w*****h
发帖数: 1770 | 1 It was a little past 7 on Sunday morning, Aug. 28th, 2011. The Boeing 757
jet I was on just climbed to about 30,000 feet and started to cruise to MSP.
Leaving the land of Oregon behind, I fell asleep in no time.
Exactly 48 hours ago, I woke up in the roomy motel room in Governor’s Camp,
at the foot of Mt. Hood. It was still raining a little, but there were no
lightening and thunders like a couple of hours ago. One said it’s very
rare to have thunderstorms in this area, so those seemed more like a bad
dream to me. The air was crispy refreshing. With the bright greens all
over the places, and high mountains not far away, it seemed to be a
beautiful day. I met most of the team members at the lobby for the
breakfast. Most of the members were from west coast, but there were even a
couple flew from Atlanta. It was exciting to meet those familiar faces.
Our captain and I then headed out to do some last minute shopping for water
and food, and then picked up Monica from the airport. There were already
runners on the road from early starts, and we could not get more excited
about the sleepless trip before us.
After getting together with the team again and a quick lunch, we drove to
the Timberline Lodge, where the starting line was. We picked up the race
package, and got ourselves ready for the big day. It’s a long wait, and I
could feel the heart rate pumping up. There was still snow on top of the Mt
. Hood. Even with the excited and noisy crowds in her arms, it still looked
so quiet and elegant.
Our team finally got started at 4pm. With runners dashing downhill, the
team machine started to click. Van 2 headed to exchange 6 directly (though
we had a glimpse of them at exchange 1), and our Van 1 went alone Hwy 26
with the runners. I was assigned to run leg 3, 15 and 27. My memories of
how I ran leg 3 was kind of blur. All I remember is I was anxious and
nervous at the exchange. When the baton (a reflective band/stick) was
handed to me, it was soaked with sweat. I said to myself: It’s going to be
a sweaty day. It was, indeed. Though the course of leg 3 was all downhill
, I didn’t feel it’s easy. I probably started too fast with a 5:45/mile
pace, then gradually slowed down to a more reasonable 6 minute plus pace.
There were tall trees by the winding roads, and the sun was going down, but
I still sweated a lot while sprinting forward.
I finish the 5k distance in about 18’50”, and then I began to feel
exhaustion in my legs. However, one thing I worried most was my right foot.
I got a blister on Tuesday, and had been running carefully with it since.
In the morning of the day I flew to Portland, I did a 15-mile run per the
training plan. I was in a lot of pain towards the end of that run, but
luckily, it didn’t get broken. I was so afraid of running with an open
wound on foot in a foot race which is supposed to last more than 27 hours.
I started to feel some pain from my right foot, so I tried to slow down and
changed my running form a bit. The 3.93 miles leg soon finished. I was all
wet in sweat, but I was happy that I passed 8 runners, including the ones
from the leading Mexican teams, which started with us. Plus, my right foot
held on – no blood, no other fluid, only the pain. I knew I liked the way
it hurt.
The 1st part of the Van 1 legs completed quicker than all of us could
imagine. After the dinner at the nearby McDonald’s and regrouped in a
nearby downtown Portland hotel, we headed to Exchange 12 for the 2nd part.
All the legs would be run through midnight till predawn, along with Hwy 30
for most of the part. Night running deserves some quiet time, I thought,
when I started again. Equipped with headlight and flashing taillights, I
felt I was back to the Wasatch Mountains again. The difference was there
were millions of stars hanging on the black sky this time. I looked up to
the starry night. My headlight projected a bright light beam upwards, which
eventually absorbed by the endless darkness.
It was a “long” course, but I was not that lonely. There were always some
lights dangling ahead, far or near, pointing me to the destination. I
started to pick up them one by one. Inspired by the story told by our
captain (He was passed by a swift girl during his leg, and she said ‘good
job’ to him while passing him.), I said “good job” to each of them when I
passed. However, there was this hard charging lady, who picked up her pace
when I was going to pass her. So we ran shoulder by shoulder for a few
minutes. “I am 43. How old are you?” She suddenly broke the silence. “
What the f…?” I thought. I was surprised and felt funny. “Are you
passing me?” “Well, I am trying”, I said. I kept my pace, so did she.
But I could feel she’s pushing to her limit with her heavy breathing. “We
are running at 6:45 pace”, I tried to remind her not being too hard at one
point when there was slightly downhill, but she kept hanging on. She
finally faded away when we hit a small uphill and I didn’t see her again.
