Month: October 2019

Lesson 1. It’s good to know the RD.

I got some solid intel from Katie the night before the Race for the Hills Half Marathon, Day 3 of the West Virginia Trilogy series. I’d expected to have a pretty easy win, given that most of the runners had already been worn down by Day 1 50k and Day 2 50M. But the theme of 2019 is that every expectation I have is dead wrong. A group of road runners from Pittsburgh had just come to town. I knew Kate from the North Fork Trail FKT in May, a sub-3 hour marathoner. But apparently Laura was an Olympic Trials qualifier.

Lesson 2. Road speed is not the same as trail speed.

I’m not much of an ultra runner, but I’m tough to beat on short and mid-distance trail races. Over the last decade I’ve run at least 10 trail races in the 10-13 mile range and haven’t lost yet: Women’s Half (6 times), Dam Half (PA), Squirrelly Tail (PA)), EX2 Backyard Burn (2 times). I’m sure one of these days I’ve have a rough day or come across someone with a better combination of road and trail speed.

But not yet.

I couldn’t decide if the Pittsburgh gang was going to win. They looked awfully quick in their little singlets and arm warmers. And my Achilles had been bothering me, which bode poorly on a tough course that ends with a steep mile climb up ‘cardiac hill’.

Laura and I ran neck-and-neck for the first half of the race. But her little yelps confirmed my suspicion that she didn’t run trails much. I got rolling in the middle, thanks to some monster downhills and well-placed cow barricades that were fun to jump over (Achilles be damned). In the end, I won by a mere 2 minutes. It was a stellar women’s field, thanks to all the Pittsburgh gals, and the top three women finished 4-5-6 overall, all under the prior CR.

Trevor and I spent a good bit of the Trilogy after-party wondering out loud why Keith has never done Trilogy. We figured if we could explain just Keith, we could get at why as a whole the VHTRC has a blind spot for what is truly the premier trail running event of the fall in the mid-Atlantic region. Although maybe it’s a good thing that Trilogy remains a best-kept secret.

Run For It 5k – September 28, 2019 – Davis, WV

I told Katie at the start of the race that my goal this year was to not piss myself. This was a reference to last year’s race, where I was just getting back into running in September after giving birth to Bjorn in July, and the muscles down there were still not fully recovered. In order to win the race I had to accept a voluminous stream of urine leaking down my leg. Oh, the things they don’t tell you about motherhood!

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Run For It has become a Nelson-Schwartzbard family tradition, with Aaron’s mom running the 5k with us and my mom and Aaron’s dad taking Bjorn in the stroller in the 2k fun run. With my overall female win, Aaron’s masters win, and a bunch of age group awards, we brought in over $2,000 for the Heart of the Highlands trail system.

What really makes Run For It special that it attracts the whole town of Davis. Young and old, everyone participates, even if it’s the only race they complete all year. Because everyone’s running for their local community — schools, libraries, animal shelters. You have a lot of kids finishing their first race ever. It’s mayhem, but it’s fun!

VHTRC Women’s Half Marathon

September 7, 2019

Bull Run Regional Park, VA

I have a confession: I should not have run the Women’s Half this year. The Women’s Half is such a special event. It deserves better than a half-alive marmot. Even if I knew I could cross the line first. It takes more than that to win.

I had good intentions:

1. The WHM is one of my all-time favorite races. Where else do you get to take tequila shots and runs with giant stuffed bears?
2. As a women-only race, where better to celebrate being a new mom who’s still lacing up, no matter how sleep-deprived.
3. The image of all the new WUSsies piled into the baby thunderdome was pretty irresistible.

But I have never felt so physically ill at a race. That includes running the Boston Marathon with bronchitis. That includes running the Alexandria Turkey Trot with severe morning sickness. There is something about eastbound jet lag from Asia that just makes you want to crawl in a hole and die.

There are actually biochemical explanations for why jet lag following eastward travel is so much worse than westward travel. Physicists have shown that the cells in the brain that regulate circadian rhythms respond differently based on the direction of travel. The flight schedules make it even worse, with flights from Asia arriving in the morning in the United States, making it impossible to resist a massive daytime snooze.

Sprinkle a little eastbound Asian jet lag on top of the baseline sleep deprivation a new mom gets in her baby’s first year, and you get someone who’s not likely to enjoy running a half marathon.

I did try to show up. I did my best to race well, and managed to eke out a win even if the time was a bit shabby. I snuggled with Whitehouse Tom’s adorable Australian shepherd puppy at the finish line until my head stopped spinning and I got enough good vibes to no longer be in danger of tossing water on people (sorry, Keith!).

I did get to see all the adorable WUS babies: Knute and Skye and Cora. And even if they’re not quite old enough to interact with each other, it still gives my heart a squeeze to see them all in one place.

But, I solemnly swear to myself, I will never again underestimate the blow of eastbound Asian jet lag. And honestly, I have to admit that I can’t do it all the way I did pre-baby. I’m so accustomed to grinding my way through anything, but I have to go easier on myself, and know that being physically capable of crossing a line first is not the same as being the winner.