After the disaster that was Javelina, I thought I might have to give up running ultras. It's been more than 4 years of this-- the nausea, the vomiting. It was no longer how I wanted to spend my life.
"We just need to get your stomach figured out," Rob insisted.
I wasn't as optimistic. All the reasonable, rational, realistic things have not worked. I don't know what else to do. I wear anti-nausea wrist bands and take ginger pills, I've tried every possible electrolyte drink and tablet, I've tried gels and real food and liquid-only and high-fat. I feel completely out of ideas.
But Rob has approached this stomach-sorting thing as a kind of science. We'll continue to try different things until we find something that works. We're not yet out of options.
On Sunday, I left to go run 20 some miles at Lory State Park, and Rob said I couldn't just do the same-old-same-old (Nuun and peanut butter pretzels, which hadn't worked for me during Javelina)-- I needed to make this run count by trying something different. He suggested I give Tailwind another shot, because even though I have thrown it up before, in theory it seems to be the exact thing I need (a liquid source of calories and electrolytes). He said we could try diluting it a lot, so maybe the taste wouldn't bother me (yes, I think even the "unflavored" version tastes disgusting).
I grudgingly agreed.
I felt terrible from the get-go on that run (after many days of not sleeping or eating properly), and Tailwind did not make me feel any better. It was all I could do to swallow that wretched stuff instead of gag it up or spit it out. I don't understand why people like Tailwind. It tastes exactly like the suero a pregnant Chilean girl gave me after I'd been throwing up for 2 weeks with The Vortex in Nicaragua.
I also took Endurolyte tabs during the run. For the past several years, I haven't taken any salt tabs at all, and Rob thought that this might be part of my problem. At Javelina, I took S!Caps, which are super concentrated, and maybe made the electrolyte imbalance worse. Endurolytes seemed like they would be a nice middle ground.
In addition to about 100 calories of Tailwind, I force fed myself ~500 calories of Wild Friends nut butter and peanut butter pretzels as I ran. This is the most I've ever consumed during a slightly over 4 hour run, but still lower than the 200-250 calorie/hour recommendation that many ultra runners ascribe to. I've long since maintained that I can get by on 100 calories per hour (or less even). Rob doesn't believe this is true.
My legs held up fine during the run, but my stomach felt awful and my mind followed in a downward spiral. I swear that the Tailwind and Endurolytes induced nausea, because I wouldn't normally have been sick during a 20 mile run in cold weather.
I took a ginger pill after I got home just to survive, but the nausea returned later in the evening when Rob got the great idea to watch the "new" Jason Bourne movie that neither of us had seen yet. By just a couple of minutes into the movie, I was reaching for an emesis basin and wanting to gauge my eyes out I was so nauseous. It was like the time, more than 15 years ago, when my friend Jarrod had to carry me out of the theater during the Blair Witch Project because the shaky camera made me so sick.
I laid face-down on the couch and covered my head with a pillow, and Rob described the movie to me. "Now Jason Bourne has jumped into a car and is driving away," he said.
"What kind of a car, like a sedan?" I asked.
"Yes, a sedan. The bad guy has stolen a swat car and is chasing him."
"You mean the guy who was trying to kill him earlier?"
"Yes, that guy," Rob said. "Now Jason has jumped the median and is driving the wrong way on a very busy street. The bad guy just plowed into 20 parked cars."
I felt like I was dying of nausea, but I laughed. This might be the only way I can watch movies, especially ones that involve a lot of shaky camera action. Movies make me sick all the time. From now on, I will just close my eyes and have Rob narrate.
via GIPHY
When the movie ended and I managed to drag myself up to bed, I was still musing about this nausea. Rob asked me if the way I felt when watching the Jason Bourne movie was the same way I felt when I get car sick. I said yes. He asked if it was the same way I felt when I get sick while running a race. I said yes, now suddenly connecting the dots in my head.
All of a sudden I realized-- what if it wasn't about getting behind on eating and drinking during a race and then messing up my electrolyte balance or running out of fuel? I had always assumed that I slacked off on nutrition and hydration first, and the nausea followed after. But what if the nausea was what started it all off? What if I get motion sick just from running, and then my queasy stomach won't let me eat or drink anymore?
