I guess the telling story came from the plane ride to Vermont. Sitting next to my great friend Jon Docs on the tarmac at the Tampa airport. Jon says to me, hey we're at 8 feet of elevation. He has an altimeter on his watch, he wasn't guessing. This was on the plane, the wheels must have been at sea level or below.
I tell that story so I can tell this one. Hope Pass at Leadville goes to almost 13,000 feet. Leadville is the nation's highest (altitudinaly speaking) incorporated city in the USA. It made a huge difference.
But, I am proud of my effort. I kept going as long as they let me. I kept going even when I knew there was no chance of making the time cut-off. I kept going even thought the altitude had reduced me to one minute of walking 30 seconds of rest. I kept going even when I was dizzy and had to lay down (no nap, more like avoiding passing out.) I kept going after the time cut-off had passed. I kept going until search and rescue found me and cut off my wrist band.
I'll write a report later, but just so you know, I'm fine, I'm happy, I really exciting about skipping Wasatch (no way I'm putting myself through that torture twice in a month) and I'm excited about tackling Arkansas (I want to see if I can still do relatively well on a fairly flat no altitude course).
Thank you all for your huge support, I didn't think I'd fail, but I went down swinging and I learned it's the journey, that's the stuff.
AndyMan
11 comments:
Andy, you are the Man.
A-man, you are the Andy.
Tough race...I scoured the Internet all night looking for updates from anyone and about anyone just to have an idea of what the race and the weather was like. I'm still amazed at how far you made it despite the Croom altitude training.
So now that you're all fired up about Arkansas and I'm back livin' in the south does this mean we get to spend the wee hours of the morning on the trails again?
...oh yeah...I also scoured the internet all night becasue I heard there were boobs on there...
It's true. I've seen boobs on the Internet AND off of the Internet.
-Dean Karnazes
I couldn't have done it....
You're THE-man, A-man!
Arlene, most of us would not have even tried!
I made the deal and would have gone to Wasatch, but heck, I was worried about being able to pace at that altitude. I wish you were still "in the slam" but I'm kinda happy about getting out of Wasatch!
I'll catch up with you in a few weeks at Croom...
Yeah... the weather. Um, The Weather Channel website said it wasn't that bad. Stupid Weather Channel website.
and, let's see. 186 finishers out of 561 entrants. Shoot, that's less than a 1/3 completion rate (.331508021390734, give or take). Brother, you were not alone.
Andy gave it all he had, trust me, I sort of thought he was going to keel over, yet he propelled himself forward over the top of Hope Pass ... btw, the view is awesome, thanks to the absence of those pesky oxygen molecules ...
Good show, Aman ..
We'll still love you, Andy, whether you run 400 miles or 4.
And Fay wants to welcome you home! What is it with you and bad weather???
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