Ran the Indy Mini Marathon last weekend. Beautiful weather. Usually starts out cold and everyone has to wear long sleeve 'throw away' shirts that you must dodge in the opening mile. Not this year. It was humid - which never seems to phase me. Even after a pretty good drinking night at the Vogue two nights earlier I felt mostly hydrated, as I ate the ice from my Vodka tonics as to be in top form. I had an OK run. I was repeating my normal mantra "all systems go" as I continually assess heart rate, quad, calf pain, foot strike, etc. Everything was fine until mile 8 when I planned to bust my move. Exactly at the mile marker I got a cramp in my right calf. "The right calf" I thought, "that's like old reliable. Never fails. The left is my Achilles". Age. And lack of training. So I had a code red cramp. Within a few strides I had to stop and sit down! It's hard to really go for it when you're sitting down in a running race. I quickly tried to rub out the ball of pain and then got back on my feet. Then it was Kosovo pace. No disrespect to Kosovo, in the least, or the pain those people had to endure - but I once had a running friend say to me something about Kosovo. People had to flee that country and literally run for miles to get away from the conflict. Running for their lives.
All I had to do was run for five more miles with a code red burner in my right calf. So I put things in Kosovo perspective and just kept on going. I think my pace may have quickened a bit near the end - like a horse heading for the finish line.
When you can see the end goal you can endure a lot of pain.
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