It started to make a whole lot of sense. I've suffered from severe motion sickness my entire life-- in boats, planes, trains, buses, and cars, even while riding a bike. It seems reasonable that whatever causes my motion sickness would be in play while I'm running as well-- especially on trails where I'm constantly watching the terrain undulate and the rocks and roots rise and fall beneath my eyes. It makes sense that I felt even worse after dark at Javelina. The heat was less of a factor, but the bobbing headlamp against the darkness of night kept me throwing up. Maybe it even makes sense that in almost every ultra I've ever done, the nausea hits me around the same time-- 7 to 8 hours into the race, or somewhere between mile 35 to 38. Maybe my inner ear has the power to fight off the sensory onslaught of jagged terrain for that many hours, and then it just snaps. At least, that is how it seemed to happen at Javelina. Everything was fine until all of a sudden *bam* the nausea slammed me without any warning, even though I thought I had been doing a relatively good job of eating and drinking. It was after the nausea hit me that I shut down on my nutrition and hydration.
So there it is, I think I've figured it out. It's not about calories or electrolytes. It's just my motion sickness, for which there is no cure.
I'm trying not to feel abysmal about this, but I kind of do.
Rob asked if it would be possible to take motion sickness medication during ultras, like Dramamine, but this would not be a solution. To say that Dramamine makes me "drowsy" is a vast understatement. It makes me catatonic for days on end if I merely lick a tablet. All of the various motion sickness products have the same side effect. They do make a "non-drowsy" version of Dramamine, but it is just a ginger pill (less concentrated than the ginger pills I already take) with a gelatin coating. That wouldn't be an improvement, even if I was willing to consume gelatin (I'm not). I did think that my vegan ginger pills offered me some relief during Javelina, it was just that I stopped being able to take them because the capsule is so big and I would gag on it when I tried to swallow. I've looked around to see if I can find any ginger supplement that concentrated (I'm talking 1,000mg of ginger here) in an easier to swallow version. I haven't been successful yet. But what I did try today was actually opening up a capsule and dumping the powdered ginger into a glass of water. It didn't taste completely terrible. Granted, I wasn't currently nauseous, but I had no problem drinking it like that. The thing I am actively clinging to at the moment is that maybe I could empty a ginger capsule into my water bottle during an ultra, and possibly survive to the end without nausea. Or maybe there is something else out there for motion sickness that doesn't cause drowsiness, dizziness, blurred vision, etc, as a side effect. I guess I'll keep looking, or else, limit myself to races I can finish in 8 hours if I want to do it without getting sick.
via GIPHY
Thanks for reading.
Monday, November 28, 2016
Friday, November 4, 2016
Part 2: How I got off the boat at Javelina 100
Continued from Part 1: Selling my soul to get to Javelina.
I didn't come to Javelina 100 from a place of great strength. There were the preceding months of injury, and then, the wearing down of my soul as I fought to make this world (or at least the education system) a habitable place for my differently-abled child.
Of course, we all reach the start line having overcome obstacles. I don't think that mine were any more insurmountable than those that others faced. But I knew going into this that I had not handled it well. I was angry. I felt like I needed to own that emotion, that maybe it was a stage I needed to go through. I hoped that my anger would be an asset in this race, that I could use it as a powerful fuel, and that I could just keep holding on to that razor thin edge instead of snapping and losing it entirely.
My knee hurt as we pulled into Phoenix, and my ankle hurt too. But we found Christina in the parking lot of packet pick up, and at that moment, I knew everything would be okay, no matter what the outcome. She was the reason I was here, she was why I had gotten this far.
After a sleepless night, I was lucky to find Christina again at the start line in the dark of the pre-dawn morning, with about 600 of our closest friends.
I didn't even know when the race started. I just noticed that all of a sudden Christina and I were moving and there was already at least a minute on the clock by the time we got there. I started my watch and ran about 10 steps. Then we came to a complete stop. There were a lot of people ahead of us.
