Never leave your partner

Army rangers are trained to never leave their partners side. I was reading about that in a book I bought this week, "Ultramarathon Man" by Dean Karnazes. The author participated in the Western States Endurance Run, a grueling 100 mile footrace in which he would climb a total of 36,000 feet. 75 miles into the race, he caught up with two runners, both military men, one of whom looked as fresh as could be, the other couldn't hold his head up and could barely lift his feet. Together, they wouldn't be finishing this race, but seperately, one could have. Yet, they were trained to never leave each other's side - therefore, together they perished.

I pulled into the parking lot at 7:22 am - a bit later than I wanted to. I had just enough time to fill up my fuel belt with gatorade and water and run to the bathroom. Our head coach wasn't at last week's run (nor was I) but he had heard that the yellow group was spread out and most were running without partners. So he encouraged us to branch out and meet new people in the group and try to find someone who runs the same pace.

30 of us started in a nice pack together. Once over the bridge and onto the trail, the pack generally starts to spread out a bit after the first mile or so into the trail. We seemed to be going at a comfortable pace - I was mid-pack - and was running the same pace as another woman, Sam. She is a first time marathoner like myself so we shared our concerns with each other about completing the full 26.2 miles this fall.

About 2 miles into the trail, we lose the shade and come out to what another runner has phrased the "death valley" portion of the trail. It was just before 8 am, the temperature about 80 degrees, with about 90% humidity which made it feel like it was close to 100 degrees running on the asphalt with the glaring sun beating down on us.

The reason I had missed the prior week's 9 miler at Wissahickon was because I had taken a little trip to the ER the day before. I had a headache for 4 days, with other accompanying ailments, and my doctor suspected Meningitis. So to the ER I went. Fortunately, it wasn't meningitis and they gave me a shot of some wonder drug that made my headache go away. I normally wouldn't have been so concerned about it - its just that i'm a fairly healthy person and never get headaches. They believed it was heat related.

2 weeks ago we had run 7 miles on our Saturday long run. It was muggy that day but overcast - I paced myself nicely and recorded a negative split (ran faster the second half of the run), sprinting to the end. I felt pretty good. Since that run, the headaches began and temperatures skyrocketed. Every time i'd try to run, my head felt like it was going to explode. So in the past two weeks, i've only run once - and it was 45 minute easy run on a treadmill. Not only have I not run, i've only gone strength training once, no cross training, no yoga, and my diet has consisted of too much junk food and not enough fruits and veggies.

So we hit the sun, and my head starts throbbing a bit. Then i'm finding it harder to breath and the people in the back of the pack began to pass me. When the pack started pulling away I told my partner to keep going, I was going to have to stop and walk it off a bit to catch my breath. She said she'd stay back with me but I insisted. It was going to be a long 10 miles for me.

I started a walk/run pattern and once I came to the bridge at the 3 mile mark, I could see the group in the distance but knew I was going to lose sight of them shortly. I felt so defeated, but I knew I had to keep going. I'm 4 weeks away from participating in the Inaugural NYC half-marathon and next week's 12 miler is a crucial training run for that. If I don't get in this 10 miles today, the 12 miles next week is going to be even worse. If only I could turn down the sun.

I came around the bend to see another runner from the yellow group walking back towards me. I asked him how he was doing and he said he had a cramp and was heading back. I asked him if he wanted to stretch it out and he said it was a stomach cramp - he was getting over the flu. I told him to join me in my walk/run adventure and he agreed. We were both hurting but we were going to get through this together.

We made it to the Oaks trail which was about 4.5 miles from our start. So we decided for the sake of time with not running the entire way, we'd head back and be happy with getting 9 miles in. I'm not sure I could have done it without him. We shared our running stories, work stories, personal stories. You start to forget about your pain and we'd take turns motivating each other to run another half mile before we'd give ourselves a walking break.

Once we were back in the shade, the woman that I was initially running with caught up with us. Turns out after I pulled out of the pack, she was running with this guy who also had to pull out. She was beginning to think she was somehow a jinx for everyone. Sam confessed at one point she also had to walk a bit to catch her breath. That humidity was just a killer out there.

So now, the three of us were on the homestretch - talking to each other, motivating each other, pushing each other to a sprint at the end. I'm not sure what I would have done if it wasn't for my partners today...I might still be out on the trail. It made me realize why I do this - sacrifice my Friday night out with friends to try to get enough sleep so that I can wake up at 5:30 in the morning to hydrate, eat, and get out there to run in the blazing sun in pain. It's the connection you make with others who will stick by you and struggle with you and help you accomplish something that inevitably will give you more confidence to face other struggles in your life.

The dog days of August are now upon us - the miles are critical for my summer/fall half-marathons and the Philadelphia Marathon on November 19th. The success I will have then relies on the success I must have now....so come hell or high water (or heat and humidity), I have to keep going - with everything now - with the strength training and nutrition and cross training and meditation. Easier said than done...so feel free to check in on me to see if i'm getting it all done. I could always use a little nudge here and there.

Cheerio mates!