Story for Fort Bend Kia 30K Run

First off, thanks to Virgil Skinner from Fort Bend Kia for offering me the chance to jump into this event for free! I would never have paid to try something like this (I probably will next year though). The longest Ive jogged before the invite was 10K (6.2 miles) and that was only a handful of times.

So I had six weeks to learn how to triple my longest jog. That would take a very complicated and detailed training regimen. That's why I didn't have one. I hardly have time to run so I definitely didn't have time to plan any training.

I went and ran 8 miles to start my preparation for the event.

https://www.strava.com/activities/763162677

It wasn't beautiful but I felt good about it. I should do that several more times. BUT instead of doing that, I bought a mountain bike and spent a lot of time messing with it.

One day while teaching at school, a student made a comment about skateboarding. I mentioned that I used to skateboard when I was younger. He made some comments about my age so then it turned into a parking lot contest. There is a game called "SKATE" that is played like "HORSE" for basketball. Everytime I land a trick he can't, he gets a letter until he gets the word "SKATE". I kicked his ass pretty good. Then I couldn't hardly lift my leg off the ground for the next 4 days.

Then came the asthma for another week. I had one more healthy week before the event so I burned my legs up on a fast group ride on Zwift and just did nothing else so I would be healthy. Now for the event itself.

The weather looked to be perfect. It was 64*F and a very light wind. Miguel (an actual runner who flew through this in 2.5 hours) gave me one of his gels since I left mine all at home. It's amazing how fast some people are. I will have to train harder on the bike so that I can make him hurt next time we ride together :)

One mile in - I saw a runner taking a poop on the side of the road. What the hell? Why did he not use a port-a-potty 10 minutes ago?

Two miles in - It was supposed to rain today? This was some COLD rain. It felt pretty good really.

Three miles in - This rain does not feel good anymore.

Four miles in - Soaking wet shoes. I hate that.

Six miles in - I met up with some people from a local running club called "Fort Bend Fit". They were running 3 minutes and walking 1 minute. That sounded good so that's what I did until about mile 15. A little more rain.

Fifteen miles in - I am walking this mile. The transition from jog to walk was taking a toll on me. Every time I starting to walk, from a jog, it felt like my hamstring was trying to rip itself from my leg. I also have a blister on my foot from my wet shoe. I am not sure when my nipple started bleeding but let's just add it to this terrible point of the run. (See blood on photo below) Taking weight from the blister has started to hurt my ankle and my right knee has been hurting since about 5 miles in. So this mile is for resetting. At least the rain is gone.

So I've reset myself and started to do the math on how fast I have to go to finish in under 4 hours. I squatted down a few times to stretch and then off I went... very slowly. I was going to go as slow as I could to finish this thing. At this point I've had a gel, several gatorades and about 4 bananas. I was primed for success. I saved just enough energy to run all the way through Sugarland Town Center and across the finish.

I then ate a big candy bar, 2 slices of pizza, and a coke. I sat down to cheer the next 5 minutes of people in. These were the people I had spent the last 4 hours with and learned a lot about. I would've stayed longer but I wasn't sure what my legs would feel like.

It hurt then and it hurts now (the next day) but I am glad that I did it.