Foot Traffic Flat Race Report

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This race was 100% impulse sign up the second I got the OK from the doctor that I wasn’t going to drop dead from my heart condition. 


Not being allowed to stand on my own for over a day made me feel like I needed to get outside and be alive again. My hospital episode was on June 16/17 and the next available race was July 4th. So I went for it.


Of course the race was sold out but they had a limited number of bibs at packet pick up, so I took time off work to get to the shoe store (foot traffic is a local chain of stores that organized the race) to get one. 


My training block is basically blown to bits and I was battling some runners knee in my right leg but I was going to will myself to run this race. 


I had yet another setback when I tweaked my lower back moving a mattress the day before. It was so stiff that I had to take some ibuprofen, stretch, and spend 45 minutes in a salt bath. My back was so stiff, I had trouble even getting in and out of bed!


Didn’t matter. I was going to run that stupid race. 


I couldn’t sleep, so I just got up 3 am, got dressed, got all my gear and nutrition together, and left the house around 4:30, getting me to the venue at 5:15. On the recommendation from the guy at packet pickup, there’s a single two lane road that gets you in or out and I you get there around 6 am, then you’re going to get stuck in traffic (marathon starts at 6:15, HM starts at 6:30)


Anywho, I get there with plenty of time to do a few warmup stretches and even a few short strides and skips. 


I line up with the 2:15 pacer, not knowing how my knee or back would hold up. The lady sized me up and was like “sir, the 1:45 and 2 hour pace groups are over there”


Not gonna lie, I felt a little flattered. I explained to her my situation and she still didn’t really believe me. I told her about my knee but didn’t really want to get into the whole heart situation. “you can start with us, but I’m pretty sure you can catch the 2 hour group easy.” Thus that became my impromptu race plan. 


The race starts and this time I really make the effort to “stay in my lane” and hobby jog it at 10 minute miles for the first few miles. It’s not like I had much of a choice anyways since long distance races are always crowded at the beginning. This race was no different and I was boxed in at all sides anyways. I didn’t to not worry too much and just go with the flow.


By the 2nd mile I knew the 2:15 pacer was right because a 2:15 HM implies a 10:15 mile pace and I was already going at a sub 10 minute mile pace once the crowds dispersed a bit. 


I said goodbye to the 2:15 pacer ladies and kept it pretty easy the the rest of the way. At times my knee would give me discomfort but I would monitor just cruise along— a little discomfort I could ignore but if it got worse I’d back off. 


About 10 miles in im within striking distance of the 2 hour gang. By then I think it was just two pacers and 2 or three other people. The pacer I talked to, aside from his yellow pacer singlet wore just a Speedo and a bow tie. 


“So is it suns out guns out today?”

“Nah man, it’s suns out BUNS OUT”


I figure I’d leave his picture out of this blog post since I didn’t expressly ask for his permission. I doubt he would have minded considering how he dressed. 


We shoot the breeze a little bit and I explained to them my knee issue — I had secured my kneecap with some KT tape and making sure it was going to hold up— and if it did hold up, then I’d try to kick the last mile into the finish. 


By mile 12, my knee still felt the same so I sent it to the end. I had plenty of gas in the tank! Not going to lie, it felt good passing a good 20 people as I burst through to the finish line. After spending a weekend in the hospital just a few weeks prior, this feeling is exactly what I needed. 




Official time was 1:56:09



Takeaways:


  • It wasn’t a mistake that I was basically wearing the same clothes as i was wearing to the concert where I passed out. It was a way of telling myself that I still had agency in my life. Whatever I could control, I was going to control it. If it’s beyond my control, I’m not going to worry about it. I’m not going to let something like Brugada scare me out of living my life. If i do have it, then bring on the ICD. I’ll just be a really poor version of Iron Man with no special powers.  
  • My time wasn’t a PR by any means. I was just happy to be outside again and going sub 2 hours was a nice bonus. I wasn’t trained for it and I was just wearing my plain old daily trainers to prevent myself from doing anything stupid. I think the zero drop of my Altra shoes is slightly friendlier for my knees anyways.
    • *the drop of a shoe refers to the difference in height of the shoe from heel to toe. Most running shoes (Nike, etc) will have a drop distance of 8-10mm, which makes you lean slightly forward and encourages you to “roll” into the next phase of the running cycle. Altra brand shoes have a reputation of basically having none of that and all their shoes are dead flat and even a little bit boxy to give your toes room to splay and your feet to run more naturally. In theory, this forces your feet to get stronger. In practice this also makes you run much slower in comparison to shoes with modern  technology. 
  • Dynamic stretches and warmup drills are a must for races. It’s key to injury prevention, especially when you’re currently fighting off an injury. 
  • Easing my way into the race for the first 20 minutes or so was the best thing for me! It let my knees and my back warm up a little bit before I put a bunch of stress on my body. Racing is a skill, and allowing the crowds to naturally separate is a valid race strategy (as opposed to listening to your instinct to try to burst ahead of the main pack right from the get-go).
  • My nutrition plan worked great! I made my own energy gel and put it in a neoprene flask. Customized it to exactly what I needed to my taste preferences. No need for store bought Gu anymore. I’ll post about my home made Gu in a future post. 
  • During the entire race it was a matter of monitoring all the different systems in my body. I prefer checking into my body parts, such as my heart rate, breathing, thirst levels, and running form every few minutes. If I’m in some sort of discomfort or pain, I process the information and make adjustments in pace or even stop and walk if it’s pain and I need to back off. Discomfort is ok, pain is not, and an experienced runner knows the difference.
  • When I’m not doing a systems check, times I zone out and just enjoy the scenery. Even other times I just randomly strike up conversations with other runners. The best is when those other runners are pacers and aren’t allowed to get away from you if you want to keep pace and infodump on them. Muahahahaha
  • My next race is the Hood to Coast. Time to recover and build up to the relay :) 



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