This year’s Death Race- a walk in the park?

After 3 years of Death Racing and a cumulative total of 150 miles of running, plus numerous more in training in and around Grande Cache, my body has told me I need to take a break.

And this time I have actually listened! Last year’s race was marked by the worst cramps I have ever had and a time out at the end of stage 3 which, unbeknownst to me, was extended by 3 km. I can vividly remember trying to finish that stage and thinking I had 2 km to go and 12 minutes left when a car appeared on the trail. That was strange and something I had never seen but I pretty much knew something was amiss. “You may as well take it easy you’re not going to finish on time!” My reply was I had just over a km to go. Nope, the stage is now longer than last year by a few km. OOOPS!

I spent the next 45 minutes at a very slow walk to the end of the stage. Heavy of heart!

Honestly I am not sure how much left I would have had for stage 4 at that point but I would have loved to try. After all the kids in the IM Able foundation struggle just to get out of the house!

I really do hate having to quit! But I decided to try to take care of all the things that were causing my body to shut down on Stage 2 and cramp to the point of complete immobility with requisite giant losses of time. Little did I know that a year later I would still be struggling with many of the same issues and some new ones- all part of the immense neurologic and postural retraining I have to do to have a chance at a decent run.

I remember someone quoting Steve Prefontaine as saying attempts to change his gait and running style “didn’t work”. I think he gave it about 3 weeks before he realized he would get much worse before he got better and decided it was not worth it.

I have learned a lot about kinesiology and of course running itself in the process of trying to get the perfect gait.

Did it work for me? Well not yet. My guess - we’ll have to wait until next year!
In the meantime Pagoda Pacers president Tom Chobot will be flying the flag for Dr Dave’s Best and TheRaceAgainstDeath.org.
And we’ll have a charity drive soon after this year’s CDR. But for me this year’s race will be a walk in the park. One very big, steep, beautiful park. I’ll have some pics for you for sure!

Best,
Dr Dave