2012 Des Moines Equalizer
Wow!!!! What an incredible weekend filled with fear, anxiety, nervousness, giddiness, more fear, new friendship, hope, joy, upset stomach, incredible cramps, some more anxiety, apologies, hunger, some more joy, pain, thankfulness, gratefulness, some more pain and encouragement. You may ask yourself, how does go through so many emotions over the course of a weekend? My answer, running a 12 hour race around Gray's Lake in Des Moines, IA called The Equalizer.
The race is described as "This event is designed for three purposes. First, it will provide an opportunity for new and veteran runners to test themselves at an ultra distance. Second, performances will be scored using an age/sex 'equalizer', providing the possibility of an overall victory to anyone who is normally competitive in their age group. Equalizers are determined based on age and gender. Overall awards will be distributed based on the total of actual distance plus the appropriate equalizer. Third, everyone has fun, and we mean everyone!". It is different race as the purpose is to basically give young and old the opportunity to put forward their best effort and have the possibility of an overall win. Not many races around the country, as far as I'm aware, give everyone an opportunity to "even the playing field". Some may argue that it makes the race a little unfair for the people that put everything out there for the time allotted and run as many miles as possible, but my thought is that if I'm 70 and still running these silly races, Heck yeah I'm going to go to a place where I might still be able to win the race!!!
The weekend started with an eventful day at work. I'll spare a bunch of the details, but it came down to meetings with some of my insurance agents and our floor being evacuated due to overflowing toilets. Not the best way to start a weekend where I'm going to be running the most I've ever run in my life, but when life hands you limes, you ask where the tequila is I guess :)
I had found out a couple of months ago about a group on the Runner's World boards that would be coming from all over the country to run this race and welcomed me with open arms into their community. They had been posting questions and offering encouragement, sometimes backhanded, for months. I jumped in, being the local guy, and offered advice on weather, restaurants, parts of the city to avoid, and some details on the course. Everyone was so welcoming and awesome that I knew that I would have to meet everyone.
I made sure to sign up for the dinner so that I would have the chance to meet everyone prior to race day just to get to know the a little better. Unfortunately, I was the first to get there and slowly was surrounded by others who weren't a part of the group. Once they all walked in together I recognized "StepbyStep" and shouted out "Hey! I'm Brad!" which prompted the groups response of "Who?........Oh! Brad! Right!" not thinking that most of the people would know me better by my handle of "Messenjah" from the boards. I'll be honest, I don't get embarrassed often, but I kind of was at that point. Oh well. Such is life.
As the dinner began the entire group had finally shown up and it was almost like everyone at the table had already known each other for years and we were just getting together for a casual dinner. I sat next to the RD Chris, a guy from Michigan that was working on his 50 states Marathon goal and was in town to run because he needed an Iowa marathon but couldn't make the Des Moines Marathon because of his allegiance to Michigan football, Lonny (I think was his name) who told us all about his transformation from 350 lb prison guard to ultra runner, "Guest2634" AKA Dian and her sister (Susie I believe, sorry if that's not right) who had come in later than most because of their "diversion" at the Nike outlet store. The dinner was filled with fantastic conversation, mostly driven by my love for telling stories, and great food. After dinner was said and done we all said our farewells and made our way home or hotels for our pre-race preparation.
Most people that know me know that I am "excitable" when it comes to preparing for events. I am the guy that has my ticket out before a concert 5 hours ahead of time. I am the guy that likes to be 15 minutes early to everything and races are no exception. I actually had packed my back 4 days prior with everything that I was going to need and to make it easier for Friday night and Saturday morning. I did this because I knew that I was going to need to come home, have a beer and just relax before getting to bed early. Lucky for me I was prepared and did exactly that. I laid my clothes out prior to sitting down, but once I was down, I was down for the night. I sat and watched some TV with my wife and just "chilled." Once I had put back a couple of beers I got to bed at 10:30 and fell asleep within minutes. For the first time in a very long time, I didn't even wake up in the middle of the night. My body knew that I needed the rest.
5:00 am came and I was up. Coffee made, shower taken, egg and cheese sandwich down the hatch and out the door by 6:00. Now, I'm not 100% certain why I left by 6:00. Usually if I am traveling to downtown DM I leave early with the anticipation of traffic, but I apparently didn't take into account that it was 6:00 am on a Saturday. Doy!!! Come to find out, I wasn't the only one who feared traffic that early because 2 cars and a motor home beat me there. Now my wife officially can't say that I was the first person there.....OK so those people slept in their cars, but that's besides the point. I wasn't the first person there.