The race started on a narrow trail, and because it was so crowded, the going was slow. The first mile took me over 18 minutes, which was about the same time when it got light enough to turn off my headlamp.
I didn't come to Javelina 100 from a place of great strength. There were the preceding months of injury, and then, the wearing down of my soul as I fought to make this world (or at least the education system) a habitable place for my differently-abled child.
Of course, we all reach the start line having overcome obstacles. I don't think that mine were any more insurmountable than those that others faced. But I knew going into this that I had not handled it well. I was angry. I felt like I needed to own that emotion, that maybe it was a stage I needed to go through. I hoped that my anger would be an asset in this race, that I could use it as a powerful fuel, and that I could just keep holding on to that razor thin edge instead of snapping and losing it entirely.
My knee hurt as we pulled into Phoenix, and my ankle hurt too. But we found Christina in the parking lot of packet pick up, and at that moment, I knew everything would be okay, no matter what the outcome. She was the reason I was here, she was why I had gotten this far.
Thank you, Christina and Angela. |
After a sleepless night, I was lucky to find Christina again at the start line in the dark of the pre-dawn morning, with about 600 of our closest friends.
Angela, you are with us too. |
Christina, I meant to tell you something before the race and completely forgot: "This is your day." |
That moment at the start line when anything is possible. |
The race started on a narrow trail, and because it was so crowded, the going was slow. The first mile took me over 18 minutes, which was about the same time when it got light enough to turn off my headlamp.
Christina and I stayed together in the congestion for a couple of miles. Then a woman passed me, flitting effortlessly up the trail. I decided I'd had enough of walking in the conga line. I went with her.
As I talked with my new friend, I relaxed a little.
One thing I noticed (but cannot explain) was that all of a sudden, my knee didn't hurt anymore. This was an asset. I also noticed that once we
got to the "technical" section, I actually didn't think it was so bad. Maybe
living in the Rocky Mountains had done me some good after all. Asset.
But what I did notice was that my ankles hurt, both of them. The one that had been injured and the "good" one as well. I didn't know what to make of this, especially so early in the race. I would have to find a way to make it manageable.
Around 10 miles in, we reached the halfway point of the loop and the aid station at Jackass Junction. It was so crowded. I lost a lot of time standing in actual lines just to get a turn to refill my water, use the porta potty, find my drop bag, and get ice for the tube sock I was wearing around my neck as a cooling device. I took a salt pill and hoped the runners would start to spread out soon.
It was mostly downhill back to headquarters, and before I knew it, I had completed the first loop.
Drop bags at headquarters. |
Headquarters was crowded as well, but there was more space than at Jackass, plus I had Rob to help me navigate and get my things for me. He filled my pack and tube sock with ice, while I fumbled around my drop bag for ibuprofen. The pain in my left ankle was getting bad. I mean, it wasn't as bad as when the injury had first occurred a couple of weeks ago-- that had felt like an alien was trapped in my lower leg and trying to burn its way out with a red hot poker. This wasn't to that point yet. I stretched and rotated the ankle as I downed an ibuprofen. I took another salt pill. I noticed again how terrifyingly hot it was becoming, so I took a ginger pill for good measure-- anything to keep the nausea at bay. I guzzled 2 dixie cups of ginger ale, then loaded up on Fritos, salted potatoes, and more peanut butter pretzels. It was time to go out for Loop 2.
I noticed that on Loop 2, everyone was walking. It was hot, yes, probably nearing 100 degrees, and we were only about a quarter of the way into a hundred mile race, and we were going uphill. But walking, really? Was it necessary? As the ibuprofen kicked in, I felt great. The salt and ginger were keeping my stomach at bay. The caffeinated Nuun had given me wings. I didn't want to walk. That would make it take longer between aid stations, and refills of ice and ginger ale. It seemed better to just keep going.
I tried to do the best I could on hydration and nutrition. The tube sock of ice was a life saver for keeping me cool, until two of the aid stations (each of them about 6-6.7 miles apart) were both out of ice. I felt bad for the volunteers, who looked at us apologetically, but seriously, I don't know how they managed to have any ice on this course throughout the day. It was so hot. We'd been lucky to have ice at all.
