“Adversity is our
teacher. When we view adversity as a
guide towards greater inner growth, we will then learn to accept the wisdom our
soul came into this life to learn.”
~Barbara Rose
“Father Time catches up to us all.” En route to my swim event several weeks ago,
I stopped in for my annual hip check-up.
Every year it alternates between seeing either my surgeon or PA, this
year it was my PA passing on those words of wisdom. Both know that I run on my replacement, and
in fact when I was shopping for surgeons back in 2015 for this surgery, my now
surgeon told me the new joint would absolutely hold for running purposes, we
just didn’t know what the life of the new hip would look like, there just wasn’t
enough data out there to tell us such things.
Two years ago the left hip started going, labral tears and the like. PRP injection helped to calm things down, and
a couple of years later it’s still rocking and rolling. But I also know I am on a clock, that my run
days will one day be behind me. But that
day is not today. And as I reflected on
those words of wisdom from my PA, it has occurred to me (and intuitively always
knew but drives the point home so much deeper post hip) that indeed, Father
Time will catch up to us all, in all kinds of different arenas. Bionic body parts seem like small potatoes in
the grand scheme of things that Time will expose us to. There’s a spectrum, and I imagine we all will
find ourselves somewhere along that range throughout our lives. Not just the havoc Time will have on our
bodies, but all that we will experience will give us perspective and wisdom
unlike anything we could have imagined when we look back at our younger selves
over the decades. Personally, I have
always tried to glean all of the lessons that I could from my athletic
endeavors, from my coaching and teaching experiences, from all that Life threw
at me. The past decade taught me so
much, and then some more. The insight I
gained into myself, the wisdom I gained about the importance of story, let’s
just say God gave me a new set of eyes. Time
is very much a commodity that we do not have enough of, so what we do with the
time that we do have matters. Go all
in. On yourself, in your endeavors, your
relationships. Don’t go halfsies. Halfway is bullshit. When you go after a goal, pursue a passion, search
for your tribe – don’t put yourself in a box, don’t be less intense, less
passionate, less, less, less. Be
more. More of it all. Go ALL in.
Most struggle with the going all in, so many activities, so
much to get done, so little time. It’s
also hard to go all in for ourselves when we feel like others may not be in our
corner, whether it’s colleagues, friends, family – maybe we sometimes hesitate because
we are placating others without even realizing it – doing what they want to do,
chasing their dreams, but at the expense of our own. So I think going all in means going all in on
all of these things, not necessarily just in chasing a goal, but going all in on
ourselves, of being of who we are. To not
to put ourselves in a box for others, to not stifle that energy, intensity, authenticity. We are always gleaning lessons from our
experiences, we should never hesitate to go all in to learn as much as we
can. That goal/endeavor/dream means so
much more because of the whole process of what you put in. And that process is often HARD, and it is tempting
to sometimes go halfsies along the way, but don’t do it. The hard is what makes it great, anything
worth anything in life is hard. Marriage
is hard, parenting is hard, coaching and teaching (professions I’ve been in for
decades now) are hard. And people don’t
like to talk about the hard, what it means to go all in, we protect ourselves. But to acknowledge the hard, and go all in –
that is so fulfilling, life changing. Pursuing
those goals/dreams that are close to your heart, and knowing what your
non-negotiables are. Family time is my
number one so everything works around that.
I make no apologies. That means I
am picky with my race schedule, I do what works best for me and my crew. But I still put those goals out there and
chase them with everything I got. I have
always LOVED the process of chasing goals, of putting in the work. I could not be happier with my fall block of
training – getting ready for the three day swimfest, coupled with getting ready
for the 50k, with munchkin’s gymnastics comp meets in there, school kiddos’
cross country meet schedule in there, and all the busyness that comes with the
school fall schedule. I always perform
at my best when I have so many things happening at one time, and this fall was
no exception. As I chased down my goals in my 50k last
weekend, I was the most proud of that, of the whole process in its entirety that
went into preparing for this beast. That’s
what I celebrated out there last Saturday, giving it all I had during the
process so that I could just relish the experience on race day.
We lucked out with a small cool front that morning, and it
stayed overcast most of the run for me, weather in the 60s and much less humid
than it had been. Even by Sunday the
humidity was back, and my hubs joked if I would have rather had the humidity or
the big winds that we ended up having and I did not hesitate to say the big
winds, hahaha! The 50k was 2 loops of
15.5 miles, 4 times through 7.75 miles with aid stations at the start/finish,
and the 1.5 mile mark, and the 6.65 mile mark.
