Running a Real Race

I know that this may come as a surprise to some of you, but its astonishingly difficult to write a blog about running when there aren't any races taking place. Shocking, I know.

Actually, that's mostly me giving myself an excuse... I could have been writing about any number of things, from how I've been keeping active in the era of Coronavirus to how my Crohn's has been reacting the last couple months.

But now I have NO excuse, because this past weekend, I ran my first (non-virtual) race since February! And to make it even better, it was one of my absolute favorite courses... The Collinsville Classic 10k!

Running along the Farmington River on a well-tended linear trail? Doesn't get much better than that!

Ok, besides the fact that this race is usually in May and its never failed to rain until this year (it was the opposite, in fact... 85 degrees and sunny), there were definitely some differences between this and a 'normal' race. Accommodations obviously had to be made to ensure the safety of the runners, as well as the people spending time on the trail where the run was taking place. First, they gave us three different options for running the race:

1. Virtually - as most races have gone these days, it'd be running wherever you can, at whatever time you can
2. Point-to-Point on scheduled waves - start and finish where we normally would for this course, at a scheduled time, or
3. Out and Back on scheduled waves - start at the 'finish' line for the course, turn around at the halfway point, and finish at the same place you started

Runners who wanted to run the actual course, either Point-to-Point or Out and Back, had to select a wave they would run in. The wave options were from Saturday, July 25th to Sunday, August 2nd, and you could select from the times 7am, 8am, 9am, or 4pm, 5pm, 6pm. Runners could start running any time during their selected hour, and waves were limited to 20 people. There was NO course support... the course was marked with signs to follow, and we brought our own water to ration along the way. You timed yourself using whatever gadget you preferred, and later submitted it through their website. Waves, distance, times... pretty much everything was on the honor-system. Medals and t-shirts are being shipped in the mail, and we should receive them soon.

Yet, despite all those differences, it still felt just a bit more like a race, and I loved it. Maybe it was that I was running with other people, or that we made the effort to print and wear our virtual bibs, or even that there were mile markers. Its amazing how those little things feel like a return to normalcy in a runner's world.

I somehow convinced Mandy, Aunt Kathy, and Amy to join me in my pursuit of feeling like I was running a real race. We selected an 8am wave, in the hopes that an earlier wave would mean cooler temperatures (spoiler alert: it did not).

Between the heat and our lack of training, we weren't expecting much from ourselves... but hey, the school where the course started was very supportive!

Since we went with the 'point-to-point' option, we met Amy at the finish line, then took one car to the start. Obviously with no race support, the start line looked a lot different from what we're used to.

Yup... this is it. The sign on the other side of the pole literally says '10k start here'.

We prepped our Fitbits/Garmins, double-checked our water bottles, sang our own stirring rendition of the national anthem (I'm sure the neighbors appreciated it), and started following the signs to the finish line. 

Am I shiny because of sweat, or because of the copious amount of sunblock I applied to my pasty self? The world may never know.

I spent the vast majority of the run being hyper-aware of how my body was feeling... not just because it'd been a while since I'd gone for a run, but because I'd actually had a pretty intense Crohn's flare up the weekend before. It took me by such surprise (and didn't exhibit any of my tell-tale symptoms) that I actually didn't realize what it was at first.

The weekend prior to this race, I had spent nearly all day Saturday out on my motorcycle, exploring and hiking. On my way home, I stopped for dinner, enjoying a sandwich with a beer. I don't know for sure, but I think it was the beer that betrayed me.

That night, I woke up around 3am, feeling so horrendous that I actually thought I might have contracted the Coronavirus. The first thing I noticed was that I was FREEZING. It took pulling my comforter up, adding an extra blanket, and turning off my AC (set at 76°, not exactly arctic) before I  could stop shivering. I felt nauseous, had a slight pressure in my chest, and had a headache. My back and joints ached. I took some tylenol and went back to bed, thinking that if it wasn't the virus, maybe it was sun exposure or heat exhaustion from my day outside. A Crohn's flare up didn't even cross my mind.

It seems to be complete hit or miss when it comes to beer causing a flare up for me. This beer though... eff this beer.

I woke up the next morning feeling a bit better. A small headache and still a bit achey in my back, but better. Later that night, I had the realization that I wasn't just achey in my back... I was achey in my lower left back, my left side... in the same spot where my Crohn's had flared a few years ago, resulting in my hospital stay. I was instantly checking off the symptoms in my head. My 'usual' symptom - pain/blood in the bathroom - was absent, but the biggest clue - a general discomfort in my guts - was telling me what I suspected: a Crohn's flare.

The pain in my guts woke me up again that night, and I still felt a bit 'blah' that Monday, though not as bad. I was drinking lots of water, and sticking to low-fiber foods. I briefly considered calling my GI to see if there was anything I could do, but by Monday evening I felt well enough to go for a walk and do a light workout. Monday into Tuesday I was able to sleep through the night, and I felt pretty much back to normal by Tuesday afternoon. Since then, I've noticed my 'usual' symptom make a return... so I'm being careful about what I eat/drink, and doing what I can to de-stress.

Which included running a 10k. That's a normal de-stresser, right? I had spent a good chunk of my run contemplating that flare up, but as most runners can attest to when they see the finish line, for a brief time the only thing that mattered was that fluttering banner with that sweet sweet word on it:

For those wondering, yes, we all planned to wear the shirts commenting on our speed (or lack thereof)... but finishing is the important part!

It may not have been an arch with an announcer, a medal, or a cheering crowd (although a small family was sitting and cheering as we ran through), but it didn't make that finish line any less amazing. It was hot as hell by that point, I was drenched, I'd emptied my water bottle a mile back, and I finished nearly 8 minutes slower than my 10k PR... but being able to run along that course and get a little bit of that 'real race' feeling back... well, in a small way, it felt like giving the middle finger to both the Coronavirus and my Crohn's.