I didn't notice that the heat was getting to me until I gagged on salt pill at Jackass around mile 32. I tried three times to get one down and never could. I eventually gave up and just kept moving.
By mile 37, I was nauseous. The most important thing, I thought, was to get it under control and not panic. But this was hard to do because my ankle hurt so bad. Negativity spiraled me downward. I told myself to just hang on 5 more miles. Rob would be there at headquarters, and he would take care of me, and everything would be okay.
At headquarters, I gagged on two more salt pills. "Just put some water in your mouth and do this as fast as possible," Rob said. I managed it on my third try, but it felt like death and I started to cry. I needed to eat but I couldn't eat. The best I could do was ginger ale. I had covered just over 40 miles. How on earth was I going to go another 60?
Rob handed me my recharged headlamp, and I put it in my pack. The sun would set in 2, maybe 3 hours. Then it would be cool, and the nausea would go away, and I would be able to make up for these lost calories. All I had to do was finish Loop 3, and then Rob could pace me the last 40 miles.
I got some vegetable broth at the first aid station out. I knew it didn't have much in the way of calories, but at least I could keep it in, and maybe it would restore my electolytes enough so that I could eventually eat and drink again.
I ran with Carrie for a while, and Zach G. I felt better talking to them. I still hadn't eaten, but happy tears formed in the corners of my eyes. I had ridden the wave. I was going to make it.
I saw Christina and stopped to hug her. I was so proud of us for doing this, I was so happy. Zach Bitter flew past us at that moment, on his way to winning the race and setting a new course record. He had smiled and told me "good job" each time he'd met me on the loops. He'd done that for every single participant out there, still managing to run around an 8 minute pace for a hundred miles.
Shortly after mile 50, it was dark enough that I turned on my headlamp. This is what I had been waiting for all day. It would be cool again, and I would be able to eat.
I walked into Jackass Junction, around mile 52, in the dark. It was the "party" aid station. Volunteers wore costumes, there was music and lights. A volunteer asked me what I wanted, and all of sudden, without warning, I burst into tears. I can't eat, I told him. I haven't been able to eat since sometime before mile 37. Liquid. Liquid calories, not sweet.
They handed me broth. I sobbed and sobbed. A lady led me to a white tent, where I sat down on a chair and continued to sob. Then I started to shake. The lady brought me some oranges and told me that had helped other people who had been nauseous and sitting in that chair. I tried the oranges but they tasted so bitter to my nauseated tongue. I stood up, I wobbled. The lady told me she didn't mean to sound nagging, but she didn't think I should go back out on the trail. I said I was fine, but I was sobbing. She got me a baggie for the oranges, and I left, clutching them and the dixie cup of broth. I couldn't stop crying, but I headed back out onto the trail.
At mile 55, I puked for the first time. It was dark, and I apologized to the people around me because even at this stage in the race, the trail was still crowded. The nausea lifted for a few moments, and I knew I would have a little window of time to get some calories and electrolytes in me, hopefully turn this around. But what? Nothing I had with me sounded appealing. I did the best I could. A mile or two later, I puked again.
Eventually, I came to Coyote, the last aid station before headquarters. I was sobbing again. I asked them, was there anything they could give me that would take away this nausea. I was losing my mind. It had been more than 20 miles of this. I had been subsisting on sips of broth and water that whole time. I had 40 miles left to go. I couldn't stop crying. One of the volunteers asked if I wanted her to walk with me back to headquarters, some 3 or 4 miles away. I shook my head. I said I could make it and went on.
People cheered for me as I came in, and I wanted to scream at them to shut up. I was dying, I didn't want to be cheered. Rob found me and got me a chair by my drop bag. I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.
"I don't want to have to quit," I told him.
Rob had on his headlamp to pace me, and we left from the aid station as I tried to take a couple of sips of ginger ale. I didn't know why we were doing this. There was no way I could make it to the end. I was angry that people kept telling me I had so much time left on the clock. 14 more hours to go 40 miles, they said. It didn't matter. I couldn't see straight. I was so nauseated I thought I would die.
