Qualifying for the Ascent

Before Race

After Race

So now I'm hooked on the Ascent, a half marathon to the top pf Pikes Peak, 14,115' in elevation. I ho-hummed around about it for a couple of months then I finally looked into the race and saw that you have to qualify to be able to run the race. To qualify you have to have run a half marathon in under 2 1/2 hours. I divided that by 13.1 and found that I'd have to average 11 minute 27 second miles over a half marathon to qualify...I could do that! The were now two problems that I was faced with, 1)I had been nursing an injured right calf and didn't want to push it too hard and  2)it was now November and most races were done for the winter in Colorado and I needed a qualifying time by registration in March. I picked the last half marathon available in this region in 2010 on December 4th in Pueblo, CO as my half marathon day, the Rock Canyon Half Marathon. I'd been running between 4-6 miles consistently all summer long, so I pushed it a little bit with my training, kept close watch on my calf, had a lot of soft tissue work done to my calf, and was ready for the December 4th race.

On race day it was a nice 38 degrees and sunny. The race started and it was very hard for me to hold back and let all the overachievers pass me early on in the race. I had a game plan to stay at 9:30 miles foe the first few miles and either speed up or slow down depending on my calf. All I HAD to do was stay under 11:27 miles to qualify for the Ascent. So I let the people pass me, even Santa Clause passed me, and stayed at my slower pace. About 4-5 miles in I was feeling really good, not tired at all, with no real sweat broken. So I slowly picked up the pace. By  then, a lot of the people that had passed me early on were running much slower and I began to pass people, a lot of people. I was feeling real good and keeping track on my wrist watch I noticed that each mile I ran got a few seconds faster than the one before and I kept on passing people. I never pushed myself really hard because my goal was to qualify for the Ascent, not run as fast as I could. I finished the race strong for the goal I had set and was happy to see my finishing time of 2hrs 00min and 40sec, a half hour under my cut-off, finisher number 307 of 600. I didn't realize how tired I was until I started to relax, but I made it and qualified for the Ascent. I didn't realize how good it would feel to finish a half marathon, but it was a real good feeling and I'm glad I did it.

BIG MISTAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, the same day as the Rock Canyon Half Marathon I had volunteered to work a shift at the hotel not too long after the race...WHAT WAS I THINKING! If I would have just gone home and rested I would have been okay. Nevertheless, I went to work at the hotel. I felt good at first, tired and excited, but good. About and hour into the shift with all the relentless walking that happens, my right achilles tendon began to ache just a little. I ignored it thinking it was just fatigue from the race. A few hours into the shift I could barely walk and had excruciating pain in the right achilles tendon. I ended up just standing in the hallway doing absolutely nothing until one of my managers Annie walked by. She could tell that I was hurt (I don't ever just stand there immobile away from the parties). She let me go home early and I nursed my achilles. This turned out to be the single biggest mistake I could have made fro my training. My achilles was now hurt...really hurt! I hypothesize that I pushed my legs limit with the half marathon and that my achilles was weakened by that. If I would have just rested that week and slowly eased into running again, it would have probably been fine. Instead, I pushed it past its limit and brought injury to myself. I have now been nursing it ever since and am at a point again where I am training on it without pain, but it aches mildly every day.