Concussions and BoSho

The last two weeks have been mildly turbulent in life and on the trail. For no good reason at all I have been in a foul mood. I am unable to muster much positivity and have had to really push myself to get up and get going.

 

I visited my chiropractor to get adjusted after the ski crash. After a detailed account she was sure that I was concussed. She mentioned that the pink substance that had drained from my nose was indeed spinal fluid. I have had no headaches but am consistent with other symptoms of a concussion. Mood swings, trouble sleeping, dizziness are all things that I have experienced more than usual in the last two weeks. I am not convinced that I have or had a concussion but it would explain a lot as to my training.

 

Last Saturday I decided to shoot for 15 BoSho miles. The shoreline is so great this time of year and offers a great variety of terrain. I started my run at Hogle Zoo heading North. I felt great for the first 5 miles. I was running a 7.5 mile out and back and really had to dig deep in the last 2.5 miles of the out. I stopped and walked a few times and while walking convinced myself that my heart is not in it yet. Maybe it wasn't.

 

A turn around on an out and back is always a great refreshment. As I turned around I started to find my stride again. Running strong down Dry Creek. I slugged through the mileage from Dry Creek to Red Butte. It was at Red Butte that I ran into Jeff Stowell and QB. Seeing them lifted my spirits and we were all able to finish strong. Jeff had some chocolate milks in his cooler that he shared. They chased all my blues away.

 

Tuesday night I played on Grandeur for a bit and had my first great spill of the season. I bloodied up my leg good!

 

Saturday was the BoSho Marathon. The BSM is a great bandit event in SLC. The ultra community all meets up for a run of 26.2. The entry fee is whatever you would like to contribute to the aid station. The aid station is placed at mile 9 and you also catch it at mile 21.

 

My plans for this years BSM were to see how it goes. My fitness is not where I want it and my head/heart are still in training as well. If I could get 18 miles minimum I would be happy.

 

I ran the first 6 miles with Matt Bennett, my boss from work. He is a strong athlete and ran a great race. I felt really good through the first four miles. I felt stronger in the climbs than I did on anything runnable. The climb up Dry Creek was good and I was even able to pass three people on the Unkle Effer climb. I ran walked down to the 8.5 mile mark. I got more and more light headed. I decided to lay down for a minute. I laid in the grass for about 5 minutes and felt much better. I made my way into the aid station with the plan of putting myself back together working in my mind.

 

While in the aid station I had a coke, cookie and three handfuls of potato chips. The nice aid station worker accidentally doused my pack with water while filling my pack. Everything was wet. I left feeling like I was going to have to dig deep for the next few hours. No matter what tactic I tried I could not get my head right. There was not a positive thought in there.

 

I ran well down into City Creek and began my climb up toward North Salt Lake. I love me some good switchbacks and felt pretty good in the climbs. As was the entire day the climbs were not my issue.

 

At the 12.5 mile mark I was met by an amazing lookout point. I decided to take advantage of it and sat down and enjoyed the view for a few moments. This is why I like to do all of this.

 

I stood back up and began to weigh my options. I had been shooting for a sub 7 hour finish. As I stood right now I was about right on pace for that calculating about a minute per mile fade. I knew what was ahead and I knew what was behind. The previous year I had run out of water at the top of the Meridian climb and had to limp back to the aid station that they were packing up. I had barely caught them in time to fill up my water.  Thinking of that I decided to turn around and head back. I had calculated that my total mileage on the day would be 20 ish miles.

 

I descended the switchbacks and made my way back down into City Creek. The climb out of City Creek was my best of the day. Some of the leaders were coming back through and I was able to hold serve with them in the climb. I recognize that they had 6 miles on me but I climbed it well.

 

I re-entered the aid station and had another Coke and a handful of chips. I realized that eating those chips was the first food I had eaten in almost an hour and a half. That was a huge mistake. I have to figure out my nutrition. Nothing sounded even remotely edible.

 

For the first time of the day the climb out of the aid station hurt. I fought my way all of the way back up to the main shoreline trail. I ran into QB and Kara and they saved my bacon. They made a Mark sandwich, Kara in front pacing, me in the middle and , QB pushing from the back. We ran to the top of Dry Creek. I thanked them for their help and let them go so they could bomb the descent of Dry Creek. I shuffled my way down hill. I have now been going for three hours on only a coke and some chips. As I climbed out of Dry Creek I saw QB and Kara only a few hundred yards ahead. They saw me and waited for me to join them. The three of us ran the last 1 mile to the finish line.

 

My day ended up being 20.5 miles in just over 6 hours. It was a long good day. I struggled mightily. It was a great wake up call on how far I need to go to get this done this year. I am more aware than ever that I need to get my race nutrition figured out. I will be experimenting a lot over the next few weeks.