View Workout (Brandon Carreno)

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The Infinite, Beautiful Treadmill

October 11, 2015 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: ~50 degrees, Chilly- Warm

Comments:
So race day finally came. The Towpath marathon at CVNP. I got pretty solid sleep, as well as food, for the last couple days, which was a good start. I was on my feet a lot yesterday because of the Hydro field trip, but it didn't really feel like a factor waking up. Crashed at my parents hotel room last night, since it cut down on driving/prep time a ton. Also, driving after a race like this seemed like a bad idea.

Got to the course, super dark, pretty chilly, so I vegetated for a while, then got a short warm-up in. It didn't seem necessary to do very much, since I really just wanted to not be shivering on the line. Not too much else happened until the race started. First mile was all downhill, on pavement, so it was pretty fast, which was kind of expected. 7:03ish. After getting on the towpath it kind of evened out to around 7:15, which was my realistic goal pace. Held like that by myself for a bit, until a dude from Kent State came up beside me. We figured out we had the same pace objective, so we ran together for a good while. Didn't really mind the country music he had playing either, I just liked having a rhythm to keep me even. At one aid station (wanna say mile 8ish), Mr. Seballos yelled out "Yeah Carreno, go Case!". Really didn't expect to see anyone I knew, so that was a cool surprise. Kept going to the turnaround, nearly tripped over my legs, but survived, and rolled all the way back north. At a couple points, we were apparently hitting even 7:00 pace, which was definitely an accident. I was hoping to keep off the gas as much as I could. After passing the 1/2 marathon finish (mile 17), the guy I was running with started dropping back, until I couldn't see him anymore. Which was unfortunate, since I was on my own for the last 9 miles. Kept on, but as it's said, the high teens/low twenties are the hardest part of the race. Had my energy gel at that point, and started grabbing water pretty liberally. Hit the last turnaround, and it felt like I was getting on the struggle bus. Except for one thing. One girl working an aid station was giving out Lifesavers. My god, I can't express how badly I needed that. I should probably marry her. But, the sugar + water/some gatorade helped a ton with morale. But around mile 23ish the struggle bus came back. My right calf/hamstring started tying up something awful. Since I didn't want to keel over on the course with a handful of miles to go, I stopped to stretch and try to work it out. Didn't really work, since it kept coming back. So the the end of the race turned into a lame walk/jog combo. Stupid lactic acid. But, I finished, and got a shiny medal. Which had a mislabeled ribbon (of course). I did somehow manage to get 2nd in my age group despite that finish, which felt pretty nice. Also beer. Post-race beer is good. Praise based Great Lakes Brewery.

All in all, not a bad day. Of course, the ending was lousy, but I'm not sure exactly what I could have done differently. Hydrate more? That's one to work out for another time. BTW, the park was absolutely beautiful. Leaves were just changed enough, the early morning sun, and ideal racing temps, made for an amazing aesthetic experience. 10/10 would recommend. Just no cramping next time.

EDIT: I also won some art for age grouping. If anybody wants to see the art, hmu.