“The word
“adventure” has just gotten overused.
For me, adventure is when everything goes wrong. That’s when the adventure starts.” – Yvon Chouinard,
founder of Patagonia clothing.
After a long, crazy weekend, I’m finally back home in
Boulder. A few days before leaving for
Moab, I finally went to the doctor about my ear since it was not feeling much
better on it’s own. As was expected, I
had a pretty bad ear infection and was prescribed some antibiotics. Great.
At the same time, I was experiencing some knee pain due to tightness in
my IT band, probably because my body wasn’t functioning at optimal capacity
since I was sick. For those who don’t
know, the IT band runs along the lateral side of your upper leg and attaches
your hip to the tibia in your lower leg.
The pain became so intense that I could not run more than 200 feet at a
time on Thursday. Given that the race
was on Saturday, I didn’t run the next few days and kept on a steady regimen of
ice and Advil. Although
anti-inflammatory drugs can be helpful in some circumstances, I should mention
that they should not be used as a constant crutch with running because they do not
address the problem, just the symptoms.
The real problem is that I need to incorporate more strength training
and injury-prevention workouts into my training to avoid this from coming
back. However, with the race just a few
days away, I wanted to be able to run without pain.
On Friday I left for Moab around 3
pm. I was looking at a 7 ½ hour drive
with a short stop for dinner at the Colorado border. Two of my training partners also running the
race, Adam and Ryan, were already in Utah and reported sunny skies and beautiful
weather. I was looking forward to a good
day of running, even as I was driving past Copper, Vail and Beaver Creek with a
fresh blanket of snow from the day before.
One of the few times where skiing would have to wait. After 3 hours of driving, the sun set as I
was passing through Glenwood Springs, famous for their natural hot springs and
highway connection to Aspen. I was
making good timing, then shit hit the fan.
Cruising down the highway at 70, I saw an SUV ahead of my lay on his
brakes, so I laid on mine. Next thing I
know, I smashed into a deer and blood, stomach contents and brain matter covered my windshield. Based on the
morphology of the brain tissue, I’m guessing it was cerebellum. I swerved off the road hoping not to hit
anything else since I couldn’t see. Luckily,
I got to the side safely and I didn’t have deer legs sticking through the
windshield. When the cops arrived, they
told me they had to pull three deer carcasses off the other side of the
highway. I feel pretty lucky both my
girlfriend and I walked away unscathed hitting them at that speed.
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| Great sunset behind the Rockies |
 |
| Oh deer(s) |
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| Terrible view out the windshield |
The car got towed and there was
nothing I could do about that now, but I still had to get to Moab by 7 the next
morning. In a strange moment of déjà vu,
I remembered the first time I hit a deer with my car. It was only 4 months ago on my way to a half
marathon around 5 am and I barely made it to the start. Now I was in the same situation; car towed,
sitting at a gas station, trying to figure out how to get to my race in
time. By pure luck, my two friends
Mathew and Erika were driving to Moab about an hour behind us, so I gave them a
call and they swooped us up. We were on
the road again.
The next morning, I ate a waffle at
the hotel and headed into the desert for the start of the race. It was in the mid 20’s and supposed to reach
50 degrees by the middle of the day, typical winter in Utah. Still, the sun was out and everyone was running
around in their shorts and t-shirts waiting for the race to begin. I started the race at a fairly slow pace,
still worried that my knee might flare up and make for a miserable 20
miles. Around mile 4 I felt great and
turned on high gear. The course covered
a lot of off road Jeep trails along a ridge that overlooked Arches National
Park and the Colorado River, not a bad view.
The middle 10 miles of the race were run across slick rock pitched at
about a 45-degree angle, uphill to the left, downhill to the right, which felt
great on my ankles. Even in one part,
there was a steep rock wall covered in snow that required some digging and
careful hand placement, so I wouldn’t slide down the rock face on a sheet of
snow melt. The toughest part of this
section was finding the route though.
Twigs and rocks were flagged every 150 feet or so, but it was easy to
drift slightly off course as you searched for them. The final portion was through a sandy valley,
then ending on a Jeep road. If you have
ever run on the beach, you know how your legs feel after running through
sand. By the end of the race, my knee was
in a little bit of pain, but nothing like I had expected. The final distance ended up being 19.04 miles
with 2,410 ft of elevation gain, which I covered in 3:32:56, right where I
expected. That night, the race
coordinators put on a post-race party at Eddie McStiff’s for some pizza and
beer, the perfect recovery combination.
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| Me, Adam, and Mathew just before the start |
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| Walking to the starting line |
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| Great views from the beginning |
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| Running along the Colorado river |
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| Chris, Adam, Mathew, Me, Ryan, Erika |
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| I was waiting 3 1/2 hours for this finish |
I am really happy with how the race
turned out, given my last two weeks of sickness and knee pain I was experiencing. Although I have to deal with my car now, it
is just plastic and metal that is broken, not skin and bones. My next race is coming right around the
corner on March 9 in Salida, CO, which will be a full marathon (26.2 miles). Back to the training grounds!
Justin
