A Teatise in Failure

I don't like to quit.....as a matter of fact it is one of my least favorite things in the world....but apparently sometimes it happens. Needless to say, the Flagstaff 50 miler did not go so well for me. Actually.....scratch that....it was going great....until it went completely sideways and I had to take a DNF.

Flag was for sure going to be a tough course, but I was ready, I ran or hiked over 180 miles in August including some pretty much all day affairs. I tapered hard in September because I know it works for me....even though I hate tapering and it drives me insane. I prepared in advance, had eating and hydration planned out.....I knew the course....and on race day I knew exactly what I had to do...I was calm...cool...confident....

Normally I'd break the race down section by section but since I DNF'd and am kind of mad about it I'm going to keep things short and simple. Miles 0-22 went really well....I was conservative, I followed my eating plan like clockwork and despite some tough climbs I was feeling good. I had just run about 5 miles with Christie Bane from TTR, the company and conversation was great and my energy was doing really well. I knew the second half of the course would be tough but as Christie said "Our current pace is very sustainable" .... I generally agreed with this as we closed in on half way..... then disaster struck....

I was running along all nice and happy and then bang.....I trip on a rock jutting out of the trail....now let me be clear....the trail wasn't technical...it was easy....I just wasn't paying crazy close attention and I caught myself on it.... At first I thought I just got jolted ....but I noticed myself slowing and let Christie pass me....I continued to slow down and she pulled away.....the front of my foot hurt a lot but I figured I could deal with it. I toughed it out to the mile 25 aid station and then began the climb right afterward.....about half way up I noticed my hip flexor was hurting now too....crap.... so the thing about hurting one side of your running (ex: my hurt left foot) is that your otherside tries to compensate to make it feel better.....this then screws up the other side too...usually in your hip flexor......

So the next six miles went like this.....

Descending: "My foot hurts"

Climbing: "My hip flexor is killing me"

I tried for over an hour and a half to talk myself out of DNF'ing but in the end as I rolled in to mile 32 aid station after walking most of the last 10 miles all I could really think of was "If I keep going I might get seriously hurt and have to stop running" ......so I did what I had to do and took the DNF..... The race director, Jamil Coury, gave me a lift back to the start and was in general really cool. On the positive side I did get a full 32 miles in and injury aside I felt able to turn around and do it again when I dropped....this means I'm training smart and racing smart....something I don't always do!

My friends Kayley and Brian were in town because they wanted to get out of Phoenix.......also I asked them to come see me finish....they made me feel a lot better by giving me some beer and telling me funny stories....

I thought it would take me a lot longer to write this race report...but in reality I just want this race in the rear view mirror....the DNF isn't sitting well....I'm already plotting some sort of "Redemption Run".....