It would have been nice to have had one in between the 1.5 and 6.65 mile
mark, that stretch got kind of lonely, but it is what it is. I had my hydration pack with me with pretty
much everything that I needed, I wasn’t planning on stopping much at the aid
stations if I could help it. Actually my
pack was fairly heavy to start, 2 L of water in the pack, a couple of 16 oz
bottles, tons of gels and skratch chews, I was all set! The first 7.75 was fairly uneventful, we
started at 7 am so it was still a little dark out, but got light quickly. We had a small tailwind to start which would
become stronger throughout that first stretch, it wouldn’t take it long to pick
up. There would be a small craft
advisory due to the wind, it blew constantly at about 20 knots, gusts of up to
25 knots, it was pretty gnarly on those return trips with the headwind. My goal was about 6 hours, I was hoping to
get under 6, but realistically looking at 6 as the mark to shoot for. I was trying to stay as relaxed as I could on
that first 15.5 miles like I had discussed with my coach, but that 2nd
segment of 7.75 miles into the headwind made it a bit harder to stay
relaxed. I pushed a bit to hold my pace,
and even with the extra push my pace slowed.
At about 13 miles I had to stop quickly and pull the aquaphor out of my
bag to apply it on my lower back where the hydration pack was chafing me. It burned really bad early on, I knew it was
going to get worse throughout the day. I
had applied aquaphor everywhere before the race but forgot about that spot. No
good. After applying I jumped right back
onto the pace, and soon was at the turnaround point, just one more 15.5 mile
loop to go! I stopped quickly at the aid
station there to refill my bottle with electrolytes (I had gone through both
bottles of electrolytes on the first loop).
I got going again slowly, and tried my best to get back on pace. At the 1.5 mile aid station I stopped again
quickly to put more aquaphor on and put one of my empty bottles in the
pack. The next 5 miles dragged on a bit,
I was doing a great job of continuous running, and that was another big goal,
to be able to run the entire thing with limited walking. I did do a 50k in 2018 in Bastrop, but much
more walking/hiking happened at that one, and I wanted to see what it would be
like to run as much of the 50k as possible.
I finally made it to the 6.65 mile aid station, and I spent a moment
there collecting myself, refueling my bottle with electrolytes. Finally made the trek to the 7.75 mi turnaround
point, there was a bit of brief walking on this short stretch, but overall I
kept it to a slow shuffle jog. When I
turned around and the wind pummeled me is when things slowed down the
most. Super slow shuffle jog/quick walk
breaks back to the aid station at 6.65 mi, where I spent the most time at it for
the last time, topping off my electrolytes, and getting a coke. I drank about half of the coke, then I was
ready to get to the final stretch. Those
couple miles after the aid station were the toughest, I could see I was not
going to make my goal of 6 hours, and I was not going to make my goal of
setting a marathon PR in my 50k. Yes, a
bit ambitious to set that one during a 50k that is entirely on sand, but I thought
it was possible, and it really was until about mile 23. My PR is 4:37 from the Austin Marathon back
in 2004, and the fact that I was knocking on the door of that for most of this
race gave me so much joy. I cried at
mile 25, when I get overwhelmed with emotion it’s what I do, and those tears
were for the disappointment of not reaching that goal, but also for the excitement
of being so close, and the realization that I would shatter my previous 50k PR
if I kept moving forward. Euphoric is the
best word to describe that moment. I
called my crew and at mile 27 I gave up my hydration pack to the fam, I needed
the last 4 miles to be pack free. I took
my electrolyte bottle and my phone and that was it. For those last 4 miles I ran 3-4 minutes solid
and alternated it with a 30 second easy walk.
Forward momentum was the name of the game. At the 1.5 mi aid station I quickly stopped
to put water in my bottle (I had run out of my electrolyte fluid just then),
and pushed on to the finish. As I got
closer to the finish, I saw all of these kites, and inflatable crabs, and I
mistook them for finish line hoopla so I got super stoked, then was so bummed
to see it was not actually the finish line! Noooooo! My finish run quickly deflated to a
walk. Then I caught sight of the actual
finish line and started back up again.
My quads were on fire, but kept pushing all the way to that finish
chute! I almost tripped and rolled an
ankle right before finishing but luckily caught myself, lol! I was so elated as I crossed that finish
line, quickly greeted by my cheer crew!
What a day!!!!!!
Previous 50k – 9:28, New PR – 6:31:21!!!!!!!!!!!!
I could not be more proud of “going all in” on all of the
things this fall. So grateful to Coach
Hillary for getting me ready to race both the swim stage race and this 50k race
amidst my crazy fall schedule! The
experience at my 50k race was made even more fulfilling by the entire process
that went into preparing for it. I LOVED
that crazy process this fall so much!!!!
I put in more mileage than I had in years, and come race day shattered
my old PR, and even came close to breaking an old marathon PR! So, never hesitate to go all in, to chase
those goals/dreams that bring you the most joy, to soak up the entire process
of pursuing those endeavors that mean the most to you. You won’t get this day/month/year back. Father Time really will catch up to us
all. Show up and “go all in” in all
arenas in your life. It will be hard,
but it will be worth it – just go for it.
I thought this season was over for me after the 50k, but I’m not quite
done yet. Got the marathon PR on my
radar and I’m all in. Houston marathon
here I come. Let’s goooooooooooooo!!!!
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