About two weeks prior to my full marathon in Colorado, I decided to sign up for a half marathon trail race. I have never done a half on a trail before but had heard from a good running friend of mine that they are a lot of fun. The race was only a couple hours from me, so I figured I would be able to get up a little early in the morning and drive up for the race and come home after it was over.
The morning of the race, I got up with my bag ready to go and hit the road. I was excited about crossing Tennessee off of my list and looked forward to running in the woods. It was mid May and pretty warm outside, but it was raining.
By the time I reached Chattanooga, it was pouring outside. Other drivers were pulled over waiting for the heavy rain to pass. I spoke with Brett on the phone and told him that if it was like this when I got to the park, I may not run in it.
The race took place at Raccoon Park. In the middle of the park is a large water preserve. Around the preserve is a one way, single lane road which is built on top of the retaining wall on the west and south side of the lake. I am telling you this because the weather was pretty awful and it was very foggy and still a little dark when I got up to the park. I couldn’t see very far and the sides dropped straight down so it was really spooky and Thriller was playing on the radio. The things we remember…
I took this video on my way out of the park to show Brett what I was talking about. It wasn’t foggy or dark like the morning, but I think it helps illustrate my point.
When I parked the car, it wasn’t raining very hard so I thought I would probably be ok. I picked up my shirt and bib and got ready to run. The initial start of the race was on the paved road for less than a mile and then we ran into the woods on mountain bike trails.
The rain beat down on us off and on throughout the race. There was no keeping dry and no avoiding getting muddy either. I tried a couple times to avoid big puddles but when I ended up falling on my side, that was the last time I attempted avoiding running in the puddles. This was not going to be a fast race for me.
Then it started happening, I was slightly twisting my ankle, over and over. My ankles were not used to training on uneven ground and it was slippery. I no longer could avoid the puddles and just hoped they weren’t too deep or that the ground was somewhat flat under the water.
My ankle got so bad that even when I was walking, it was hurting. I was worried that if I kept going in these conditions that I would really hurt myself and wouldn’t be able to run in Colorado.
I spoke with a few people along the way. Some people helped me when I fell and I helped them when they fell. I had never walked so much during a race or have been so annoyed with being out on a trail since I was in the Army.
There was a cut off time at the 8 mile marker. I was ahead of it, but my ankle was hurting and I was over taking the risk of continuing to run in the rain on that terrain. I decided I would stop running and get a ride back to the parking lot and quit while I was ahead. After all, the big picture for me was the Marathon.
I don’t usually quit at anything and like to finish what I have begun. For me this was different. My body felt fine in such a way that I wasn’t too tired to go on so I knew that I was capable of completing the race. The problem was that I kept twisting my ankle and it was hurting on uneven ground while I was walking so I really didn’t want to mess up being able to run my full marathon.
I was able to get a ride back to the parking lot by one of the race workers. I didn’t feel great about stopping, but I wasn’t mad at myself either. I was more annoyed with the conditions of the course from the rain. It isn’t the race coordinator’s fault either, no one can help what the weather does.
I’m glad I was able to experience the need to stop before I really hurt myself. This race also made me realize that if I want to race on a trail, I should train on a trail and have the proper shoes! I’m not sure I will ever really be a trail runner, at least not on mountain bike type of terrain but I would like to try a trail run on dry land in the future, perhaps to redeem myself for the race I couldn’t complete.
I think the important thing to know is that it’s ok if you can’t complete something. No one is successful at something every time they do it. This was a big lesson for me.
