Birthday Miracle

This past weekend was my birthday weekend. I turned 27 on Saturday. Yay!!!! I originally was supposed to be out of town on a company fishing trip. They changed the date at the last minute and sabotaged my plans for running in the Swamp Stomper because the registration was already closed. I e-mailed the race director, Leigh Tanner, on Friday and asked if there were any spots left and she put me on the end of the waiting list. I was notified Saturday morning that I was allowed to participate. As a birthday present, Holly and Drew paid my entry fee into the race.

The morning of the race, Holly and I struck out early and arrived with 45 minutes to spare. We sat in the truck to keep warm before the start. I have seen one account of the temperature being 12 degrees. When the race started, I warmed up within the first mile. Even though I had on gloves, the only thing that stayed cold were my hands. When they finally started to thaw out, they were throbbing so bad I almost cried. For the first nine miles of the race, I ran with Patrick, Vinnie, Michael Mobley and played leapfrog with Mike Hudson. We were moving at an easy pace and taking our time at the first three aid stations. It was after the third aid station that I felt like I needed to move faster. I decided to break away from the group and run the pace my body felt was comfortable. I was moving fairly fast and took no walk breaks on the 6.5 miles back to the halfway point. I wanted to push it and see if I could maintain a strong pace. At the 15.4 turnaround, Drew jumped in to run the second half of the race with me. I started out strong and slowly began to burn down to a fizzle. I had pushed a little too hard a little to early. Instead of building a gradually faster pace I had notched it up to quickly. I was not close to bonking but my legs just got tired. When Drew and I reached the 26.3 mile aid station I was running on empty. In my mind, the last 6.5 miles of the race seemed almost unfinishable short of a piggy back ride (I knew Drew wouldn't go for that). When we reached the last aid station with 3.5 to go, I began to do a walk/run routine. I would run about .25 miles and then walk for a minute, then strike off running again. I was able to creep into the finish at 6:49:38 with icicles hanging from my beard. I was not disappointed with the finish but I would have liked to have come in stronger.

There are several things I learned throughout the race. Don't forget to take in as much food and water as you can stand and don't run hard too early. Also, I have always wanted to go out strong to avoid getting marred back in the pack. I think that next time I will try to stay near the front. I noticed that the first half mile took me about 8.5 minutes to finish because I was stuck in a traffic jam.

Overall, the run was great, the course was fun and easy, and the support was awesome. Thanks, to everyone who came together to get me into this race.