I don't know how long it took for us to get back up to the aid station at mile 66, but I knew that was the end for me. I didn't know how I would drop from there. I was terrified that I would end up just having to walk back to headquarters the way we'd come.
I couldn't tell what Rob was thinking. Was he mad at me, was he annoyed? Did he think I was being a wimp and just needed to get my shit together? Was he disappointed that he had sacrificed so much for me to do this, and now I had completely fallen apart? He kept telling me that I had plenty of time left. He had me lay down on a cot, and I think he thought I just needed to rest a while so I could feel better. But I was way far past the gone. Lying there, not eating or drinking, wasn't going to bring me back. I couldn't even walk another step. My mind had snapped, and I knew I'd fallen off of that razor thin edge I'd been clinging to when I started this race. All I wanted, in the whole world, was to get rid of this nausea.
I'm not sure how long we were at that aid station--an hour, maybe two? I started to get cold and shake again. One of the volunteers told me he felt so bad to see me suffering like this that he would just take me back to headquarters himself. I nodded and kept telling him I was so, so sorry. He got his truck and I climbed in. Another volunteer asked for my bib number, and I said "432." She radioed my number back to headquarters, and I guess that's how you drop a race.
I had plenty of time to think, as I talked to Christina the next morning, and then during the long drive home. I was messed up, for sure, but I have been messed up much worse in other ultras and still managed to finish. Maybe it was because I still had so much distance left to cover when the nausea hit. If you get messed up at mile 37 of a 50 miler, you can gut it out to the end. Maybe you can't if the distance is 100 miles. At least, I couldn't.
When all was done, I'd gone about 8 hours on only a few dozen calories. My body was shutting down. If somehow, I'd managed get some fuel in me, I think I would have recovered instantly. I just couldn't do it-- my mind was gone, my gut was gone, and I couldn't come up with the strength to power through any more.
If you've known me for longer than 5 minutes, chances are you've heard me talk about how I had Hyperemesis Gravidarum while I was pregnant with Will. This is not morning sickness. This is puke until you almost die sickness. I lost at least 10% of my body weight and couldn't work I was so sick. Once I realized that it wasn't going away the whole time I was pregnant, I didn't know how I was going to live through it. I didn't know how I'd survive one more minute of it, much less 9 whole months. At 12 weeks, I was prescribed anti-emetic pills to stop the vomiting, which mostly worked, but they didn't do anything for the nausea. It was terrifying. I thought I would lose my mind, and there was no way out. Not one for minute did that nausea ever leave me.
It felt like all those times, when I lived on Ometepe Island and got seasick on the boat back to the mainland. I would white knuckle it through those boat rides, clutching the railing until my skin was thin and pale, and I would vomit into a trash can as Lake Nicaragua swirled violently around me. I would hold on, just hold on, for an hour and a half, or maybe two, until the boat ride was over.
Hyperemesis was that same feeling, except the boat ride was much longer, and no matter how much I wanted off that boat, I was trapped. There was nothing anybody could do.
I thought of all this, as we drove home through Utah.
I thought, maybe I've never really gotten over that. Maybe I never will. I don't know. During hyperemesis, I had no choice, I had no options. But during Javelina, I did. I could take something I had worked so hard to get to, made so many sacrifices for, and I could throw it all away. But in doing so, I could get off the boat. And maybe that's what I needed to do.
Thanks for reading.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Selling my soul to get to Javelina
I sold my soul to the devil at least six times just to make it to the start line of Javelina 100. Each time I sold a soul, I wondered if I'd had any left to get me to the finish.
Remember how I vowed, or maybe just hoped, that I wouldn't spend August injured after reaching a new mileage high in July (as has happened for the past 2 years)? Right. I got injured.
The sharp, shooting pain in my knee began 2 weeks after Howl, when I was trying to run this local event called 24 Hours of Towers. I had no intention of going 24 hours. But I did want to attempt Towers 3 times (1,700 feet of gain each ascent) because the most I'd ever done before was twice. My quads were still sore from Howl the whole time, but on my second Towers descent, there it was, bright and white hot, screaming, searing pain on the outside of my right knee.
