May 2nd, 2020 – Natcher 50K
Everyone responds to situations differently and for me the near total shutdown of society beginning in March and extending to the present has unfortunately sapped me of my motivation to go run. The very first weekend I had a half marathon that was cancelled and so I went and ran with some friends and got a solid PR at 132:36 or thereabouts. In doing this I managed to tweak my hamstring, which I believe is suffering from some sort of tendonitis, but at least for a little while longer I won’t be able to be seen about it.
I kept telling myself that I would keep up a solid routine during the quarantine period, and at first I was stringing together some decent runs, but one race after another cancelled and I found myself questioning the reason for my training. HOTS is still on the horizon, but you don’t really train for something like that like you would for a regular marathon or trail 50 or 100 miler. It’s a whole different experience and as important as training may be for it, I have a feeling that preparation (both logistically and psychologically) are probably the most important factors. There’s no question that I’ll exceed my abilities no matter how hard I train, my focus for that really has been to train my mind and remember times in my life when I suffered both physically and mentally with loneliness. I experienced both as a 22 year old recent college graduate when I traveled to Okinawa, Japan to spend a year cut off from the outside world. Recently, I’ve been letting my mind go back there to try to not only remember the experience, but also how I felt for so many lonely days and nights. That experience is one of many that I keep tucked away for when I am about to do something really crappy.
Nevertheless, one can’t neglect physical training if one is to make it across the American South in the dead heat and humidity of summer. I just hadn’t been able to bring myself to go run anymore because I found myself working from home (which in all honesty has been a great experience), my schedule disrupted, childcare becoming an issue, family members catching Covid-19, and trying to supervise a department of interpreters and translators remotely while my 3 year old climbs all over me! All of these experiences are precious and I really will look back on them and hopefully feel that they helped me grow. But they all contributed in one way or another to a general feeling of malaise and lack of motivation to run. That is until Laz came up with his crazy idea of a virtual 1000K!
There’s nothing quite like a ridiculous challenge to motivate people. I speak not only for myself, but clearly for the 18,000 or so participants in the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee. Laz truly hit a home run with this idea and it clearly has filled a void for many people that have most likely found themselves in a similar funk as myself. The response from the global running community has been almost unbelievable. I, like many other people, finally had a reason to lace up my running shoes again. I had found a spark of inspiration, and for that I must truly express my gratitude to Laz.
With few miles to show in the month of April, I suddenly felt the urge to just run, and run and run all day. There’s a single local trail that was not closed in my town, directly behind my elementary school. It’s about 800 m, a little short actually, maybe a hair over 780 m. I had run it numerous times and I decided that it would be great to get some miles off of the road and at 800m I could park my van under a tree and have my own aid station. Brent and Joe Dan agreed to meet me over there and some others I run with, Gina Riley and Ryan and Dallisa Haas had mentioned they’d come by later. Most of them had also registered for GVRAT and we all felt the pressure to get some miles in sooner rather than later!
So, without any significant runs in the past few weeks I woke up at 4:30 AM and drove over to the school and parked under a tree and popped open the back door of my van where I laid out my water and supplies and then without much ceremony began to tally laps around the track.
Even a few years ago, back when I felt that a marathon was an unbearably long distance (and I still think it’s the most difficult) I never would have dreamed about wanting to run 31 miles on a half mile loop, but once you’ve gone ultra it just doesn’t seem as crazy as it sounds.
I had Brent with me for the first 7 miles or so and then Joe Dan showed up to go another 10 miles or so together, during which time Gina showed up and decided to run at her own (fast) pace in the counter direction. After several more miles Ryan and Dallisa arrived and shared many laps with me all the way to mile 26. Friends are some of the absolutely best assets for running hard challenges. The first 26 miles (roughly 52 laps) just flew by and then the last 5 miles just dragged on and on as I ran alone. By 11:00 AM I was wrapping up just in time to get home for lunch.
It’s nice to have somewhat spontaneous runs like this to get your motivation back and to get moving again. I go through periods of apathy with my running and periods where I gain a few pounds and lose some of my fitness level. But I never worry when I go through one of those spells because time and experience have taught me that they are just temporary and eventually the motivation will return. I never fight them or force myself to train when I really don’t want to. Sometimes it’s OK to just coast for a bit and discover other hobbies or spend time doing other things. When I’m ready to run I always end up coming back to it and I can’t say for certain when that will happen each time, but in this case I’m clearly back on the horse. In spite of everything, it’s going to be a good year with a lot of good running ahead of us!
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