The past weekend, I ran in the BNP Trail Jam at Brunswick Nature Park (BNP..get it?). Brunswick Nature Park lies about 15-20 minutes south of Wilmington, NC.
Like the UGTBGrindn Trail Run, this was a race that I would use as a measuring stick to determine my fitness and progress towards the Raleigh Rock & Roll. The timing wasn't exactly perfect; the previous race was three weeks prior and five miles. I didn't expect to be able to go another four miles in just three weeks. My endurance and willpower would surely be tested.
With Runner's Knee still getting on my ever loving nerve, training has progressed cautiously. The week before, I ended up going 6 miles so I expected the last few miles to be more like a zombie walk than anything else. I was prepared for failure, with my primary goal to just go as far as I could.
I was supposed to get into Wilmington the night before. Had it all planned out, drop the kids off with Lolo and Lola, take the wife with me and do a little Valentine's dinner and maybe watch a movie. Instead, my son had to get some kind of allergic reaction and start getting hives. After a doctor's visit and some Benadryl, he was fine. Still, the scare left mama all out of sorts and she wanted to be with her boy. She also wanted me to stick around for emotional support. At this point, it's too late to cancel a hotel stay. Night ruined.
A 4:30AM alarm had me up ready to roll. Hopped in my car, spent twenty minutes trying to inflate my car tires before getting on the road using the air at Sheetz. Side note, it's so cool that Sheetz provides free air, but half the time their machines are utter crap. I tried inflating my tires and I was actually losing tire pressure. I gave up, went to a different gas station and shelled out some cash but at least had my tires inflated within two minutes. Only other thing I did was get some oatmeal from Mc'Ds and I was cruising down the interstate.
Since I knew that I was getting charged for a room since I couldn't cancel in advance, I decided to call ahead to see if I could still get the room. I got the bright idea that I could at least change there..better yet, after the race, I could hop in the shower and clean myself up before driving home. It would be a very expensive shower, but at least I could look back and say I got a little bit of value out of it. Fortunately, it worked out and I was able to get the room for all of five hours before standard checkout at noon.
I was prepared for the worst. Leading up to the race, the forecast was for cold temps and heavy rains. It was shaping up to be a miserable race, but the skies parted..well, they didn't, but at least there was no rain and temps hovered closer to the 50s. I went with the same race gear as the race before - a red, long-sleeved athletic shirt that came with a wearable hoodie and some basketball shorts.
There were opportunities to get race gear at Fleet Feet the Friday before or the day of the race. Even if my son didn't dash my plans, I wasn't going to be in town early enough to do the Fleet Feet thing, so I showed up early on Saturday to handle the registration. I wasn't sure if I would get my swag since I registered late; I was pleasantly surprised to get my black hoodie. Since I signed up for the Carolina Trail series, I guess that allowed me guaranteed swag for the event. Since there weren't enough hoodies to go around, I believe others received t-shirts instead; no one had to walk away empty handed.
Onto the race, I went with the same process of coasting in the back because I'm slow and didn't want to over-exert myself. At the beginning, there were several bottlenecks where we slowed to a walk because there was a line of runners ahead of us. All racers used the same path regardless of distance and things wouldn't really start clearing up until after the 3.5 mile racers had split off to finish their race.
There was a water station somewhere around the 2.5 mile mark. I was still feeling good, skipped it. At the 4.5 mile mark, there was another station that had gels. I powered through this Powerbar Raspberry gel and continued on. So far, so good. No real exertion, didn't have any problems. Knee was doing it's thing but nothing I couldn't handle. I knew I was halfway done, the last half would be the hardest.
It was shortly after the 5 mile mark that I started dealing with some true adversity. My phone was dying. Being in the BNP with the constant loss of signal and switching from roaming to 3G, it was having a toll on it. I didn't bother to bring a charger to use in the car. I just decided to turn it off.
Shortly after that, I fell. It felt like slow motion as I stumbled for a few steps before falling almost on my face, my arms bracing me from the impact. I still don't quite get what happened. I mean, I understand if I stubbed my toe on a root and went flying. Instead, it seems I got my arch or heel of my shoe caught on a root and the chain reaction started from there. I landed gently, all things considered, although the way I landed in a pushup position that I wasn't ready for, I could feel the strain and pain in my chest from the impact. Of course, I had the luxury of falling in a small group so that folks ahead and behind me could see me flail. I'd get up, say I was fine, keep running. I'd like to say that my pride was the only thing that hurt but my chest hurt a lot and would bother me for the next twenty minutes.
The pain from my chest and shoulder made me want to stop. I powered through. Unfortunately, somewhere after mile 6, I felt the pain from a side-stitch. Was it the gel being heavy on my stomach? Was it lack of fitness? I blame the fitness part. Either way, I was forced to stop, doing some breathing exercises to try and make it go away. Then I'd continue on. For the rest of the race, I would have to deal with the side-stitch. I probably stopped 5 times total, only for about thirty seconds.
Thankfully the last water station was at the 7.5 mile mark. I chugged some water and kept moving. Almost two hours later when I first started, I crossed the finish line. Glory! I was wiped, didn't bother trying to speed up at the end, didn't bother to catch the older lady who had at least twenty-five years on me and passed me in the last quarter mile. I was just glad to be done. It was a fun race, and I did 9 miles. In my life, I had never done more than 7. Personal best! Either way, it was obvious that I needed to train more, improve my endurance over the next six to seven weeks to get to the point where running 9 miles would be comfortable enough that I didn't feel that I'd keel over and die once the race ended.
At the end of the race, there were bananas, oranges, crackers, and someone's homemade chili to go with water. In hindsight, I wish I tried the chili. I stuck with the fruit and water and considering that I had one hour to get back to the hotel room and shower, I quickly left.
I was incredibly stiff and limping from the car to the hotel room and from the car to anywhere else for the rest of the day. It took a couple days, but my body finally recovered although a few muscles and joints are still not at 100% yet.
For my second trail run, it was a much more trying experience than the first. I still have another trail race coming, but it is in May. The original race was scheduled in March before it was pushed back. With that race no longer in the picture, there's only me and the Rock & Roll. Oh we ready!
