Can I have some cheese with that?

Ran in a 60k night race this past weekend, but DNF’d (quit). Just after 9 miles, I began having a quick onset of major gut cramping that hobbled me to a walk. So, I had to dash into the deep woods and take care of business. I would emerge onto the trail with tons of energy only to repeat the whole process a few more times for the remainder of the 18.6 mile loop (60k’ers to run it twice). It was very frustrating, mainly, because I had not experienced that type of issue in past races and didn’t know how to fix it. My first trip into the woods took about 10 minutes since there was a knot in the drawstring of my running shorts, thus, preventing me from getting the shorts down. I was in a panic to get the knot untied and I came close to ripping the brand new pair of shorts off knowing I would have to finish running in a pair of compression tights I wore underneath. Bad visual! Passing runners, only to make additional multi-minute stops in the woods, only to pass them again became tiresome. Frustration, eventually, set in during miles 14 through 18.6 and I used that negative energy to blow by any 30k’er or 60k’er in site without saying a word. Coincidentally, I finished the first loop down to the actual second that Olga had predicted. I wasn’t trying to do that, but that’s what happened.

I wasn’t interested in going out for another loop since my gut was churning. Was it the heat? I didn’t think so. I have run in much worse conditions and my effort wasn’t exactly race pace at a 140bpm average. Olga did her very best to coax me, but I was being stubborn. After about 15 minutes of feeling sorry for myself, I walked out of the start/finish in a bad mood and not happy about continuing. Olga caught up with me on my way out and told me I could make a decision at the next aid station and walk it in from there if that was my choice. Within 2 miles, I found myself, again, looking for refuge in the woods. Watching runners pass by with headlamps ablaze while I was in a full squat behind Cedar trees wasn’t exactly motivating. Back onto the trail I went and passing more runners on my way to the next aid station. Once I reached the aid station, I had enough. Once there, it took me about 10 minutes to finally make a decision and walk the few miles down the road back to the finish line. While I wanted to run back instead of walking on the road, the thought had me fighting the urge to make a detour into the woods for gastric relief. Thankfully, Joe P. drove by in his truck and gave me a ride after I had made it about a mile down the road.

Raw honesty… I didn’t want to run the 60k and, instead, wished I would have stuck to my guns and ran a hard 30k, as originally planned. This definitely played into my sour attitude during the entire run. In past years, I’ve placed near the top in these races and the thought of just going out for a training slog and seeing a slow time in the final results wasn’t something I could let go. The self-induced anxiety of these thoughts, I believe, contributed to my gut issues. But, I still understood that running a hard 60k would be a stupid idea and would negatively affect the quality of my training this week. Regardless, I was still conflicted.

What to do? Move on! Learn from it. Be grateful it wasn’t a goal race and, in actuality, a practice run. And, thankfully, I have time to, hopefully, solve the problems I had before I fly to Utah next month. And, I have one more 60k in a few weeks, which I am looking forward to running. But, right now, I have to put my head down, nose to the grindstone and get through the next few weeks unscathed.