There was no point in worrying just yet. Javelina was 2 months away. I would get myself down the mountain, and this would pass.
It would not pass.
The pain was really only there while I was running. I would take a few days off and then try it again, and sometimes I would make it 2 miles before the pain returned, sometimes only a quarter mile. I tried everything. Rest, ice, ibuprofen, KT tape, strengthening and stretching, rossiter. I made an appointment with a knee specialist who couldn't see me for another 2 weeks, at which point, I hoped the injury would just be better. But the pain always came back. Sometimes I could manage as much as 6 miles, by running a half mile at a time with a quarter mile walk break in between. This felt abysmal and terrifying. I was always waiting for those daggers of pain to return, and they always came back, at some point during the run. I stayed on a miserable 1/2 mile dirt loop right by my house so that at least when the pain started, I wouldn't have far to get home.
Remember how I vowed, or maybe just hoped, that I wouldn't spend August injured after reaching a new mileage high in July (as has happened for the past 2 years)? Right. I got injured.
The sharp, shooting pain in my knee began 2 weeks after Howl, when I was trying to run this local event called 24 Hours of Towers. I had no intention of going 24 hours. But I did want to attempt Towers 3 times (1,700 feet of gain each ascent) because the most I'd ever done before was twice. My quads were still sore from Howl the whole time, but on my second Towers descent, there it was, bright and white hot, screaming, searing pain on the outside of my right knee.
There was no point in worrying just yet. Javelina was 2 months away. I would get myself down the mountain, and this would pass.
It would not pass.
The pain was really only there while I was running. I would take a few days off and then try it again, and sometimes I would make it 2 miles before the pain returned, sometimes only a quarter mile. I tried everything. Rest, ice, ibuprofen, KT tape, strengthening and stretching, rossiter. I made an appointment with a knee specialist who couldn't see me for another 2 weeks, at which point, I hoped the injury would just be better. But the pain always came back. Sometimes I could manage as much as 6 miles, by running a half mile at a time with a quarter mile walk break in between. This felt abysmal and terrifying. I was always waiting for those daggers of pain to return, and they always came back, at some point during the run. I stayed on a miserable 1/2 mile dirt loop right by my house so that at least when the pain started, I wouldn't have far to get home.
Days passed, weeks passed. I became a very unhappy person. It killed me to see other people posting their long, long training runs and happy smiling faces. I took a leave of absence from podcasting with my friends about our journey to Javelina. I knew I had to accept that there wasn't enough time, I wasn't going to make it there.
School started again, both for Will and me. One of the classes I had worked very hard preparing got canceled, because whoever was in charge of putting it on the registration website had forgotten to do so, and therefore no students had known about it or been able to sign up. I guess I should have made sure that other people were doing their jobs, but I didn't check until it was too late. Unlike real professors, when one of my classes gets canceled, I just don't get paid. Maybe that doesn't really matter. I get paid so little anyway. I would have said my life felt like a joke, but really it felt more like a waste.
Second grade started off somewhat promising for Will, because he seemed to like his teacher, but it was only a week until he cried when he got off the bus and asked me, "Mommy, am I dumb?" The education system tests children to within an inch of their lives (sometimes even beyond that), and Will knew that he had been placed into the lowest "reading level" of his class.
"No," I assured him, referring to the two minute conversation we'd had over the summer that changed everything. "You are not dumb. You are dyslexic."
I'd given his teacher a full week into the school year, which seemed like enough of a grace period. It was time to find out what the education system could do for a dyslexic child, and I knew, even as I tried to hang onto a modicum of calm and strength, that I was doubling down for the biggest fight of my life.
What I found out, as I went into the arena, was that it is actually possible to black out from rage. Like, literally pass out from anger at the response you get from teachers and "reading specialists" who don't do a fucking thing for the 1 in 5 dyslexic children in schools. These people often don't even "believe" in dyslexia, and they just look at you, blankly, showing you test scores that assure you your child is "below average" and then suggest that you sign him up for an after school homework club. Sometimes, as an added bonus, they stress the importance that you make sure he keeps up on his 20 minutes of reading each night--completely ignoring the fact that he can't read because he is dyslexic and they are doing nothing to help him.