Around 6:30 the RD showed up and I made myself usual and helped set some things up before he oh so affectionately made me realize that I still had to run today so I may want to take it easy. I went to set up my space and shortly after doing so the RWOL peeps ascended with their arsenal of snacks, chairs, tables, supplements, drinks, shoe boxes, blankets and everything that runners may need.....or in preparation for the end of the world. Once again I was welcomed into their group and told that I needed to bring all of my stuff over and join them. I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of things that they brought so I so graciously said, "here is a bag of pretzels and a quarter of a bottle of S! caps" to add to the grocery store that you guys brought. Yes, I'm totally lame.
As the race began I was joined by my friend Andrew. I've known him for a very long time and he is one of these guys that doesn't necessarily have to train for races and can go run them. He did the Des Moines Half Marathon the previous Sunday and said that he would join me for ~10 miles. We realized that it has been nearly 2 years since we had seen each other but it was just like no time had ever passed. We caught up on some things and it really made the miles fly by. About 2 hours in, he called it a day and left me to run by myself for the next few hours. The nice thing about this race is you are never officially "alone" during the day. There are always people running, walking or skating round the lake but I knew that I would get into my head if I didn't throw on my headphones. They were a nice distraction and before I knew it I completed the required marathon (to guarantee yourself a hoodie) in 4:22. I was a little off of where I wanted to be at 5 hours but still making great time.
1:00 pm came around and I was joined by a great friend of mine, Lori. She has been such a great inspiration to me over the years and is a kick-ass runner. Over the years that I have run with her she has always been someone that can push you to your limits while making you keep a smile on your face. We also hadn't really seen each other in a few years so it was really nice to catch up with her and here about her family and what she's been up to lately. We spent a lot of time reminiscing about previous runs, races and some of the "quirky" experiences we've had in the past (especially the time when it was snowing during a training run and the elastic had gone out of my tights and I spent the entire run holding my pants up). We joined shortly after by buddy Dennis. He's paced me at one of my previous ultras and rode his bike around Des Moines during my 2nd marathon. He is truly one of my running mentor as he as run 30+ marathons in all conditions all over the country. We had a lot of great conversations together before Lori had to make her way home to her family.
The next couple of hours were spent just me and Dennis. It was a lot of fun but I was starting to really cramp up and wasn't really sure why. Earlier in the day I had made a very conscious effort to monitor my fluid intake and my salt intake. I had been staying pretty regular on how much I was drinking per hour, how much I was eating and how many salt caps I had taken but something wasn't right. At around 4:30 or so I was really feeling the crappy effects of dehydration. I was still making sense and nothing was cloudy (which was a good sign) but when asked when the last time I had gone to the bathroom I realized I hadn't gone since we started. A couple of people urged me to go try and "check the color". ***WARNING: GROSS DETAILS AHEAD*** When I went there wasn't much there and it was dark. Not a good sign. I decided to take some time, sit down, drink a ton and take some salt. I was REALLY dehydrated and needed to catch up.
After about 15-20 minutes of sitting we got moving again and was joined by Lori's friend Chuck. Now when you talk about bad-asses, Chuck is one of those guys. He told us about his time at the Leadville 100, the Leadville 50 mile ride and countless other races. He has fought through a lot of different "issues" at races and was a great resource. During this section I was really shocked at how much better I was feeling. The cramps had gone away, but I had the sloshy feeling in my stomach from drinking too much. It was at this point I knew that my goal of the 100k was down the drain. I was too far past my "must do" pace to get there. It really bummed me out, but I knew that I was going to hit 50 miles and I was OK with that. Then Dennis said something that sparked my interest. He said "You should actually make a secondary goal of 53 miles. That would mean you did 2 back-to-back marathons." There it was. The extra spark that I needed. Just keep pushing. One foot in front of the other. This can be done. Even if I had to walk the last couple of laps I could do that. I made it a couple of more times around with Dennis and Chuck, Chuck solo, Dennis and Chuck and one final lap with Chuck. We had a great conversation of our experiences with military personnel (Chuck is a retired Marine) and some of our thoughts on how our country should respect our military more and treat them better but that's another topic for another day.
At 7:00 I was joined by my family. This was the first time that I lost control of my emotions all day. My family means the most to me and it had been such a long day and I was so happy to see them. I picked up Lil' Red and Mini Me and just told them how much it meant to me that they were there. Lil' Red told me a couple of weeks prior that she wanted to run with me for a lap and that she was going to help get me through. Just thinking about it right now almost makes me cry. With one hour left I knew that we had to start because I was down to a walk due to the constant pounding of pavement all day. We took off and I realized as I was leaving that I hadn't even said hi to the love of my life. That certainly doesn't buy me brownie points. Ooops. I turned around gave her a quick hug and kiss and Lil' Red and I were off.
