Jeff vs. The Bear

One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite movies, goes: "A wiser man than me once said, sometimes you eat the b'ar and, well, sometimes the b'ar eats you." The Stranger (played by Sam Elliott) said that in the Cohen brothers' The Big Lebowski, a movie I can't watch without laughing out loud. Three weeks ago Barry and I ran 12 miles in the humidity and I didn't drink enough fluids, The Bear definitely ate me. The last 2 weeks, when I ran long runs in the crazy heat and humidity of the Arizona summer and finished strong, I ate The Bear. We would see who would come out on top today.... Bill is back running with Barry and I again after helping his stepdad train for and successfully complete his first half marathon. Congrats again! We talked about running 9 or 10 or 12 or 13 miles (which meant that we would probably be running 13). Bill said he definitely wanted to ease back into it since he had been running at a slower pace for a month. After dropping off some water and Gatorade at 12th St. (the turnaround for an 11-miler)-- and dropping a bottle of water into the canal, I met up with Bill and Barry at Barry's house. I queued up the latest Podrunner mix, the insanely high tempo 177 BPM Fastigium mix. It wasn't one of my favorites, because I'm more of a fan of stuff in the 130-150 BPM range. About 10 steps into the run, I felt a sharp-ish pain in my calf. A pain like that usually goes away pretty quickly. This one didn't. As we got to the Bridle Path, the pain was becoming pretty noticeable. Bill seemed to be relishing the ability to run at a quicker pace, so he streaked ahead. Barry settled in not too far behind. Knowing that there was a long run ahead, I stuck to my 9:10 pace. That was pretty good considering how bad my calf felt. By the time we got to the canal, Bill was FLYING. He was a good 1/4 mile ahead of me. So much for "taking it easy." :) Barry was pretty far ahead, too, but he stopped and jogged back to meet me and we ran together for a few miles. We all ran by the 5 1/2 mile point without even pausing. 11 miles?!?! Bah! We passed the 6 mile point without stopping, either. 12 miles?!?! What are we, amateurs? As I got to the 6 1/2 mile turnaround, I finally caught up to Bill who had stopped to stretch a bit. I turned around and headed back toward our fluids. When I got to 12th St., I took care of some... business. Barry and Bill arrived shortly thereafter. We chitchatted and rehydrated for a couple minutes and then headed back out. The rest didn't make my leg feel any better. In fact, it was pretty well throbbing at this point. I was a little worried that I might be doing some damage. It didn't seem to be getting any worse, so I figured I would continue to wrestle The Bear. As we reached the end of the canal and turned onto the Bridle Path, Barry saw a fellow who was running at a faster pace and he ran to keep up with him. Bill stayed with me for a while. As I crossed Glendale Ave., the pain in my leg was pretty intense. I walked for a hundred yards or so. "This just isn't my day, I thought." But then I thought, "This too shall pass," and started running again. Damn Bear! For the rest of the run, my pace wasn't the quickest, but I also never stopped to walk again despite an overwhelming urge to do so. As I crossed Missouri St., my spirits lifted and my pace quickened. I kept up a 8:15 - 8:30 pace for the last mile or so. My leg continued to throb. It felt like the kind of pain that wasn't going to lead to an injury, so I fought through it and kept up that pace through the end of the run. I finished with my best time for the 13-mile distance. Today I ate The Bear. He had his teeth sunk firmly into my backside and had every intention of finishing me off, but I managed to tear loose and devour him whole. Hah! A post-run swim and a huge breakfast of eggs, sausage and toast helped me recover. As Moab draws closer, I'm feeling more and more ready to finish with a good time. I put a compression wrap on my calf and took some Ibuprofen, and my leg felt good as new by the afternoon. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1211 ft Location: Phoenix, AZ Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 09/06/08 Up/Downhill: [+141/-141] Time: 06:09 AM Difficulty: 3.2 / 5.0 Weather: A Few Clouds 85 F temp; 29% humidity 82 F heat index; winds E 9 Performance Distance: 13.02 miles Time: 1:58:56 Speed: 6.6 mph Pace: 9' 08 /mi Calories: 2006 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 46 +0' 38 6.1 -0.4 +19 ft 2 9' 23 +0' 15 6.4 -0.2 +26 ft 3 9' 17 +0' 09 6.5 -0.1 +29 ft 4 9' 07 -0' 01 6.6 +0.0 +19 ft 5 9' 12 +0' 04 6.5 -0.1 +3 ft 6 9' 07 -0' 01 6.6 +0.0 0 ft 7 8' 34 -0' 34 7.0 +0.4 -4 ft 8 17' 20 +8' 12 3.5 -3.1 +3 ft 9 9' 31 +0' 23 6.3 -0.3 -7 ft 10 9' 12 +0' 04 6.5 -0.1 -19 ft 11 9' 12 +0' 04 6.5 -0.1 -26 ft 12 9' 39 +0' 31 6.2 -0.4 -26 ft 13 9' 08 +0' 00 6.6 -0.0 -19 ft end ** ** ** ** ** ft Versus average of 9' 08 min/mile ** Insufficient data to calculate this split

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