggling pain in my legs at all, even a little one, it was walking time until it let up. I figured that the tendon problem could only occur if I were truly pushing hard and ignoring warning signs. Muscles almost always give a warning when simply running. I made a point to heed their warning if necessary.

I started out the race with Tanya. She ran a 13.3 mi uphill mountain race last weekend and today was purely in it for participation. She and I chatted with other race regulars and found a group of us that were nursing broken and tired bodies. The first part of the year, our club has a race each month, but during the summer, there is one nearly every weekend. And we almost always run it hard. I find that today, my third race weekend in a row, I am also guilty of beating myself up in races. Tanya and I both decided that 2:00 would be a good goal. We chatted along energetically as we ran the gentle downhill course. It felt like a large training run. When we reached mile two, I realized how fast we were going, more along the lines of a 1:42 pace. This is the only course that I intentionally go faster than planned on the first half. We split up soon after that as I went ahead.

We headed down toward Clam Beach, again on my favorite long run route. I didn’t realize how foggy it was until we hit the vista point at the top of the bluff. The ocean was gone. The highway was gone. I could only see the runners less than .25 mi ahead of me. A thick wall of fog swallowed the speedier runners and they disappeared. Goosebumps formed as I ran into the gentle breeze. It was then I realized I was completely soaked, not in sweat, but the moisture film that settles from the fog cloud. Running along Clam Beach Road, although I’ve run this road dozens of times before and know every little bump, I became disoriented. I was surprised at every turn in the road. It almost felt like running with my eyes closed. Everything was different in the thick, pea soup fog.

Matt and Danny were manning the halfway point aid station and gave me a quick high five and asked how I was. “I should have walked the three-miler today,” I replied. I wasn’t enjoying the thought of returning to the coastal bluffs. I was surprised to reach the halfway point in 53:00, just one minute slower than last year’s PR performance.

I don’t usually talk with anyone while I’m racing and didn’t realize how easy I was taking it on myself until I chatted with Bob and a couple other runners while we kept the same pace. When I reached the main hill, a nice 200 ft. of climbing in just over ¼ mi, soreness appeared in my hamstring. Immediately I slowed and the pain let up. I normally have little tweaked spots at this point in a race, but I didn't want any tweaks with the warnings my medication gave. I walked. I resumed running when the tightness let up, sailing past the girl in the blue sequin tutu that passed me on the hill. I had to walk a portion of the next hill as well and that pretty much forced me to give up on running fast. Bob disappeared into the fog and I was alone with Tutu Girl following me closely.

Suddenly, Tutu Girl screamed and I turned my head to see what the problem was. “Sorry to scare you, I just stepped on a frog. It just came out of nowhere and I squished it.” That lightened my sour, defeated mood. Just when we lady runners claim to be tough and powerful, something as little as a frog or slug makes us squeal in terror. I love that.

After mile 11, I was running on fumes. My body had exactly 10 miles of energy for this run and I had burned it all up. I crossed the finish line in 1:49.27 placing first in my AG. I love that a low energy, part walking run can result in a time like that. It makes me feel like I need to start praying now that I have a stars-aligning kind of race at Humboldt Redwoods Half, because I would F-L-Y.