This week was a drag. No other way to put it. I didn’t feel particularly well. I slogged through all of my runs, and even cut one short. And I started to doubt the idea of the 100 miler.
Let’s take it one at a time. First off: I was exhausted all week, and my body just felt ragged. It definitely didn’t help that last Saturday’s 30 mile run was followed by a friend’s wedding. But whatever the reason, I just felt off: my eyes watered looking at screens, my heartrate felt accelerated, I woke up more during the night and had trouble getting out of bed. Running every day makes you pretty dialed in to your body and so I picked up on subtle changes all week.
Then there’s the six mile run I quit on half way. Quick note for any non-runners out there: a three mile run is an awesome accomplishment and probably all you need to do in order to get the health benefits of the sport. So I’m not criticizing it. But… for someone training for a 100 mile run, not being able to grit my teeth and run another three miles feels like the mother of all red flags. Particularly with no boogeymen to blame it on, like weather or pain. I just didn’t want to be out there, plain and simple.
But to top it all off, after finishing my longest run of 2021 and feeling good about my progress towards 100 miles, I saw the video of Christian Eriksen, the Danish soccer player, having a spontaneous heart attack on the soccer field and nearly dying.
If there’s one thing I can say about myself, it is that fear of things like spontaneous heart attacks does not usually cross my radar. I’m risk-adverse when it comes to things like sky-diving, motorcycles etc… But I know the likelihood of super random health calamities and can sit relatively at ease knowing they’re possible.
So I was surprised to find that, after seeing this video (and coupled with my body just not feeling great), I started to get very scared of a similar thing happening to me during this 100 mile run. It’s certainly happened to people before, and even though I’ve survived runs of 50 miles before, I’ll be doubling that distance and doing it in much hotter weather with more sun exposure. So my mind really started running wild.
But then my friend and running buddy, Jake, sent me an article about a guy named Rod Farvard who is doing insane things in the ultrarunning world, and I snapped right out of it. His inspiration while racing comes from his Dad, who tells him: “Finish what you start.” I think that’s great advice, and a reminder that this run is something that I’m choosing to do, and putting a lot of time and effort into preparing for it.
Anyway, it’s been a bit of drag, but I still got in the miles I wanted to (albeit slower than expected):
I’m in Baltimore for the weekend and so hitting up my old running haunts, so that’s a plus. And hopefully getting the cobwebs over with before July!
