TALES FROM THE TRAIL (AND SOMETIMES THE ROAD TOO)

Thursday, November 4, 2010

I’m Scared to Death

Aside from normal scary life stuff, like hardships for my children, or death of loved ones, or experiencing a car accident, I’m not usually scared by things.  Rattlesnakes don’t scare me. Speaking in public doesn’t scare me.  Heights don’t scare me.  Roller coasters don’t scare me.  I don’t get claustrophobic.   Falling down a mountain doesn’t really scare me.  Even cutting my own hair, blinded to the backside (like I did today), doesn’t scare me.

I’ll tell you what scares me – this SATURDAY.  I’m scared to death about the Saddleback Marathon, mainly because I’m not trained.  Not only am I not train, I am injured, and I’m gonna go out here (foolishly) and run 26.2 miles with 5000+ of elevation gain. (At least it will be beautiful).  If you’ve been reading all along, you know I didn’t do this on purpose.  Life just got in the way.

Such is life.

Such is life?

Such is my life.

A 17 year old student asked said to me this afternoon, “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but how old are you?”

When I told him that I was 45, he seemed impressed that I was doing the race this weekend.  Little does he know.  There’s a multitude of 45-plus-year-olds that can blow me away on that mountain this weekend.

And so . . .

Races don’t normally SCARE me like this.  I was too stupid to be scared for my first Calico Ghost Town race.  By the second year, I knew, and I was scared.  I was a little scared about my first marathon, the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon.  But I never doubted that I could do it.  I also remember being scared about my first half (Disney Half Marathon) – but again, I didn’t doubt that I could do it. Though I’m always anxious about going up Bulldog, I don’t even recall being as scared as I am now with the Bulldog 50k (my first DNF).  I completely envisioned that I could finish that thing.  But now, with all that’s happened this year, my glute still stabbing with pain, I’m scared, I mean, scared stiff about the Saddleback Marathon.  You can be sure, I’m going more than prepared (that is, I’m packing in everything I could possibly need – so what if it weights 25 pounds : ).

So I went to the gym today, with the notion to stretch and relax.  I rolled my glutes and my IT Band to no end.  I stretched.  And I worked on my abs – surprisingly experiencing a good deal of glute pain. 

Afterward, I sat in the steam room, concentrating on my breathing.  I pretty much hated it in there with those boiling hot drops of water falling on me (and my ipod!!). Then I went to the sauna (I love the sauna).  I laid down on the cedar bench, listening to music through earphones for two long (8 minute) songs.  I focused on breathing again (meaning diaphragm breathing, in through the mouth, out through the nose).  When it was time to leave, sadly I could not lift myself off the bench without excruciating glute pain.  There I laid in an empty sauna with no way to get up.  If only someone could walk in and offer me a hand, pull me up.  When it looked like that wasn’t going to happen, I rolled myself down to the lower bench, then quickly rolled myself up.

I ended this “stretch and relax” session with 15 minutes in the jacuzzi.  Focusing the jet stream on my glutes, I finished up surprisingly refreshed.  It wasn’t until after work (wearing pumps for 4 hours) that the glute pain resumed.  And oh ya, my deltoid/pec ached with no relief.   After dinner out, a sticky heating pad on my shoulder, plus with a couple glasses of wine and 3 Motrin, I told my husband, “I need to drink a couple glasses of wine before the Saddleback Marathon and I will be fine.”

Ya.

Meanwhile, another horse pill antibiotic to swallow tonight, two more again tomorrow and days to come . . . perhaps all will be well come this weekend.

On the plus side, I will be running this race with a very sweet running friend who is also scared, and maybe another running friend (who I don’t think is scared : )  But that’s okay too, she can lead the way!

2 comments:

  1. Be careful out there this weekend Lauren. Have fun!

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  2. Thanks Glenn! I was careful. No ACTUAL injuries. But boy am I hurting tonight. I made the movie, but just too tired to blog the story today. What a race, I'll tell you. My garmin read, I think 5,500 feet of elevation gain. That's a first for me!!

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