Sometimes it pays to be foolish. You see it is often the fool, those who don't know that they can't, that make things happen. This week I played the fool.
In the process of training for this 1/2 marathon Amy and I realized that the course would be a downhill course. We needed to prepare for down hill, because to this point we had only trained on level to slightly uphill courses. So, I had this brilliant idea that we should run down Millcreek Canyon. The course was set from the top of Millcreek Canyon to 2300 East and 3900 South in Salt Lake City, UT. This we thought would give us an idea of what we were facing come the half marathon. So, DeeAnn drove Amy and I up to the top of Millcreek Canyon Saturday morning. I tried not to pay too much attention to how steep it was on the way up and figured that if Amy was willing to do this I most certainly was not going to let her show me up. So, when DeeAnn left the parking lot to meet us half way down the canyon we finished stretching and started down the canyon road. Immediately, I started feeling a slight cramp under my ribs, probably the effects of my diet while camping all week. This is not new though, I always seem to have to fight those thoughts as I run. We hit a couple of fairly steep stretches and I began to think that this course was much steeper than I thought it was going to be. It only took us a little less than 30 minutes to reach DeeAnn at the 4.8 mile mark. By that time I was feeling my calves really getting tight, but after a quick drink of water, we kept going. We had only passed one other person who was running up the canyon, but we had not seen anyone running down it. For all the bikes we saw I thought maybe we would see others running down, but no, we didn't. Eventually we saw a few walking up and a couple jogging up, but never anyone running down.
Once we got to the bottom of the canyon we still had about 3-4 miles to go. my calves were on fire and I noticed that my feet were feeling hot as well. I kept thinking that Amy might stop and give me an excuse to stop and make sure she was okay ;), but she just kept moving, and I certainly wasn't going to stop. As we rounded our final turn to head down 3900 South to 2300 South I felt like I was having a hard time picking my legs up, but I was determined to keep up. I was really hoping it was the first light I saw, but I prepared mentally for the second. And it was a good thing I did because it was the second light, but as we approached that second light I found out it was just past that light. Thank goodness we did not have to wait, because mentally I was now completely spent. I mustered up enough to finish with an attempt at a sprint for the last 20 yards or so. It felt good to do what we had done, but I knew I was going to pay a price.
That afternoon, I found out that we had run 11.9 miles and dropped 3406 feet in elevation almost 4 times as big a drop as we will be dropping during the 1/2 marathon.
It was foolish to think we could run that course with our experience, but not knowing that we shouldn't gave us the opportunity to say we did it. And now we know that we can do more than we thought we could, because we did not know what we were doing before we did it. Set your site on a task and forget about the obstacles, everything will turn out fine. You may pay a price, but once the price is paid you may look back and say, "I did that. Now lets not do that again." Or you may just think next time.... and smile a little bigger.
Yes sir, it is often the fool that pushes the envelope and creates new boundaries for themselves and others....Try it sometime you just might like it...after you pay the price. ;)
A new adventure in Moving More. Don't tell me you can't until you have tried. Until then you can only say you won't.
In the process of training for this 1/2 marathon Amy and I realized that the course would be a downhill course. We needed to prepare for down hill, because to this point we had only trained on level to slightly uphill courses. So, I had this brilliant idea that we should run down Millcreek Canyon. The course was set from the top of Millcreek Canyon to 2300 East and 3900 South in Salt Lake City, UT. This we thought would give us an idea of what we were facing come the half marathon. So, DeeAnn drove Amy and I up to the top of Millcreek Canyon Saturday morning. I tried not to pay too much attention to how steep it was on the way up and figured that if Amy was willing to do this I most certainly was not going to let her show me up. So, when DeeAnn left the parking lot to meet us half way down the canyon we finished stretching and started down the canyon road. Immediately, I started feeling a slight cramp under my ribs, probably the effects of my diet while camping all week. This is not new though, I always seem to have to fight those thoughts as I run. We hit a couple of fairly steep stretches and I began to think that this course was much steeper than I thought it was going to be. It only took us a little less than 30 minutes to reach DeeAnn at the 4.8 mile mark. By that time I was feeling my calves really getting tight, but after a quick drink of water, we kept going. We had only passed one other person who was running up the canyon, but we had not seen anyone running down it. For all the bikes we saw I thought maybe we would see others running down, but no, we didn't. Eventually we saw a few walking up and a couple jogging up, but never anyone running down.
That afternoon, I found out that we had run 11.9 miles and dropped 3406 feet in elevation almost 4 times as big a drop as we will be dropping during the 1/2 marathon.
It was foolish to think we could run that course with our experience, but not knowing that we shouldn't gave us the opportunity to say we did it. And now we know that we can do more than we thought we could, because we did not know what we were doing before we did it. Set your site on a task and forget about the obstacles, everything will turn out fine. You may pay a price, but once the price is paid you may look back and say, "I did that. Now lets not do that again." Or you may just think next time.... and smile a little bigger.
Yes sir, it is often the fool that pushes the envelope and creates new boundaries for themselves and others....Try it sometime you just might like it...after you pay the price. ;)
A new adventure in Moving More. Don't tell me you can't until you have tried. Until then you can only say you won't.
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