To say that this fight has taken a toll on me is a drastic understatement. For two years I've had to listen to elementary school teachers tell me that my child is basically stupid and they can't understand why he doesn't improve with more of the same. I had to find out on my own what dyslexia is, that my kid has it, and what to do to get him help. It has been a long, long, long and very expensive road, and I am only on the beginning of it. For several weeks this fall, there were nights I went completely without sleep, days I went mostly without food, and I became a husk of a person-- feeling like I was only keeping myself alive so I could continue this fight. In every way, I am shredded and empty.
Near the middle of September, Rob ran the Black Squirrel Half Marathon. After the race, I talked to one of his friends, who had also had an IT band injury, and he gave me the contact information of his physical therapist. Her name was Teresa, and she used a technique called Dry Needling. "I've never had an injury she couldn't fix," Rob's friend told me. And I thought, maybe this is it. Maybe I could still salvage the absolute shit show my life had become and make it to the start line of Javelina 100, the race I registered for last May when I thought that everything was going to be fine. I'd been injured for nearly a month, but I had six weeks left to train. If Teresa could fix me right away, maybe I could make it, and maybe my life would mean something again.
I sent her a text. She replied. Her first available appointment was just a few days away, on that coming Tuesday, during the time when I had set up a meeting with Will's teacher and the school "reading specialist" who doesn't even know what the Orton-Gillingham method is. (Note: the Orton-Gillingham method is how dyslexic children must be taught in order to learn how to read. It was invented in 1930).
Rob offered to go to the meeting alone.
I sold my soul to the devil and told Teresa I could take the appointment.
Teresa lives in the mountains. Way, way up in the mountains, like a 50 minute drive away from our house on the absolute edge of town, and she sees people in her home. The last 10 or so miles of the drive are on a dirt road so steep that my Prius started rolling backwards at times. She doesn't deal with insurance, you pay her in cash. You sign a waiver saying that she's explained to you the risks of what could happen if she nicks an artery or nerve with the dry needles. Each appointment costs more money than one of Will's very expensive sessions with his Orton-Gillingham certified dyslexia tutor.
And Teresa is worth every penny.
Sunrise on the long drive up to her house. |
She spent nearly 3 hours with me on that first visit. She figured out that my knee hurt because I have scoliosis. I've always known I had scoliosis and that my back is completely messed up, but what I didn't know was that this messes up my hips, which makes my piriformis pull on my greater trochanter, which pulls on my IT band, and I end up with pain on the outside of my knee. She stuck needles in my piriformis so that it would relax, and she didn't hit any nerves or arteries. It didn't hurt as bad as I expected, but nonetheless, I almost passed out. On one of the sticks, my muscle contracted so strongly that it bent her acupuncture needle.
The day after my appointment, I ran 5 miles. And the day after that, I ran another 7. All pain free. None of this shitty half-mile run, followed by a quarter-mile walk. I was running. For the first time in almost a month, I began to believe I had a chance to make it to Javelina.
My knee started hurting again that weekend, but I made another expensive appointment with Teresa for Tuesday. To hell with all the money we were bleeding out on dyslexia tutoring and physical therapy. I would sell my soul to the devil six times over just to show up to the start line of this race healthy.
I managed a 27 mile trail run that weekend, 5 weeks before the race. I climbed up the thirteen switchbacks on Howards, and then I stood on Westridge, overlooking the mountains and Teresa's house somewhere below. I sobbed. I screamed. I was so, so angry at what my life had become, at my meaningless PhD, at the future my precious child might suffer because the language processing areas of his brain work differently than that of neurotypical people.
This is the place where I come to scream. |
I made it back to my car at the trailhead almost 6 hours after I'd begun. I learned that there is a well of raw strength inside me that is far deeper than I ever thought possible. I had eaten peanut butter pretzels during the run to keep up on calories, but I truly believed that if need be, I could run this entire race fueled by rage alone.
