The Wall

The Wall. Not the Pink Floyd album. Not the trippy movie starring Bob Geldoff. (As far as Pink Floyd goes, I am partial to The Dark Side of the Moon and "Live from Pompeii.") And not the Berlin Wall. No, today's post is about hitting The Wall. That point of exhaustion so great, and so severe and so... special, that runners have given it a special name. It's not the usual, normal ache or fatigue or pain. That's just part of running. No, this is a special feeling. Where your body screams, "What are you crazy, man?!?! Stop what you're doing before you kill us!" Where your physical ability to keep going is gone, and the only way you can keep going is through sheer will and determination. I hit The Wall today. I hit it hard. And it hit me back. Bill and I decided to do a 12 miler this day. The high was forecast to be about 115. It had been blast furnace-hot all week, so the overnight low probably wouldn't get down much below 85. Blech! We met at Granada Park at about 4:30 AM. After a little stretching and pre-run hydration, we headed east. The out was pretty uneventful. We got to see the sun come up over Camelback Mountain, and a spectacular sunrise it was. Our turnaround point was Herberger Park. There were some sprinklers going, so we got to cool off a bit. I also got to use the restroom and refill my water bottles. The trip back is where it got interesting. The first couple miles were fine. But then the sun came up over the horizon and really started pounding us. I had on a visor, but it didn't help much. Over the next mile, I started feeling woozy, and lightheaded. When we crossed 48th St., I took a short walk break. When we crossed 44th St., I took a little longer walk break. I started feeling worse and worse. At one point between 48th St. and Camelback Rd., I thought I might vomit. But I kept plugging along, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. When we got to Camelback Rd., I had had enough. We walked across Camelback, and then for a couple minutes thereafter. The thought of running any more just seemed like a laughable proposition. I told Bill to go ahead-- no sense in him spending any more time in that godawful heat than he had too. He went on ahead, and finished our run in a decent enough time. I spent the last 3 miles struggling to even jog. I fell in behind a guy that was running at a manageable pace, but I could only stay with him for a 1/4 mile or so before I had to walk again. Even the time-tested trick of just trying to make it that pole or that tree didn't work. Eventually, I made it back to where we started. I wasn't disappointed. Rather, I was honored to meet The Wall, and to see what happens when you hit it. I'm sure I'll run into it again. And when I do, I'll be more prepared.... Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 0 ft Location: Phoenix, AZ Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/21/08 Up/Downhill: [+0/-0] Time: 05:42 AM Difficulty: 0 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 11.70 miles Time: 2:00:08 Speed: 5.8 mph Pace: 10' 16 /mi Calories: 1966 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 19 -0' 57 6.4 +0.6 -- ft 2 9' 26 -0' 50 6.3 +0.5 -- ft 3 9' 30 -0' 46 6.3 +0.5 -- ft 4 9' 28 -0' 48 6.3 +0.5 -- ft 5 10' 04 -0' 12 6.0 +0.1 -- ft 6 10' 06 -0' 10 5.9 +0.1 -- ft 7 16' 37 +6' 21 3.6 -2.2 -- ft 8 10' 01 -0' 15 6.0 +0.1 -- ft 9 10' 59 +0' 43 5.5 -0.4 -- ft 10 12' 45 +2' 29 4.7 -1.1 -- ft 11 11' 57 +1' 41 5.0 -0.8 -- ft end 12' 01 +1' 45 5.0 -0.9 -- ft Versus average of 10' 16 min/mile

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