When races are wiped out by a Pandemic #covid19

    The race season of 2020 has just now been severely impacted and not for the positive. In the grand scheme of things, racing is just something that most of us do for fun, to push ourselves against the best competitors willing to toe the line, and how we get that natural-high that many of us thrive on. Racing is not the be all end all to life, for sure. However for many racing is hugely social, bringing like-minded folks together to share stories, catch up with friends (practically family), and frankly to just be together. These gatherings can be small local events with  50-100 people and they can be downright huge at thousands of people, not to mention all of the volunteers and friends & family supporting their athlete. Therein lies the problem because at this very moment the COVID-19 virus has become a Pandemic, continues to spread, and spread fast. Unnervingly fast. What is the countries best defense against such an outbreak? Stop the spread! What is one of the best ways to stop the spread? This phrase is at least new to me, Social Distancing. It's where everyone disconnects from being physically interactive with society, friends, and even family. It's hard. Really hard because we are social beings and thrive on social interactions. It's who we are and in our very nature and fiber as humans. So how does all of this relate to racing? I think that should be quite obvious now.

Thanks to the whole COVID-19 virus most if not all races have been canceled across the nation and the world, for example, the well-known Absa Cape Epic. The NBA, MLB, Running, Cycling, Gymnastics ... you name it and it has likely been suspended or outright canceled. My daughter's Senior year of gymnastics meets> Yup, canceled. It sucks, it should not be like this, however, it is the hand we all have been dealt and we all need to do our part to prevent the spread. It should be no surprise then that my small local Trail Running race was also canceled. This is the first year for the Western Reserve Endurance Series. I would call it the Big Brother of their yearly Dirty Trail series. The Endurance series is made up of marathons and 50ks. I am stoked to compete in the series, that is, if it even happens at this point. We just don't know enough at this point to understand how bad things will get and when the peak of the spread of COVID-19 will be. 

I have been training hard for most of the winter months and thanks to the great coaching of Evolution Training Cycles owned and managed by Jeff Rupnow I was ready for the race so even though it was canceled, why not just go out and run the course? Hard! I will say that I was on the fence had the race not been canceled, because I am very much buying into the whole "Socially Distancing" thing that is now a "thing". While their hand was mostly forced by the state of Ohio when Governor Dewine ordered the shut down of all large gatherings of 100 or more people, Western Reserve Racing did the right thing and shut down the race. I don't know if it qualified under the 100 or more people, but it would have certainly brought some level of risk I would think. I very much appreciate that they made the decision for me. As an athlete, I would have attended the race most likely cuz that's what we do, but I would be lying if I said that I wouldn't have been concerned or worried and most definitely would have adjusted my pacing to be certain that I was many MANY feet away from anyone else. I am not panicking at all ... I just want to be safe, healthy and not bring anything back to my family. #stopthespread

Ok, got that off my chest. Got to the Moh Lodge early enough that I was able to get in my usual 8-minute and 8-second warm-up run with a couple of minutes of walking before stopping in the lodge (had to dispense of some coffee and breakfast) where I saw Vince "The beast" Rucci of Vertical Runner (best running shops in the area) helping some folks out. Vince asked if I could help out a trail runner who was unfamiliar with the course and while I was trying to really just go solo and keep my distance from people, after "attending to my business" and heading back into the parking lot, I searched for Richard, found him in the parking lot, and around 8:02 we headed out onto the trail.

I was concerned about being around another person honestly, but my concerns quickly vanished as he and I got to chatting about various things. I was probably a bit quiet and for that ... my sincere apologies. He was a super nice guy and oh my... VERY strong, especially on the climbs. Found out he is 51 years young. I was going to use my "old man card" but when he told me he was 51 I quickly deleted that from the conversation. Any climb we came upon Rich just went ahead and had a pace that I did not care to try and match. Maybe I could have kept up for a little while, but also knowing that he was running just one loop and I intended to run the full marathon (two loops) I thought it better that I let him go on the climbs. The trails were in incredible shape and better than I expected. Mohican tends to drain very well in general, but with the rain, the area received earlier in the week, I was not entirely sure what to expect. I was waffling a bit on shoe selection (man it's cool that I actually have a choice of shoes these days ... even have some road shoes now ... maybe I am becoming a runner after all ... I think my bikes hate me) between my Brooks Caldera's which I much prefer for dry-to-slightly-wet trails or my Saucony Peregrin 10's for when the snow/ice/mud fests come upon us in Ohio (quite often this time of year). I went with the Brooks cuz 1) I really love the feel of the shoe and 2) my instinct told me the trails would be in 80-90% good shape. #nailedit #winning  There were only a few short muddy spots but seriously much of the entire course was in perfect shape for this time of year.

