20 on 20

Before I was a skier I was a runner and before I was a runner my sister was a runner. I was talking to my sister the other day about running and the topic of marathons came up. I expressed some interest in running a marathon and she told me about what kids on her team used to do for their birthdays. They would run a mile for every year that they were alive. I thought it would be a great idea to try and see how I did on a longer run. Unfortunately, I overlooked the fact that my sister and the kids who used to run the birthday runs are really good runners. I still can’t beat my sister in running races, which is going to change next year in the bolder boulder. If only my leg hadn’t fallen asleep! Perhaps I should have drawn the connection between her old teammates who ran this insane run and her old teammate who just won the Leadville 100 mile trial run. But did I? Of course not!

On my birthday I woke up at 7:45 to try and finish the 20 mile run early. (I suppose I could have run 20k but I’m a real American). In my stupid string of ideas that eventually lead me to try this run, I thought “You know what would be fun? To run this whole thing on a track!” Well I did start on a track and I ran 21 and one half laps on the LHS track before I gave up that horrible plan. While I was running on the track I started in Zone 1. After I did some calculating I realized it would take me almost six hours to finish at that pace! I couldn’t handle running for six hours on a track so I gave up and got in my car and drove home.
When I got home I was really bummed. I didn’t want to give up and after some encouraging words with Julianne over texts I decided I would finish the run or at least try my best. So I decided to go up to happy jack and measure out seven and a half miles in my car down the dirt road opposite the tie city parking lot. And I did. After a few more encouraging texts, setting my water bottles behind trees along the road at 3 mile intervals and a plan for my girlfriend to come cheer me on an hour after I left the parking lot (2:13 into the run) I set out. The out and back run was much better than the track, though it wasn’t perfect. I went from running on a flat track on a relatively cool morning to running down a dirt road with a lot of hills at almost 9,000ft at midday in 85 degree weather. But hey, there was more to look at! I didn’t run this stretch of the run at anything close to Zone 1. My max HR was 190 and I think my average was around 170 something but I couldn’t run for six hours! On the scale of eventful runs this stretch of the run, the out part, was extremely uneventful but that was all about to change at the half way point.
I thought Julianne would have met up with me sometime before the halfway point; she was going to drive up and cheer me on! But I got to the half way point and turned around and nothing. I ran back to my first water bottle and realized that I didn’t want to drive all the way back out there to pick it up so I decided to carry it. About that point, 14 miles, is when the difficulty of the run hit me. I can honestly say that’s the first time in my life I’ve run for 3+ hours in zone 3. Small goals my friends! I picked objects that were pretty close to me and I made it my goal to get to that point, so on and so forth leapfrogging from object to object. At about 16 miles the clouds were getting really dark. I heard thunder off in the distance but I kept going. When the flashes and thunder were seven seconds apart I was about to assume the lightening position. Just then the double OG, Julianne, and her pug rolled up in her 1990 Honda Accord on the dirt road. It was awesome to get some encouragement on the last past of my run, I gave her my water bottle and I took off at a good pace for about half a mile but then the storm was getting really bad and I decided to call that section of the run at 17.5 miles and I got a ride back to my car from my awesome girlfriend.
I thought, “Hey I’ll just run the 3.5 miles that I have left in town.” I got back to town and there was an even bigger storm going on in town. At this point, I just wanted to be done, but how could I quit so close to the end? I couldn’t! So I bit the bullet and started to run the last 3.5 miles on my parent’s treadmill. Running on a track is heaven compared to a treadmill. I ran to 18 miles and couldn’t take it! I got off and went upstairs, still pouring and thundering. It might be worthwhile to add, by this point it was already three something in the afternoon and I didn’t want to spend my entire birthday on the run. So I ate my pride and ran the last 2 miles on the treadmill. It was horribly slow and painful at that point but I did it and I made it to the end of 20 on 20.

The whole event took me from 7:45 am to 3:40 pm. The actual running was somewhere around 4 hours but I can’t tell you the exact amount of time because I don’t know. Is there a marathon in my future? I’m not sure, but I am pretty sure that I should stick to middle distance sprints (and skiing of course!)! I wish I had something more to write about other than my epic runs but that’s about all I’ve done this summer. I’m sorry if my tale was boring but I hope you smiled at least once reading this ridiculous story of mine.