To say I was under-trained for Knee Knacker this past Saturday is an understatement.To say I was prepared for those race day conditions is a down and out blasphemous lie. I knew coming into this race that I was really going to be pushing the cutoff times, even more so than the previous year. To be injured for 6 months, bounce back, then get knocked back down to the ground by one injury after another, I just didn't have enough solid trail time to be prepared. But you can still hope that everything will line up perfectly on race day and just go out there and give it your all. That was my plan. I wasn't stressed about the cutoff times. I would just give it all I had and do the best I could. What more can you ask for, besides having race day conditions that don't lead to a nickname #yearofthesquall?
The forecast was for showers until noon. Instead, we had 80% of the monthly average for July in the 3 hours leading up to the race start. 28.4mm of rain between 3 am and 6 am. And it didn't stop there. But this is North Vancouver and we train in rain all year long. This is nothing new, or so I thought. I knew there were several runnable sections in that initial 4000 foot climb to Black Mountain and my goal was to run whenever I could without draining myself so early in the race. I had my Nuun hat to keep the water from dripping down my face and my North Face Ultra-Lite Waterproof Short Sleeved Jacket, so the pouring rain wasn't a factor in that sense. I was wet and a little bit filthy, but nothing out of the ordinary by the time I'd reached the Eagle Bluffs. And then I hit the mud of Cypress. I felt like I was 6 again, playing in the mud. I was on a high and loved splashing from one mud puddle to the next. The normally scrambly switchbacks down to the Cypress Aid Station weren't so scrambly after all that rain. So I flew down them into the aid fired up and laughing. Tom let me pass thru because of this energy. I grabbed some watermelon, emptied my shoes of rocks for the first of many times and went on my way.
The way my body played out in this race, I came to the simplest conclusion. I need to take care of me, first and foremost. So Squamish is off the table. I need to work on healing my body completely and then healthily building up my mileage, rather than trying to cram in the training for 130km over 2 days within the next month. It would be stupid to risk another year of running for one weekend of racing. It's time to break out the NUUN bike jersey (arriving in TWO MORE DAYS!!!) and build up some leg strength. It's time to rediscover my love for yoga. And most importantly, it's time to run for joy instead of spending so much of the run focused on my injured legs and how they're feeling at every turn.
I need to thank Andrew Flynn & Jessie Wong at the Physio Room for making it even possible to line up at the start line. They not only waved the magic wand to take the pain away, they gave me the tools to keep the pain from returning. I go to both the Oak Street location and the Main Street location and cannot recommend either enough. To find a PT where you get one on one time your entire appointment is critical. To find this with people you genuinely like and trust with your body, is out of this world.
And thank you to Team Nuun for the constant support and love. Not only have you kept me hydrated in all my endeavors, you've invited me into the most supportive community I've ever been a part of. It's like having a 600+ Cheer Squad following you wherever you go.