It’s always hard when you run towards the finish but it’s not finished yet
. I felt relieved when I saw the sign of the Weight Station. I knew the
exchange point was only a few hundreds of feet away. My friends were
already waiting for me when I rushed by. I passed 15 runners this time, and
didn’t feel tired, only hot in the predawn darkness. It’s supposed to be
the coldest time of the day, but I overdressed myself again.
We kept inactive at exchange 17 this time, to have some rest and get
refueled. I had a pancake-sausage-scramble eggs breakfast made by some high
school volunteers. It was not the most delicious breakfast I could buy,
but it was the fuel my engine needed. I then curled up in the van for a
couple of hours. When the van started to roll ahead again, I head was still
heavy and I fell into sleep again at the very back row of seats.
I was woken up by the discussions of the teammates. Obviously we got lost
in the mountains. Misled by a print error in the Race Program, we made a
wrong turn. Everything seemed smooth so far but finally there was bad luck.
We didn’t get to the exchange point in time, and Rick from Van 2 had to
run an extra leg. Fortunately, we could easily exchange leg 31 with him
later, but I still felt a lot guilty and embarrassed. I vowed to perform
better and gave all I had when it’s my turn.
The 3rd time run for me was a 5.79 miles course rated Moderate, with rolling
hills. I was passed immediately by a topless bald guy. “Sweet…” I said
to myself. I had thought I could avoid being passed maybe in this relay,
but looked like it’s inevitable. I tried to tag along and to wait for him
to crack, but slowly he pulled away instead. I then had to focus on the
other runners in sight in front me. One by one, I passed them. Again, I
said “good job.” The responses I got were different, from “Thank you.”
to “You, too.”, or even no response at all. I knew they were all
exhausted after hours of running and traveling, but surprisingly, I felt
strong and no signs of “dead legs” as I had when I ran the Wasatch Back
Relay. I credited this to the few hours of sleeping in the van, or maybe
the Clif Shot gel I had. The only discomfort I felt was from the uneven
road surface of the winding roads. I was forced to leaning right or left,
and cut the corners.
I finished strong, and passed my 16th victim of the leg just before the
exchange line. It was high noon in a hot day. Everything seemed to be
shining under the sun, the van, the sweaty people, and the yellow shirts of
the volunteers. I was soaked in sweat again, but thanks to our captain, we
had the luxury of having watermelons as the post-race rewards. It tasted so
good and refreshing, that I didn’t feel tired at all. However, I noticed
something bad immediately after that. The pain from my right foot was
severe, even when I was walking. The red flesh was exposed, like a chunk of
tuna, with the dead skin torn apart. I was so lucky that I was able to get
some professional medical attention from one of our crew, but the pain
along with the exhaustion made me really low on the way to the finish line
area.
The setting sun was hiding behind the clouds. Lazy waves slowly washed the
sands. The beach was occupied by the huge white tents and excited people.
Maybe it’s because it was cold, or maybe I was so disappointed with the
size of the finisher’s medal, or maybe I was bothered by my painful foot, I
was not excited at all at the finish ceremony. I thought I was physically
defeated, with an injured foot. Though later, the group dinner was fun and
full of happy moments, it was a long drive before that from Seaside back to
Portland downtown area. When we settled everything down in the hotel, it
was already well past 1am. My foot didn’t look good. I had to do some
simple treatment on it. I knew at least I had to keep it from being
infected. I set the alarm and arranged the wake-up call for the early
flight, and immediately fell asleep. The 2-day journey finally reached its
end. I’d been dreaming of running the HTC relay for a long time, and now,
I did it. It’s always a lot fun along the course, with the teammates in a
relay. I was able to check off one thing from my list, but the most I took
away from HTC, was the experience of its own kind, the joyful time I had
with my team. Oh, one more. I will miss the lamb shank from the Shenzhen
Seafood Restaurant for sure. | t*********t
发帖数: 4766 | 2 沙发。webfish tough!
MSP.
Camp,
no
【在 w*****h 的大作中提到】
: It was a little past 7 on Sunday morning, Aug. 28th, 2011. The Boeing 757
: jet I was on just climbed to about 30,000 feet and started to cruise to MSP.
: Leaving the land of Oregon behind, I fell asleep in no time.
