Survival of the Shawangunks 2007
I survived. That is what I have to say about this race. I’ve done it before, but I never had the feeling of surviving a race as I did this one. Well perhaps I have felt like that before, but this race is freshest in my memory. Nothing went particularly wrong during the race, it just felt extremely tough. During the first run segment I even considered dropping out. However, I couldn’t let myself do that. The sting of DNF’ing at this year’s IM Lake Placid was still fresh in my memory. Dropping out of two races in a row would have been the start of a bad habit.
I guess it is all just a matter of knowing how to endure. Someone just told me, that if there is one thing I am able to do well, it is to endure during tough times. I guess I always manage to pull myself through difficult circumstances, even if the process of making it through them is at times ugly. Well, so much for philosophy.
The bike segment of the race went reasonably well. I pushed a bit hard and almost managed to match my time of last year. I was only slower by about 90 seconds which wasn’t so bad considering I have practically no bike miles in me this year. I paid for that effort though on the first run. This is where I thought seriously about dropping out of the race. My legs felt like lead. It was like I was running through knee deep mud. I worried about bailing out of the race in the middle of nowhere, which was one of the reasons why I kept going on. I was in “Survival” mode early. I just decided if I could make it through the first swim things wouldn’t be so bad. I got through that first 4.5 miles in 48:26, which was almost 10 minutes slower than last year. If you had handed me the application to do this race again during this run, I would have torn it right up.
I was very happy to make it to the first swim. The water felt cool and refreshing. I even swam it faster than I did last year by 4 minutes. The cold water against my legs worked wonders. I felt so much better when I came out of the water. I didn’t run as well as I did last year, but at least the dead feeling was out of my legs. I started to enjoy myself while running through the trails.
One of the things that made this race very enjoyable was that my support crew met me at several points during the race. Andrea and Brian had come up with me and my friend Rob to take care of our bikes. I had no idea that they would also meet us at various points on the course to take pictures and cheer us on. For the first time I have some really cool candid pictures of me doing a race.
After completing the second run and second swim, I really started to feel better on the 8 mile run. I even thought I had a chance to catch my friend Rob who had left me in the dust right after we got off of our bikes. My time for the 8 mile run was 1:09; only 1 minute slower than I was last year, even though this year was considerably warmer. Had the run been a couple of miles longer, I would definitely have caught him. Rob had 10 minutes on me after the first run, but at the finish, he was only 4 minutes ahead of me, which amounted to the differences in our swim times. I was glad that he was in front of me because it gave me a challenge. I wanted to see if I could catch him. He was the better man though and he beat me fair and square.
At the finish line our crew was there once again to lend us support. Andrea was kind enough to prepare a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was a nice, big, goopy PB&J which was oozing jelly. Some of it fell to the grass and quickly attracted several bees. I sat contentedly eating the sandwich along with the bees enjoying their newfound jelly.
The post race BBQ was as great as it is every year. I had a couple of beers, chicken, ribs and corn on the cob. It was great to relax after the race with a bunch of friends and just kicking back. I know I will be back again next year.
I guess it is all just a matter of knowing how to endure. Someone just told me, that if there is one thing I am able to do well, it is to endure during tough times. I guess I always manage to pull myself through difficult circumstances, even if the process of making it through them is at times ugly. Well, so much for philosophy.
The bike segment of the race went reasonably well. I pushed a bit hard and almost managed to match my time of last year. I was only slower by about 90 seconds which wasn’t so bad considering I have practically no bike miles in me this year. I paid for that effort though on the first run. This is where I thought seriously about dropping out of the race. My legs felt like lead. It was like I was running through knee deep mud. I worried about bailing out of the race in the middle of nowhere, which was one of the reasons why I kept going on. I was in “Survival” mode early. I just decided if I could make it through the first swim things wouldn’t be so bad. I got through that first 4.5 miles in 48:26, which was almost 10 minutes slower than last year. If you had handed me the application to do this race again during this run, I would have torn it right up.
I was very happy to make it to the first swim. The water felt cool and refreshing. I even swam it faster than I did last year by 4 minutes. The cold water against my legs worked wonders. I felt so much better when I came out of the water. I didn’t run as well as I did last year, but at least the dead feeling was out of my legs. I started to enjoy myself while running through the trails.
One of the things that made this race very enjoyable was that my support crew met me at several points during the race. Andrea and Brian had come up with me and my friend Rob to take care of our bikes. I had no idea that they would also meet us at various points on the course to take pictures and cheer us on. For the first time I have some really cool candid pictures of me doing a race.
After completing the second run and second swim, I really started to feel better on the 8 mile run. I even thought I had a chance to catch my friend Rob who had left me in the dust right after we got off of our bikes. My time for the 8 mile run was 1:09; only 1 minute slower than I was last year, even though this year was considerably warmer. Had the run been a couple of miles longer, I would definitely have caught him. Rob had 10 minutes on me after the first run, but at the finish, he was only 4 minutes ahead of me, which amounted to the differences in our swim times. I was glad that he was in front of me because it gave me a challenge. I wanted to see if I could catch him. He was the better man though and he beat me fair and square.
At the finish line our crew was there once again to lend us support. Andrea was kind enough to prepare a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It was a nice, big, goopy PB&J which was oozing jelly. Some of it fell to the grass and quickly attracted several bees. I sat contentedly eating the sandwich along with the bees enjoying their newfound jelly.
The post race BBQ was as great as it is every year. I had a couple of beers, chicken, ribs and corn on the cob. It was great to relax after the race with a bunch of friends and just kicking back. I know I will be back again next year.
posted by Rebel at 11:29 PM
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