As we ran the course I would try and tell Rich where the course was heading so he could run ahead if he wanted to. I did not want to hold him back nor did I want to destroy my pacing. I had two goals for this run; a 5-hour completion time or ultimately ... a sub-5 hour completion. My coach had it on the plan for a pace of 11:30 and an estimate of a 5:01 time. That was already 15-minutes faster than my fastest time on the course, but for training runs ... so running in race-mode would have pushed the pace for sure. However, the part missing today was ... well ... the race. So ... I had to push myself to try and hit the goals I had set for myself.

As the course twisted and turned I did my best to describe the various turns to my new found trail running partner and he did well with the instructions I provided. He would escape from me a bit during the climbs and then turn around and wait for me so I could give him the next turns. Finally, when we hit the white trail after having completed the Orange trail and arriving at the Covered Bridge we crossed over the road, got past the 4-5 bridges, and began the final climb to the Fire Tower. This is not an easy climb for me, but knowing he was such a strong runner and was killing it on the climbs I let him ahead of me and instructed him to stay on the white trail all the way to the Fire Tower. Easy enough if you know the course, but not so easy if you have never been here before. There are a few spots that jump in and out of the trail, across a gravel road (short section), and then jump back onto the White trail. It would be easy to lose track of the course. The first time I ran it four weeks ago I had to keep stopping to verify I was heading in the correct direction. 

Long story short, I arrived at the Fire Tower and never saw him heading back the other way (the loop is an out and back with a minor detour in the middle). I have become accustomed to running up the Fire Tower, touching it (with my glove of course .... cuz COVID-19 can stay on plastic and metal surfaces for up to 6-days from what I have read), grabbing some food that I carry with me in my Salomon Vest and then heading right back onto the trail back to the start. At this point, it is roughly halfway for one loop, about 6-ish miles. As I jump back onto the trail, here comes Rich. I suspect he got turned around but I was happy to see that he was doing well and figured out the course. I thought maybe he might just turn around and follow me but I think he wanted to run-up to the Fire Tower per the proper racecourse and I would do the same honestly. 

Heading back I got to see a number of runners along the way, some heading towards the Fire Tower and some heading in the same direction that I was heading. I knew I was doing well on time because my best time for getting to the Fire Tower I had achieved last weekend at 1:09 and I was 2-3 minutes ahead of that, however, at that time I was also only running half the course that I would be today so ... the question was ... can I hold any sense of a pace the second time around. #shrug #gonnagiveitago

I could tell my legs were a little tired as I made my way up the Dam Stairs (yes ... stairs that seem never-ending that get you to the top of an actual Dam) but nonetheless I ran it the way I have been running it during training. Take every step one at a time, in a sort of running fashion, to the midway point, there is a bench in the middle near the stairs, then walk the remaining stairs to the top. After the Dam Stairs (I love saying that ... I'm such a 10-year old ... LOL), the trail heads off to the left through some very scenic rock formations as it ebbs & flows around Lyons Falls and finally makes its way back up to a gravel climb where we have a climb on both sides, heading out and back. Double the ouch.

Finally made my way back to the parking lot, hit the lap button as I got to Mr. Green Jeeps, dropped off my gloves cuz they were just too warm and I had put them into my vest at the Fire Tower, grabbed a couple of bites to eat, and headed back out for round two. When I hit the lap button I noticed that I had completed the first loop in 2-hours and 20-minutes, my fastest split for the half marathon loop. Cool. If things get really bad, I will have 2-hours and 40-minutes to hit goal number one (a five hour completion time). A mile or so into the second loop, here comes Rich. As we both got to a small river crossing, we shared a few words on how he got turned around a couple of times but I was really happy he was finding his way back, so that was a relief and I felt a bit more relaxed. 