: Exactly 48 hours ago, I woke up in the roomy motel room in Governor’s Camp,
: at the foot of Mt. Hood. It was still raining a little, but there were no
: lightening and thunders like a couple of hours ago. One said it’s very
: rare to have thunderstorms in this area, so those seemed more like a bad
: dream to me. The air was crispy refreshing. With the bright greens all
: over the places, and high mountains not far away, it seemed to be a
: beautiful day. I met most of the team members at the lobby for the
| f*******n
发帖数: 5241 | 3 幸好我们有你这样的快手，估计超过我的有不少是被你超的那些队。：）
带伤出战还跑得那么好，羡慕加佩服！ | R*****s
发帖数: 41236 | | y******n
发帖数: 4527 | 5 awesome run. Congrats
MSP.
Camp,
no
【在 w*****h 的大作中提到】
: It was a little past 7 on Sunday morning, Aug. 28th, 2011. The Boeing 757
: jet I was on just climbed to about 30,000 feet and started to cruise to MSP.
: Leaving the land of Oregon behind, I fell asleep in no time.
: Exactly 48 hours ago, I woke up in the roomy motel room in Governor’s Camp,
: at the foot of Mt. Hood. It was still raining a little, but there were no
: lightening and thunders like a couple of hours ago. One said it’s very
: rare to have thunderstorms in this area, so those seemed more like a bad
: dream to me. The air was crispy refreshing. With the bright greens all
: over the places, and high mountains not far away, it seemed to be a
: beautiful day. I met most of the team members at the lobby for the
| R***0
发帖数: 35 | 6 Beautiful writing, which brought back a lot of warm memoreis of H2C. Really
proud to have you as such a fast runner on our team. | p***r
发帖数: 4859 | 7 恭喜鱼哥进了新层次。
MSP.
Camp,
no
【在 w*****h 的大作中提到】
: It was a little past 7 on Sunday morning, Aug. 28th, 2011. The Boeing 757
: jet I was on just climbed to about 30,000 feet and started to cruise to MSP.
: Leaving the land of Oregon behind, I fell asleep in no time.
: Exactly 48 hours ago, I woke up in the roomy motel room in Governor’s Camp,
: at the foot of Mt. Hood. It was still raining a little, but there were no
: lightening and thunders like a couple of hours ago. One said it’s very
: rare to have thunderstorms in this area, so those seemed more like a bad
: dream to me. The air was crispy refreshing. With the bright greens all
: over the places, and high mountains not far away, it seemed to be a
: beautiful day. I met most of the team members at the lobby for the
| g********s
发帖数: 1969 | | w*****3
发帖数: 1582 | 9 congrats, very inspiring. | b*******e
发帖数: 1150 | 10 first ding, then read. hehe | m**k
发帖数: 18660 | 11 well done fish bro
wish your foot recover soon！
MSP.
Camp,
no
【在 w*****h 的大作中提到】
: It was a little past 7 on Sunday morning, Aug. 28th, 2011. The Boeing 757
: jet I was on just climbed to about 30,000 feet and started to cruise to MSP.
: Leaving the land of Oregon behind, I fell asleep in no time.
: Exactly 48 hours ago, I woke up in the roomy motel room in Governor’s Camp,
: at the foot of Mt. Hood. It was still raining a little, but there were no
: lightening and thunders like a couple of hours ago. One said it’s very
: rare to have thunderstorms in this area, so those seemed more like a bad
: dream to me. The air was crispy refreshing. With the bright greens all
: over the places, and high mountains not far away, it seemed to be a
: beautiful day. I met most of the team members at the lobby for the
| m*****d
发帖数: 1613 | | i*********5
发帖数: 19210 | | e*e
发帖数: 6808 | 14 鱼哥是还没跑爽！
下次不带伤跑一个，肯定更high~~~
MSP.
Camp,
no
【在 w*****h 的大作中提到】
: It was a little past 7 on Sunday morning, Aug. 28th, 2011. The Boeing 757
: jet I was on just climbed to about 30,000 feet and started to cruise to MSP.
: Leaving the land of Oregon behind, I fell asleep in no time.
: Exactly 48 hours ago, I woke up in the roomy motel room in Governor’s Camp,
: at the foot of Mt. Hood. It was still raining a little, but there were no
: lightening and thunders like a couple of hours ago. One said it’s very
: rare to have thunderstorms in this area, so those seemed more like a bad
: dream to me. The air was crispy refreshing. With the bright greens all
: over the places, and high mountains not far away, it seemed to be a
: beautiful day. I met most of the team members at the lobby for the
|
|
