running of the beavers ~ a mooving race report

not a beaver.

my mom and her brother grew up on a farm.

they were raised, i surmise, by parents who had neither time nor tolerance for whiny children.

i say this because when i was a kid, any time i would show insufficient courage over a scraped knee, or a raccoon on the farmhouse roof, or getting bucked off an actual calf, one of them would call me a "big calf."

"it's a long way from your heart, ya big calf."

"it's not going to hurt you, you big calf."

"you know what you sound like? a big calf."

and so forth.

i'm sure they thought they were helping me.
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fast forward a few decades, i'm now four-plus weeks into a running-related calf injury. every time i go out to run, in addition to an underlying concern about re-injury, i can still hear that old farm philosophy (OFP): it's a long way from your heart, ya big calf.

while true, physiologically, this observation is not particularly helpful, running-wise.

rather than defer to charming OFP stoicism, i engaged in some new-farm pragmatism: when in doubt, google it.

an overview of the medical literature tells me that regardless of their proximity to the heart, calf injuries can adversely affect running! 

i also learned that "old man's calf" is a thing, and it's sometimes related to the plantaris muscle/tendon, which i didn't even know existed!

(unaddressed in any of these studies is the negative effect on sanity experienced by not-running runners. i ran just 16 days in march, including a stretch of eight consecutive zero-days. insanity level: bananas.)

semi-related: for the second time in four years i was unable to run the chuckanut 50k. this is dismaying for several reasons, not the least of which is the $95 down the drain.

tangentially related: i'm signed up for the sun mountain 50k in may, the backcountry rise 50k in early september, and a very theoretical 100-miler in late september. none of these events will be run (by me) without lots of base-building on a healthy calf.

ergo, about a week ago i decided my calf was healed. don't @ me.

after a few days of cautious, mostly comfortable short runs, i ran a slow 10 miles last wednesday, an even slower 6 miles thursday, and a sloth-like 3-mile hike with the dogs on friday.

saturday i ran long. and ran a 5k race.

(disclaimer: as training plans go, this one is endorsed by no one credible.)
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the running of the beavers 5k is a fundraiser for ballard high school, held at a lovely waterfront park a little less than 5 miles from our house.

my thought was to do a slow warm-up run to the start, very conservatively run the race, then run home at a leisurely pace. 

this would total up to a safe and sensible 12+ miles on the day.

safe. sensible.

(shakes head, sighs.)

i failed. 

i raced the race. 

i didn't mean to...it just happened.

starting as planned, i ran with a friend i hadn't seen in months. he was also coming back from an injury, and what better way to while away a slow 5k than with a fellow injury-rehabber?

(pauses uncomfortably...)

i dropped him after a quarter mile, because i'm some kind of monster. 

after that i rabidly began looking for people to catch and pass, because i'm an idiot.

in the moment, it was glorious. the course was completely flat, the calf didn't hurt, and i was picking people off right and left.

in retrospect it was not great, because it was so very dumb. risking days or weeks of additional pain for the sake of a fleeting 5k over my much-bigger goals for the year?

just...wow.

(makes a disappointed, embarrassed face.)
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update: it was during an easy recovery run two days after racing at wallace falls that a week-old calf injury turned into a weeks-long issue.

yesterday was day two post-running of the beavers, and with well-deserved worry i set out to test my luck leg. though unwarranted, apparently i've gotten away with my poor running judgment.

this time. 
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on reflection, it's clear that my overarching problem is not being insufficiently recovered ~ it's being insufficiently smart.

and, after many years and many miles, i'm still a big calf.
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running of the beavers 5k

22:53

30/292 (overall)

3/22 (M 50-59)

shoes:
hoka clifton 4

song stuck in my head the entire time: "don't look back" ~ boston