Wednesday, December 23, 2015

DNF at TNF

    Uggh.. the dreaded DNF (Did Not Finish), I have been trying to avoid writing about my DNF as much as I have been trying to avoid getting my first DNF. It really seems like a dirty word in the ultra running community, but in all reality it shouldn't be, almost every runner will face one eventually. The important part is what we learn/don't learn from the dreaded DNF, so I will make this brief (just like my race at The North Face 50) and tell you what I learned from my DNF at TNF.
    As some of you might recall when I wrote my last blog entry (Still No Name Needed) I briefly talked of needing to be more confident going into TNF 50. I was confident, maybe to a fault, I wasn't into this race as much as I should have, yes I trained for it but I wasn't mentally prepare for it. I just wasn't in it, hard to explain but I just wasn't as excited for this race as I should have been, don't get me wrong I absolutely love the trails around the Marin Headlands and San Francisco in general, I was excited more for the trip than the race itself.
     Brett, Desirae, Connor and I drove up to Vallejo on Thursday night and stayed with our favorite uncle Mike, the next morning Brett and I took an amazingly scenic and relaxing ferry ride across the bay to Pier 41 in San Francisco. We ate, we drank and we acted a fool through the streets of San Fran, we then got in a quick 5 mile shakeout run at sunset before we made our way to our hotel room for the night. I got up at 3am the next morning to catch a shuttle across the street that took me to the freezing cold start line at Fort Barry.
     After huddling by the fire to stay warm it was off we went at 5 in the morning to start our journey through the headlands by headlamp. I felt really good running through the first 10 miles in the dark and was greeted with an amazing sunrise at Muir beach. I was running great splits and was in awe as the elite runners were flying past me near the turn around point. I ran and talked with all sorts of amazing runners while soaking in the amazing views along the course. Then it happened, mile 25 while starting a technical descent down to Stinson beach along the Matt Davis trail I twisted my ankle. Twisting my ankle is no new problem for me, I have twisted my ankle numerous times during training and a few times during races (including Angeles Crest), sometimes I am able to walk for a few minutes and continue running. Not so much this time around, I walked the whole two miles down to Stinson Beach in pain as I came to the tough realization that I wouldn't be able to run another 23 miles to the finish. So I took a shuttle back to the finish line instead to watch Brett kick ass on a difficult course to finish in 5:58:50!

    Don't get me wrong, I still really enjoyed running around the Marin headlands and I enjoyed the awesome trip up to San Francisco. Yes, I am really bummed about my first ever DNF, it took me a while to process my feeling and thoughts before I could write this blog. The truth is I could have probably finished the race if I hobbled/walked painfully the last 23 miles to a slow miserable finish, but what good would have done for me? Injure me further? Made me pissed about my finish time? Prove I am a "real" runner that never quits? There will be many other races and adventures to come, I didn't quit out of fatigue or lack of fitness, I quit because my ankle sucks. So instead of lamenting on what went wrong I need to focus on how to make things better, how regain strength in my ankles and how to gain back my excitement toward running.
    I enjoy the holidays and as much as I love running I like to take a "break" from running toward the end of the year, taper down some of my volume and intensity to let my body recover from the hard training and racing I had done so far this year, prepare for next year. With No Name 50K, White Bull Trail Series and The North Face 50 Mile all back to back at the end of the year there was no time for a break, it was continuous training from one event to another. I think this over training/racing led to burnout and lack of excitement leading into TNF, In all reality I didn't want to RACE TNF, I just wanted to RUN TNF. Now I have my favorite race of the year at the end of January to train for: The Bandit 50K, I need to focus on this race, set a firm goal and get my excitement back. If I fail to do so, a dreaded DNF might be in the cards for Bandit! No f'ing way I will let that happen, so I shall propose this; a sub 4:30, perhaps that will be good enough to break my 3rd place streak at the Bandit, until then a beer to drown my sorrows and a trail to run...