Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Dear Ibuprofen-Thank you for getting me through Ragnar

Cafe Rio, a local texmex restaurant gave out a gift card
to runners if they ran the last 1/2 mile of a certain leg with
a sombrero that they were giving out. 
A few statistics for the June 17-18 weekend.
192 miles
12 friends
32 hours straight
3 hours sleep
15 ibuprofen

What does that give you? A Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay event.

Remember the last comment I made about my foot getting tweaked? Well, even after being off of it for multiple days, wandering around the house barefoot for several days my foot was still tender.

I missed the previous two Ragnar's and foot pain or no foot pain, I was going to run this one. My non-running friends asked why I would run with foot pain. I calmly replied, "Because Ragnar gives out really cool finisher medals." Is there any more reason than this? This is the whole reason I run races. If there were no medals involved, would I really continue running? I doubt it.

In the past, my relay events have consisted of a mixed group of men and women in the van through the duration of the race. This time, we were segregated to a men's truck and women van. I hesistated at the thought of being stuck in a truck for 30+ hours. It wasn't until the camp chairs were propped up in the back of the truck bed did I really see the value of the truck. I can't describe the absolute relaxation of finishing a run then sitting in a camp chair with my legs propped up while driving down the road with the wind cooling me down–pure bliss.

Ibuprofen was my best friend.

Leg 1 (5.6 miles, moderate difficulty) = 2 ibuprofen before the race began, 1 after. Legs felt pretty good.
Leg 2 (4.9 miles, moderate difficulty) = 4 ibuprofen in 2 waves before the leg, 2 after. Foot really starting to bother me. It's dark, there are a lot of rolling hills and as I pass a aqueduct I start wondering how long it would take to find my body if I fell in. My energy level is running pretty low at this point.

Rest = 2 ibuprofen. We arrived at the rest stop at 1:30 am anticipating that we'd be running again at 7:00 am or sooner. Paid $5 for a pancake dinner, then crashed on the gym floor inside the high school for a few hours sleep. Awoke off and on during the night and finally got up at 5:30 am, paid $2 for a hot shower in the school locker room and got ready for the rest of the day.

Leg 3 (7.9 miles, hard difficulty) = 7 ibuprofen and 1/2 oxcodone (not all at once but spread out). My foot is really hurting. My calves, quads and glutes are stiff. The first 1/4 mile was a slight downhill followed by 3/4 mile steep downhill. My legs didn't have time to warm up and loosen up so it hurt A LOT! After 2 miles into the run though the pain in my foot subsided and my legs finally started loosening up. The rest of the run was a combination of steep up hill and short flat sections. It was a nice relief to make it to the end.
Team 'Till We Collapse'

Once our van was complete, the next step was locating some solid non-runner food. Mission accomplished when we found a Mexican Restaurant. After our lunch, we all crashed on the grass near the finish while we waited for van 2 to finish. Our final finish time was 32 hours. Not quite the 29 hours we wanted, but we finished.

4 comments:

  1. The day after Wasatch Back, there were people wearing their medals AT CHURCH. Please agree with me that they were weird. (Yes, they were non-runners that they were VERY proud of their 14 miles.)
    Um, hello? Why are you wearing your medal to church? To brag? Isn't their some scripture about pride being of the devil or something like that (seriously, I'm asking what the reference is, because I haven't a clue)?
    Anyway, this comment is going on for too long. HOORAY FOR FREE CAFE RIO!!!

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  2. At church? Really? I've joked about it, but I think my wife would push me out of the car before she'd let me. The kid who got the Free Cafe Rio from our van was 13 years old. I wish my legs were that good.

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  3. *My next race is the South Valley 1/2... are you pacing a half before then? After then?

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  4. As of right now, the only thing I am pacing is Timpanogos 1/2. A lot of races are signing on to have pacers so maybe I'll get to do that one.

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