Every run after that was double digits. Every day. I went from zero to 50, 60, and 70 miles a week. I reneged on my beginning-of-the-semester promise to myself that I'd use my time wisely-- develop other courses to teach in the future, keep on top of things in the professionalization workshops I was still in charge of leading. All I did was run, and drive Will to his dyslexia tutoring (a half hour away) after school. If I was going to sell my soul to make it to Javelina, I would sell it all the way.
The family of Will's best friend invited him for a sleepover on the last night of September, and it worked out well for training. I made Rob go with me to Horsetooth Mountain after I dropped Will off, and we ran together for 5 hours in the dark. When most people worry about Javelina, they worry about running in the heat of the day. I was worried about running in the dark, since I've had problems with nausea and migraines after too many hours of that bobbing cone of light from the headlamp. Rob and I worked out the details of battery changes and pacing. At midnight, we stopped for a minute to turn off our lights and look up at the Milky Way. It was October 1st, the day we had met 19 years ago.
19 years ago, I never would have dreamed that one day Rob would make me run up Horsetooth Mountain in the dark. |
I kept running through two more weeks of big miles. My knee held up, and it seemed like a miracle. I gradually stopped worrying and waiting for the ever familiar stab of pain to return. I felt strong and invincible. Then, on what was to be a routine morning 20 miler, there was a sudden burning in my left ankle that I feared could only be explained by a ruptured Achilles. I managed to hobble home, but this knocked me down a dozen notches. It made me remember that no matter how good I was feeling, at any moment, the circumstances could change. If this had happened during the race, I would have had no choice but to drop.
A picture from that run. |
I texted Teresa, but she was out of town. I panicked. I gave it a couple of days, dosed myself up on ibuprofen, used my last pre-paid rossiter appointment, and applied massive amounts of KT tape. By sheer force of will, it held up for one more 82 mile week.
During my last long run of this training cycle, it was 34 degrees and raining. Of all years, this year in Colorado, winter had already begun. This wasn't the best set up for attempting a hundred mile race in the Arizona desert, but it was the best I could do. I reasoned that if peanut butter pretzels and rage could get me through the heat of the day, at least I would be well prepared for the cold of the night once the sun set. It was time to taper.
Last long run out at Lory |
I tapered as hard as I had run. My body was completely beaten up. I'd accomplished everything I'd wanted to during training, but it had been so compressed due to the time I'd taken off for injury. I was ragged, hungry, and jagged skinny. So many other areas of my life had been lacking in attention just to get in the miles, keep up the fight as Dyslexia Mom. My ankle was dodgy at best, and I ran very little during the last two weeks before Javelina.
Pineridge trail, if I squint and add a filter, it looks kind of like the desert. |
On the Monday before the race, I wanted to do one more night run and try out the spare headlamp (i.e., the one I'd use only if something goes terribly wrong with my real headlamp). I felt so terrible on every step of this run. I couldn't quite figure out why.
And then, there it was, the sharp, shooting pain in my right knee.
I made it home, but I completely panicked. It was too late now to try to get in to see Teresa, or another PT, before we left for Arizona. All of this, all of this soul selling, only to be back in the very same place with the very same pain in my knee. Why did this keep happening to me? Why couldn't I just stay healthy?
Rob and his friend Stephen tried to calm me down. Pre-race jitters. It happens every time. How many races have I run, lining up on the start line with a nagging injury, even a stress fracture, and once the gun goes off, everything is fine? All of them, almost all of my ultras I have run with an injury. This too would pass.
I packed my bags like this was still going to happen. After all, the entry fee had been paid months ago. Rob's dad had already driven 1000 miles here to take care of Will while we were gone. There was nothing left to do but show up and hope that I could run through 100 miles of pain.
We left for Phoenix. Every time we got out at a rest stop or gas station, I walked around and my IT band snapped, my knee hurt. My ankle was marginal at best. I thought, you know what, I give myself maybe a 10% chance of finishing this thing. It had happened-- I'd sold every possible soul just to get to the start line, and I didn't have any left to get to the finish.
Thanks for reading. Part 2 to come.
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