Yesterday I ran from Morat to Fribourg in a race with 17,000 other people. One of them was wearing a 34kg suit of armour. Most were in shorts and t-shirts as you’d expect. The challenge for me, wasn’t to race. It was to run the distance, without exhausting myself, without pain, and without pushing myself to the limit.
This is a success because less than a year ago if I ran 200m my knees hurt, so gradually I built up my stamina, until I reached 5km and more with time. In so doing I gave my body time to adapt to the stress of running, reducing the likelihood of injury and more.
It’s amusing because the run is with a large starting group but you don’t run with others, you run with yourself. If I had tried to run with others then I would have blown up and suffered. By running at my own pace I managed well. What is worth noting is that because I’m a hiker, when I got tired I walked uphill. When I walk uphill though, I walk fast. I was too tired to run, but my fatigue was only for running. In the hills I was overtaking people that were walking. I was keeping up with people that were running.
I walked because I saw my heart reach the red zone and I didn’t want to reach into that zone too long. I didn’t want to exhaust myself. I wanted the effort to be sustainable. It was.
It’s funny because I was slow for my age, and for part of the runners, but I rarely run 17km and to boot it was almost all uphill and that surprised me. From the way people described it I expected the final hill to be a challenge, but for the rest to be flat undulating roads.
It wasn’t. It was long sustained uphills followed by downhills, followed by more uphills, followed by more uphills, and then arriving to the finish.
It is funny to do such a run because you head uphill, and you see a mass of runners ahead of you, and you see how long the climb is. You need good uphill endurance on this course.
For weeks ahead of the run I thought it was 200-300m of climbing but it isn’t. It is 380 so you need good endurance, first for the amount of climbing, and secondly for the distance.
I succeeded in three respects. I got the time I was planning to get. I had no concerns about my knees and finally, most importantly I didn’t exhaust myself. I could have continued running, or trying to, but I suspect that I would have suffered far more today.
One of my secondary requirements for success was to be able to walk and more normally today, and I can. I did not want to be one of those people that you see limping at the end of the Barcelona, Munich or other events.
The experience was good and I would repeat it.
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