In all my training runs I had been reaching the first road crossing that is roughly 2.2 miles from the start in roughly 25-28 minutes, give or take, and for my second time through heading back to the Fire Tower I reached it in roughly 27-minutes. I felt really good about that, knowing that I was still within a reasonable time range for the second loop but things would only get harder the deeper I went into the race and my fuel stores. I made my way back up the gravel(ish) road, up and down and up and down, back around to the river, and finally to the Covered Bridge. Next up ... the second climb to the Fire Tower. The start of this section is a really cool section because you can hear the river flowing and there are 4-5 bridge crossing that helps keep the feet dry and toasty. In fact, one of the bridges has been out of commission ever since I started doing training runs out here, but it was pretty darn awesome that it had been put back into working order for "race day" (that really wasn't a race ... or was it ... nope it wasn't). After the final bridge in this section, the last big climb to the Fire Tower starts. It's not horrible, but it hurts if you push and I was doing everything I could to push. I ran the first couple of gnarly hits and then the trail makes a hard left and had three stairs to climb up before you continue climbing up some roots before it finally levels out. It hurt. There was a family of hikers in the middle of this section that looked to be having a good time. Man ... hiking sounds like fun right about now. I hiked this section, once getting up the stairs, and after the trail started to calm down a bit I started running knowing that it would start to head down for a brief moment in time before doing its whole ... up, down, up, down, rinse repeat. Through this section, I saw a few runners heading in the opposite direction working on finishing their first loop (I think they were running the half marathon). I gave a friendly wave while not trying to grimace too much and kept motoring along. There are a couple of small0ish climbs before reaching the fire tower and I think I walked a little portion of one of them because I was definitely in the hurt-locker at this point. I reached the Fire Tower, did my thing where I touch the Fire Tower (with my sleeve this time ... cuz I dropped duh'gloves) and I grabbed a piece of candied ginger for a bit of food. I was having a few small pains on and off in my side and I am fairly certain it was dehydration starting to set in. I had loaded up about 28oz of fluid (mixed with Infinit JetFuel ... yummy) in a bladder that I placed in my vest but I was only sipping on it the entire run. Perhaps not enough, so I need to keep this in mind for the next race ... err ... longer run.

It was fairly uneventful on the way back. Passed a runner heading to the Fire Tower (who actually left well before I had at the very start but I think he got turned around quite a bit or he was just out doing his own thing) and also passed some more runners that were heading back to the Mohican Lodge. After crossing over the Covered Bridge, running up those Dam Stairs (DAM THOSE STAIRS), and dragging my sorry carcass of a trail runner onto the Gravel road before the final road crossing I met up with a couple of female runners that I essentially lapped at this point. They were doing what I really wanted to do right about now ... walking the climbs. I continued running and the cool thing is that they encouraged me to keep running the hill, so naturally ... I did. They were awesome. Man, I love the Trail Runner community!! I reached the final road crossing and I knew I had only 2.2 miles left before the end. At this point, I glanced at the time and noticed I had around 45-minutes to finish this run in 5-hours or less. Sweet!! I was thinking to myself ... heck ... I can walk the rest of this. #sonoathleteever I pressed on, trying to maintain a respectable pace, waiting for the point where I get to this long descent back down to the river. I did my best to push and keep pushing, tackling the small climbs and not walking, and keeping the pace up on the flats. Oy Vey. So tired, legs hate me, but I could just see the barn door and a sub-5 hour finish ahead of me. I was not going to let that out of my sight.

Just before reaching Mr. Green Jeeps I looked at my overall mileage because it would be a darn shame to see anything less than 26.2 miles. YAY!!!! I saw 26.4 miles ... SWEET!! No extra parking lot loops to get the full marathon in. When I reached the Jeep I tit the stop button and saw a time of 4:51 and change. Ok ... time to breathe.

How would I have done had this been an actual race? No clue. You never know who shows up or how well-trained folks are this early in the season. It doesn't matter honestly. I ran a PR by roughly 23-24 minutes. I'm pretty happy about that. Funny thing is that I thought prior to the start that I want to run another 4-5 miles after I finish so I can get in a 50k. Well ... nope nope nope. I honestly ran hard enough that my legs and my body were just fried (damn I miss real french fries). I walked around the parking lot for about 12-minutes, spoke with the two young guys that kicked my butt (and when I say young it would not surprise me if they were 20 years old or less). Studs in the making as this was their first trail marathon. Major props guys. They told me they were worried I would catch them. That was an awfully kind comment for sure. These young chaps told me that they think they had a finishing time of 4:53, but I knew that wasn't right. I asked how long they had been done and they said around 10-minutes. So I figure they finished at 4:40 and change. #studs

In the end, it was a beautiful day for a long trail run. I wish the race happened, but again ... given the circumstances, I am glad that it did not.

So what am I going to do for the next few weeks? Well ... this popped up no FaceBag the other day ... unfortunately ... it's probably not wrong.

#socialdistancing #gladIenjoysoslotraining #happytrails