The next half an hour was spent just me and her. It was non-stop talking about how cool the bridge looked how cool the capital was lit up at night, how far we had gone, the fish that kept jumping out of the water, etc. It was an awesome experience to share with her. We frequently had to take breaks and "stretch just like in soccer" (I was her coach) and complain about how bad our knees hurt. It was really cute. Coming in to the final 1/4 mile we were caught by Chuck who had now joined his friend Matt and Tom. Matt entered the 12 hour race at the last minute but had to leave to go watch his daughters swim meet for a few hours before returning to finish the race. That's the beautiful thing about this race. You can literally call it a day whenever you want. We let them go ahead of us to cross the line since I knew mommy was going to want to take a picture of us. As per usual when I cross the finish line, as I thought I was done, I told her that we cross the finish line, point up and thank Jesus. I told her that we were going to run and do that at the finish line and that's what we did, but turns out that I wasn't quite done yet.
After all was said and done it was time for the awards. It was a great surprise to find out that the top 10 in each race were awarded a medal along with the homemade medals beautifully made by Dian. I was in total shock as I've never received an award like this. Now time to gather my stuff and go to get warm.
The race started out at a blistering 28 degrees F got to roughly 45 and was rapidly getting colder. All I wanted was to get back to my house and have my celebratory beer (Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard) and go to sleep. When Mrs. Messenjah asked me where I wanted to go to eat I really couldn't think about it. I just told her to go home and I would eat something there. She seemed a little shocked by this but agreed. As I was driving away I had a few phone calls to make and realized that one of my favorite restaurants just happened to be on the way home. I called my wife and told her where to go. Luckily she hadn't gone past the exit and we met at the one and only Taco Bell where I indulged my craving for a XXL Stuffed Burrito. Talk about some amazing calories.
When we finally made our way back home I soaked, showered changed, laid down with my feet up and enjoyed one of the best beers I had ever drank (there are probably better but at that time you couldn't beat it). I dealt with some cramping during the night and slept probably mostly an hour. My mind was still racing and thought that I should still be running. The mind is a weird thing. After tossing and turning all night it was time for church and a relaxing Sunday.
I read somewhere that you learn the most from bad experiences. Not to say that this race was a bad experience, but I learned so much about myself, how I need to manage things a little better and about what I'm capable of. God has blessed my life with the ability to do a lot of things. I never thought when I was growing up running would be one of those things. I've put myself into some bad situations and made some really poor decisions early in my 20's and have found that running allowed me to work through a lot of those things. It is my stress relief. It is my escape. It is one of those activities that I really hope my girls will continue on doing. It has allowed me to see the inside of myself that I didn't know that I had. Endurance. Strength. Passion. Ability. The ability to motivate others.
In closing, I would first like to thank my wife. She is my biggest fan and I am hers. She is such an incredible wife and mother. She is the person that got me started in this sport and deserves the the utmost credit for those times when I've taken off for a 4 hour run in the middle of the day and she is stuck at home with the kids. She is the love of my life and I couldn't do it without her.
To my kids. Everytime I do one of these stupid races I just want to show you how you can do ANYTHING that you set your mind to. As it says in Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength". Just remember if you have faith it can the world can be yours.
To my pacers Andrew, Lori, Dennis and Chuck. You guys helped me so much during this event. You pushed me to keep moving when it would have been so nice just to quit. Thank you so much!!!
To all of my new friends from RWOL. MadisonMandy (Mandy) thank you for pushing me at the end and giving me crap the entire day. Your knowledge, experience and willingness to help was amazing. To Runny_Babbit, StepbyStep (Shari), LearningDaily, Guest2634 (Dian), RabbitChaser (Eric) and anyone else I may have forgotten. Thank you. It was such an honor to meet all of you and get to know you even if it was just a little bit. I loved how positive all of you were and I hope that our paths cross in the future.
To Chris Zepp and all of the volunteers at the race. Thank you!!! Without you this race would never happen. Even though there were times I hated all of you when you were telling me to keep going, you all rocked :)
Last, but certainly not least. I thank my Lord. My Savior, Jesus Christ. Without You none of this is possible. You have given me the most beautiful gift of all. The gift of life. The gift of second chances. The gift of passion. The gift to move. I am truly honored and blessed to be called one of Yours.
See you all next year!!!!
Tha Messenjah
Comments
Sorry to break this to you, but you won't be the first to still be running at that age. Good story, good running, fun to go with you, thank you.
rgot
John M.