Day at the Office

Day at the Office
All Terrain Vehicle
I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Phillppians 3:14

Monday, December 15, 2008

Rusty Safety Pins


Just a couple of weeks ago I was laughing with Bill Rogers about how you know it has been a long race day if your safety pins that adhere your race number to your person are rusted by the end of the race.

During Sunday’s Dallas Whiterock Marathon, I was out there so long that I was afraid that it would take WD40 to break loose my safety pins.

The synopsis:

It was warm, got up to 79 F. It was windy, gusting up to 40 MPH. At mile 2, I was sweating profusely. My heart rate was too high. I tried to bring it down…to no avail. The reason? Don’t really know, maybe I started out too fast with the high temps that I had not run in during the last couple of months. I was nauseated much of the race and knew around mile 4 that was going to be a tough day and that I just wanted to try to hold my self together.

It was a worse day for many other people.
At mile 22, a 29 year old experienced runner went down only to pass away after attempts to restart her heart. She was from Austin, a newlywed and just had completed graduate school at LSU. Keep her family in your prayers.

At mile 9.5, a young guy went down hard in front of me. The man directly in front caught him. I ran back about ¼ mile to try to get some medical attention from the previous add station. While the other runner had his cell phone and called 911. We moved on when some of the spectators where caring for him. My guess, severe dehydration.

I finally finished. A miserable day in a marathon is still better than any day in the office. I have learned that I really prefer trail running.

On a much lighter note on two accounts:

At about mile 7, I hear, “DAVE, DAVE!” I turn around and see a guy I have never personally met but recognize him anyway. His name is Derek and we frequent each others blog. He ran the first leg of the relay and then was going to finish up by running the whole marathon. He caught up to me and it was good to meet him. I saw him a couple other times on the course and he was always smiling. Additionally I met BrendaC who also frequents my blog. She had flown down from Virginia Beach and my wife and I had dinner with her on Saturday evening. She actually looked really strong during the race when she blew by me. Good times, good times!

After the race, our daughter, Macy got lost from us in the throes of humanity. Adrenaline kicked in and my legs didn’t hurt so badly. She was quickly found and taken to the medical tent and then brought to us after I let a policeman know that we had misplaced our 5 year old daughter. Macy was pretty shaken up. To help her out, the race personnel gave her a Marathon finisher’s medal. If I knew it was that easy, I would have gotten lost and then cried a little. You have to get lost because only crying doesn’t get you a medal. :)

Tonight, maybe a little spin class.
(all pics are 10 minute post race, pre Macy Misplacement)

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Great race report. Love the rusty safety pins comment, and especially liked this: "You have to get lost because only crying doesn’t get you a medal."

Anyway, nice job on a tough day.

I'm doing Bandera 100k so maybe I'll see you there!

--Marshall from NTTR

Jeff said...

Oh man, nothing worse than a hot marathon (except maybe a hot ultra?).

Nice job just finishing on a day like that!

Brenda / Russ / Lance said...

Dave - a finish is a finish is a finish. Congrats on another one down, and especially with all the stops involved.

Can't imagine what your heart rate was during Macy's MIA. That's enough to put any parent into cardiac arrest! Glad the day ended safe and sound.

It was great meeting you and BrenE! She's quite the trooper to put up with you!! HAHAHA!!

Can't wait for them to post the race pictures!!

Rick Gaston said...

Dave, earlier this year at Kettle Moraine 100, I experienced the same thing - a high heart rate. When I solved my dehydration problem my heart rate dropped to where I expected it to be. Within 10 minutes of leaving the aid station, after tanking up on fluids, my heart rate dropped 10-15 points. Your problem could have been dehydration.

Way to help out the young guy and what a sad story for the 29-year old runner. No words for something like that.

What an ordeal losing Macy too. When she's older you'll have to tell her how lucky she was. In ultra getting lost and crying gets you nothing:) and if you end up not finishing the race because of it, you get the laughter and good natured ribbing from your other ultra friends in the next race. It's a small community, word spreads. Ask Gundy, although there was on crying on his part we talked about his experience at Mother Road 100.

Donald said...

Man, I've heard some crazy (and scary) stories coming out of that race. Glad you made it through OK, even though it wasn't the kind of race you wanted.

I agree with you that the marathon is an absolutely different beast than ultras. Even though it's shorter, it's almost more intimidating, because there's always a compulsion to push the envelope, which often gets people in trouble as you saw firsthand.

RUN ON -SEMPER FIDELIS

RUN ON -SEMPER FIDELIS