Post Knee Knacker Stress Syndrome

It's been 5 days and my legs have relatively gone back to normal, the tightness is gone, the lactic acid has been flushed, the scars caused by chafing from my Hawaiian shirt has healed (an unforeseen side-effect).

So what do I do now?

The race was a moderate success, I sent my friends a expected time chart if they were going to see me with three scenarios: Best Case, Worst Case and Most Likely to happen. As it turned out, the most likely splits were dead on and I finished five minutes faster than my expected time of 8:30:00 given the heat and the glare from the sun. Maybe next year, the shirt colour can be white, because that's what my black CFA shirt looked like, but that was from all the salt.

Looking at the times, it wasn't just me that was having difficulties. I thought it was mildly hilarious that Monty finished just before me and Ean "No Train" Jackson finished just after me and only 3 minutes separated us.

Next time though, I got to think about positioning, that's a long climb up the singletrack and I lost so much time behind another runner. Black Mountain was fine, the snow and mud sections were not much of a problem, except this one little spot, there was a small log bridge to the left and a pink/black ribbon on the right. So, I thought that the ground was stable...I took one step and I sank all the way to my waist as the mudhole swallowed me up with a loud SCHLURP! I spent the next minute frantically digging my way out as I knew Laddie was closing in with her camera and that's not a shot I want posted here. I made my way out of Cypress and headed down Hollyburn where I was beginning to cramp, a little worrisome cause it was only 12 miles into the race. I got passed by a few people here, so I took my cramp cocktail: tums, advil and salt pills. 10 minutes later I was tearing down the chute. I made it to Cleveland Dam without further incident.

The volunteers were awesome and it was great to see CFA at Cleveland Dam, thank you Michele and Cheryl, I'm bringing my own soup next time.

Exiting CD I made my way up Nancy Greene Way where I was having a brief lunch, but my PB and banana sandwich looked gross and I don't think I really shoulde've eaten it. I walked with another individual who appeared, from a distance, to have the maple leaf on his cap. Moving closer, I realized it wasnt the leaf, it was blood. He took a header into a tree and couldnt avoid it, passersby did double takes as they were coming down as we were coming up. It was everywhere, but he knew where he was and how to get there and I'm sure North Shore rescue probably checked him out. Actually he finished nine minutes after me.

I was cramping up considerably,  feeling nauseous from the sandwich, and was heading down to Mosquito Creek. A Capilano Eagle was sitting down going thru some dry heaves, I wanted to yell some encouragement but if I started to think about him, I might as well be right beside him. By the time I made it to Mtn Highway, the episode had passed and I was
running again. A quick little jaunt through the Varley trail and I made my way to Rice Lake, where to lift my spirits, Elke dropped her shorts. Bad Elke, bad girl! Unsurprisingly those pics made the Knee Knacker banquet. The idea is to make me run faster, not make me run in the opposite direction...

Got to LSCR, had some food, took what I thought was flat coke in my bottles, but it waGosnt flat it was very fizzy. So I had to dump it out and had no liquids up to Lillooet Rd. That was a huge mistake. Got mooned again, three pairs of cheeks this time. Elke had help from Amanda and Steve. Geez, four moons in one day, the sun really was setting in Uranus. 

Made it to Hyannis Drive, where I got the most awesomest spongebath from the most beautiful attendants a guy could ask for. I was all for dropping right there. But I wanted that finish.

Took it a little too hard on the Seymour Grind and pushed way too much, cramped up and couldnt enjoy the downhill on Old buck. Got to Mt Seymour Rd at 7:59:52. Decided okay, I'm not getting sub 8, lets go for sub 8:30. The road down Indian HURT a lot, spoiled on trails, not used to transitionincg on the road. That last 2.5km stretch wasn't bad. Glenn said there were nine bridges, so I started counting down as I crossed each one. The problem was I confused the walkways as bridges so I'm undergoing a mental short all the while hearing footsteps coming closer. Maybe it was my Ean sense going off, but I decided to run for the hell of it. I was hearing the roar of the crowd as they all started to yell my name, Lee! Lee!
(not again)

My finish line photo wasn't that great, next year I'm going to try and do a handspring somersault into the pike position and nail that dismount. Yeah, right.

Got a nice medal, went for my dunk in Burrard Inlet, followed by a massage. Awesome combo.

So getting back to my earlier question, what do I do now?

Relax, kick back, take some time off. I don't think so, maybe I'll go for a run.

See you on the trails!

Baldwin