Bwap!

Leg Two at the DeCelle Memorial Lake Tahoe Relay knocked the stuffing out of me. Literally. I ran it two weeks ago and it destroyed my running until today, when I finally ran a decent 9 miles on the Mall in about 1:20. I was exhausted at the end but I made it and I feel good about it.

I have been exhausted ever since the Relay, and mostly not running. On Wednesday, June 17th, I did the monthly noontime Tidal Basin 3K Run I always do, in 14:13 (7:38). The last time I was over 14 minutes for this short, fast and furious race was over three years ago. ‘Nuff said. (After finishing Leg Two at the Relay, I was not feeling well . . .)

On Saturday, June 20th, I ran a club 4-miler race on the flat C&O Canal Towpath, in 33:47 (8:27). My only other two 4-milers were both run in under 30 minutes. This race was mental agony for me as my legs felt like mush the last three miles. (. . . and when I bent over and noisily barfed . . .)

I asked an Ironman I know if he thought eight miles at altitude, with the last four miles being up one big hill, could take so much out of me that I needed a long time to recover, like after a marathon. Oh yeah, he said.

But now, two weeks later, I feel more normal. It took a long time. (. . . my teammates all did their best to politely ignore me. L-r: Ashley who killed Leg Seven, Bex who did a good job on Leg Four, the longest one, and John, an excellent bicyclist who discovered that those skills don't necessarily transfer straight over to running during a rough Leg Five.)

I’ll tell you about my hardest run ever, perhaps in my next post. Consider this image in the meantime, running hard for 38 minutes to a stadium and then immediately running up its stairs for forty more minutes without ever stopping or getting to the top.

Bye, Lake Tahoe

The shock was unbelievable. The instant I hit the surface, I thought I was going to die.

I was still sinking into the frigid water. I kicked my legs and waved my arms and arrested my progress towards the bottom of Lake Tahoe. I started to come up. The water was incredibly blue, and incredibly cold. "Only one degree above freezing," Brian had said just before he jumped in, twice. "A day ago it was probably snow in the high country." (Above: The perfect tonic for a long run. Photo credit Brian.)

I had never experienced total immersion in water this cold before. My head popped above the surface. Brian and the rest of the Band of Outsiders were laughing and waving at me from the pier I had jumped from.

No time for chit-chat. The ladder to the dock was 12 feet away. Like a triathlete crawling over everybody impeding his progress in the water, I flailed my way to it. I couldn't climb up it fast enough. (Right: Do I look cold? Photo credit Brian.)

"Aren't you going to go in again?" Brian asked. "I jumped in twice."

I looked at this young man, figuring that since he was about half my age, he was far better suited to repeated shocks to the system than me. "No," I said, standing there dripping on the dock, the 60 degree air feeling positively tropical after being submerged in the freezing water. (Below: Mission Accomplished. L-R, the 2008 BOO and the legs we ran in the Relay, B (7), Bex (3), E (5), Brian (1) and yours truly (6). Missing, Tami (2) and J (4).)

But it had been fun. Fun like going up the last hill on Leg 6 of the Lake Tahoe Relay had been fun. Sort of like, a highlight of my trip to Lake Tahoe, you know?

Where they're out there having fun

Well I'm going out west where I belong. Tomorrow I'm off to California to join Bex and five other athletes she assembled to run a relay race around Lake Tahoe on Saturday. The last three times I ran on a team with Bex, we won the competition. This time I think we're going to run into some real pros. It should be fun. I have the first leg of 9.6 miles, running through the town with casinos, with Big Blue always to my left.

Where the days are short and the nights are long. The elevation for my leg of the 72-mile relay is over 6,000 feet, with two hills in the latter part. That has me a little concerned as my training has fallen off recently due to an injury. My conditioning has seeped out of my body. I was sucking wind at the end of my 10-miler on Sunday and there was no altitude to contend with.

Out on the coast. Bex is already out west training at altitude. She ran a race in Taos on Sunday at over 7,000 feet and was sixth.

Wherever you go. This morning I ran over my hill here in Falls Church and back, two miles, in 18:40. My hill is the best hill in the DC area and it's only one half mile from my front door.

And I'll fly. Yesterday I ran two and a half miles on the Mall in 21 minutes, finishing off with a charge up Capitol Hill. The last time I went up that hill, at the end of a 10K race last month, was just awful. It felt like I was running underwater. Yesterday I was able to go up it steadily.

And I'll shimmy. I want to thank my anonymous benefactor who pledged two dollars per mile for my charity when I run Chicago in the fall. Until yesterday, the charitable total stood at pledges for A of over $700, the entire rest of the charity team zero. Now it's not quite so embarassing. Thanks, H.

Well, the girls are frisky. Jeanne is back to running. She went three miles yesterday. Go give her a hug. She commented on my last post about the best Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich and said, "Tofu." Huh. There is no tofu on the Geno's or Pat's menu links I provided. However, if you want to play tourist and go to Jimmy's on South Street in Philadelphia, there is a vegetarian offering on their menu link.

In old 'Frisco. I saw how they prepared that offering when I was at Jimmy's two years ago. They moved the mound of meat they were cooking on the grill over a couple of inches and plopped the tofu down right next to it. The tofu didn't stay vegetarian very long, simmering away right next to the running meat pile.