Something’s Gotta Give: A Contemplation of Quitting
Commentary: Notes on the Girdwood Trails Marathon
Racers take off in the 5K event during Saturday’s Girdwood Trails Marathon. (Photo by Briana Sullivan)
By Brian Pautzke
On Saturday I leveled a threat. This might be my last Girdwood Trails Marathon.
My declaration was long mulled. All five kilometers of the 5K loop absolutely broke me. Bad is seeing downhills and recoiling spiritually and physically. My quads had been devastated by what amounts to their yearly surprise party; a sabotage with wicked recoil.
When I am broken I use a strategy I read about, walk 10 strides, jog 10 strides, repeat, seek to increase jog strides over time. All this is on the backdrop of the knowledge that if you have the legs, the 5k loop is straightforward compared to the rest of the race.
It arrives at an inopportune time of the race, it is late in the race, miles 21 to 24. The 5k is a special runners’ torture where up and down are put on repeat for three miles and you end up where you started.
I had time to think about how much fun I was not having and the broken quads sent a subtle signal saying, “We can only do 20 miles, 26 is too much. Maybe it’s time to enjoy the half marathon.”
Watching the leaders fly by is an earned privilege. You have to run fast enough to get to the Upper Winner Creek Extension, miles 14 to 21, out and back before they take their left hand turn back towards the hotel. It is a point of pride to get to see those men and women absolutely flying down the trail. Beautiful.
In all 74 runners finished the marathon, 216 completed the half marathon, eight ran in the kids’ half marathon, and the 5k, new this year, had 61 runners.
Scott Patterson took the top honors in the marathon with another fella, Galen Hecht only a couple of minutes behind. These guys averaged 7:35 minutes/mile over a just terrifyingly-difficult trail.
The women’s winner is Yvonne Jeschke running a remarkable 8:36 pace for a 3:45 finish time.
The locals represented well.
In third overall for women, one spot behind Shauna Severson, is the Girdwood Grizzlies’ best, Lauren Fritz. A sweet time of 4:12 in a well done effort.
With a fine effort on a bum knee, Emily Pearson earned 9th for the women. Way to represent!
Sadly, I scanned the finisher’s list only to find out that those two are the only G’wood ladies to represent the host town. As a community, we need to do better! Bonus, if you run as fast as Emily, you get to pass me on the 5k loop. Picture limp-along-elk versus grizzly bear.
Only five Girdwood men managed to show up to the start line. I guess I owe the ladies an apology, Five is not that much more than two.
Girdwood men finished with a powerful trio of talent: Leif Mumma in 6th, overall, at 4:00, then John Wros, 7th overall, at 4:08, and Soren Wuerth, 10th overall, at 4:24.
The race doesn’t do age categories, I know Soren doesn’t want any shine for age category, but the dude is 61 and absolutely laying down good times year after year. He is an age group record holder in my books.
Speaking of organizers, hats off to Brian Burnett, Deb Essex and Briana Sullivan, and loads of volunteers who have their own records of pulling this thing off for 11 years, finding sponsors and arranging food donations, and keeping up aid stations, and the delicious soup and Great Harvest cookies, the gels, the pumpkins for the winners—the “awesome sauce” that keeps us running.
Then there was longtime local runner John Hellen, 59, coming in 15th overall and who, in 30 years, has run 50,000 miles—the equivalent of running around the world—twice!. Hellen was a smooth operator again this year, representing Girdwood with a nice time of 4:39.
Then there’s me, last Girdwood guy, the last Girdwood coed. And the only person alive who’s raced every one of the damn things.
Something’s gotta give.
Either I am destined for the half marathon, or I change in some way that allows me to finish the race like I used to.
A race debrief with Soren concluded with “Dare I say it, kind of a rookie move” after I described how I did not eat until Mile 18, did not drink more than one water bottle, did not use salt tabs nor Ibuprofen, all requisite practices of a distance runner. The routines I had used for years running Crow Pass.
The whole race is timed out with supplying your body with energy, hydration and pain-relief, and I didn’t do any of it.
I was running well and feeling good, until I wasn’t.
So that is the low hanging fruit, just go back to best practices. Another best practice is to run longer training runs, I didn’t do that either.
Something’s gotta give.
But I don’t think it’s me.
Time to get back to the basics and get ready for next year.
For complete race results, check skigirdwood.org, or click here.
