First Trail Race
6/11/11
After completing my first race, a little confidence is carried over into this race at Fort Yargo. I don't really know what to expect. So Stevie agrees to walk with me. Come to find out later I might have died had he not been with me. We get to the registration table and Stacy picks up our numbers. Number 105, not so ironic. Now I have grown up in Winder my entire life and even been to Fort Yargo numerous times. Something was telling me "this can't be that bad". I see some other guys I went to school with, Ronnie Roberts and Mike Headrick. It was great seeing those two. We wished each other well, all the time letting them know I would be towards the back.
At the start of this race I weighed 396. I am a little lighter for this race, but I have hills to conquer. AND WE'RE OFF! Something inside me says Matt you can "jog" a little bit and be ok. So the situation takes over as I try to keep pace with everybody LOL. I last about 3.2 seconds and I can't breathe. Stevie keeps checking on me, I think he thinks this is gonna be a bad day, but continues to push me. All of a sudden we are just walking the paths and I get SICK, S.I.C.K. No aid station in sight, my only help is in Stevie's bag of tricks. I knew what was happening, my sugar dropped. Granted I haven't had many problems with my diabetes, but this one stopped me dead in my tracks. Stevie pulls out some trail mix and a Protein bar that tasted like peanut butter and jelly. Feel free to buy me any for Christmas!! We waited about 15 minutes and I started to feel a bit better. So we started a slow pace back on the trail. Getting passed by people I think took a wrong turn, enjoying the sunshine and not so much the wildlife (mosquitoes). Stevie and I make it to the first aid station. It's right by the lake. A cool breeze is coming off the lake that is wonderful. By now i have recovered and start getting my stride back. We finally make it through the woods and there is this MONSTROSITY OF A HILL in front of me. I dig down deep, KNOWING this has been longer than a 5k. Three- quarters of the way up this hill my legs begin to fail me. DON'T FAIL ME NOW!!! I remember a technique Stevie had told me, so I turned around and made it up the rest of the hill, WHEW!
From a far way off I can see the clock, it's at about 1:28:15. I do NOT want this to take me and hour and a half! So I PRESS and PRESS. Maybe even a "JOG" came out of somewhere and I finished the race at 1:29:57. My cousin Pamela was at the finish line and ran up to me and gave me my first medal that I treasure today, A Peace Place Dove. BOOYAH!
p.s. The race was 3.8 miles and my feet were killing me!
Exercise Tip: Always eat before strenuous exercise if you are diabetic.
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