12 Miles of Closure From DNF
3 days after my first DNF at the Greenland 50k, I had a bone to pick with the treadmill. I probably should have apologized when I climbed on that machine at 5:10am this morning as I don’t believe it was expecting someone to be there for 2+ hours.
Since that day I spent time in the back of an ambulance, I have been thinking more about the experience. Learned many important lessons and have already passed them on to others. If I’m going to suffer, I want to at least contribute to the common good of the world.
So I say that, yet I went ahead and made the same mistake on this morning’s 12 mile run: no Gatorade. Running along I put down 24oz of water and a Honey Stinger Waffle. I started to get that light headed feeling and really hungry, but I stayed upright.
It’s funny (probably not) but I don’t remember a lot about the race leading up to DNF moment. Most of it has become hazy or maybe my brain is blocking out the trauma to encourage me to keep going. I am glad that I wrote the recap yesterday!
One of the biggest lessons I took from the experience was that I have become complacent with races. Saturday was an ultramarathon race. People train for 5+ months for this. I took December to March off, ran a half marathon and 10 mile race in April, then showed up for a 50k. That’s not normal. At the same time, I’m not a big fan of normal. If everyone did normal, then we would still be riding horses to work.
Each day look at something you do normal and see how you can change it. Trust me, you get used to being called crazy.
Great article. Thanks for it.
Or, maybe if you did “normal” you would have finished the race. 😉
Have you considered putting more into your ultra racing fuel than just stuff like GU and Honey Stinger Waffles? Not that we have ever run Ultras, but from the recap and friends here in DFW that have it seems like they put more food food into their racing plan. Just something to consider?
On most ultra courses they have PBJ, pretzels, soda, and candy. This one was a little light on those. In my first 50 miler, I ate a lot of beef jerky which helped with sodium, protein, and carbs. Weird, but I am not normal 🙂