Two Wheel Blogs

It was the best of days. It was the worst of days.

Well, "worst" is an overstatement. But the day began on a high note and, had the weather cooperated, would have ended on an even higher one. As it turns out, we knew the odds, and we took a chance, but it worked out against us.

First, the good part...

I ran the Mud Mountain 5K cross country race at the SIU-Edwardsville course. I'd only run this race once before, back in 2005. At that time, I was in the early stages of the knee injury that would force me to stop running three months later. Already impaired, I managed to cover the course in 22 minutes and change. I missed medaling, finishing 4th for my age group. Eventually, my knee injury would get worse. Physical therapy, injections, arthoscopic surgery -- I tried everything, and nothing worked. Reluctantly, painfully, I had to accept that I might never be able to run again.

The "last resort" option was major knee surgery, a operation I had in August 2008. In July of 2009, I took my first awkward steps to see if I might be able to run again. And this morning, for the first time in five long years, I was on the Start line for the race.

It was hot. The starting gun went off at 8:00 a.m., and it was at least 80 degrees -- and really humid. I told myself to take it easy and go out slow. Still, it was hard to resist getting caught up in the river of runners. It was, after all, a race, and the goal is to put people behind you and keep them there. So, despite my best intentions, I probably went out faster than I should have. Still, it felt good to be running.

Mile 1: 7:06

The first mile ends with the first climb. Once I reached the top, I tried to re-establish my pace and recover. In the middle of the second mile is a wicked hill. It's like the Energizer Bunny: it just keeps going and going. This was really a struggle. I climbed it, slowly, but I climbed it. Once at the top, I recovered what was left of my pace and pushed on. Two down, one to go.

Mile 2: 7:34

The third mile starts with a nice downhill, a reward for having gotten survived the Mile 2 hill. Of course, as soon as you're at the bottom, you immediately pay for it with the third major hill of the course. In terms of length and steepness, it's not as bad as the Mile 2 hill. But as you are more tired at this point in the race, it really hurts. I dragged myself up it as quickly as I could -- in other words, slowly -- knowig that in about six minutes, all of this would be over. I pushed on. Running through the woods, I felt exhausted. I just wanted to get to the bike trail, then the short uphill that leads to the homestretch, a 600-meter straightaway to the Finish. I knew I should pick up the pace, but just keeping moving was enough of a struggle. Still, I dug deep to pull up whatever was left. I wouldn't call it a "kick," but I ran as hard as I crossed the Finish line.

Mile 3: 7:48

My time was 23:10, a 7:28/mile pace. I finished 148th overall and 2nd for my age group. I know that medals are just trinkets, most of which end up in drawers. But I gotta tell you, getting a medal today meant a lot to me. I am just grateful to be able to do what I can do. Being able to do it -- that's all that matters.

Now, the not so good part...

On occasion, I've biked up to Litchfield, while my wife and son drive up to meet me there. We then eat dinner at the A&W/Long John Silver's (fish tacos = yum!) and then go to the Skyview Drive-In theatre. Tonight, we invited friends of ours -- Scott and Lindsey Shaw and their son, Rory -- to go with us. They had run the Mud Mountain race that morning, too, with Scott taking 2nd in the 45-49 age group with a time of 20:36. Scott and I set out for Litchfield a little after 6:00 p.m.

We'd seen the forecast, and we knew there were thunderstorms moving through the area. We knew there was a chance -- okay, a strong likelihood -- that we would get rained on, but we decided to give it a try in hopes of getting lucky. We rode the bike trails from Edwardsville towards Staunton. It was still warm when we set out, and we had a southerly tailwind pushing us along. As we approached Staunton, the wind shifted. We headed east briefly, then turned north onto historic Route 66. As we did, we also saw lightning flashes to the northwest. This was not a good sign. As we rode on, it began to rain. Then it began to rain heavily.

As we got closer to Litchfield, the rain did begin to let up, but the lightning continued. The sky would continue to be charged all night. We were very glad to get to the restaurant and to change into some dry clothes. And, despite the weather, we went on to the drive-in to see TOY STORY 3. Or rather, to hear TOY STORY 3. It rained throughout the evening, so we had to watch the movie through a rain-splattered windshield. We couldn't always see well, but from what we heard, TOY STORY 3 was a fitting wrap-up to the series.

We plan to do another trip to the drive-in later this summer, sometime when the double feature is good and, most important, when the forecast shows no rain in a five-state region.