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May 26, 2008

buffalo half race report

See last year's report here.
And the year before, when I ran the full.

A quick rundown this year, as we are gearing up for a family day of hiking at Salmon River Falls.

This year, the Buffalo race was about two things: J running her first half, and D working her ass off to qualify for Boston.

And while the weather was beautiful (blue sky, cool breezes) and J did wonderfully in her first stint as a half-er, in retrospect it seems like the day was doomed for disaster for lots of other runners.

The course was lovely as always, well-prepared at the water stops even for the slower runners like J and me. The race itself, for us, was relatively uneventful. We finished in under J's goal time (2:30), running the 13.1 in 2:28. This was an achievement, considering J has never run this distance AND we made a pit-stop in the marina around mile 5.

We finished and walked north to the hotel, showered and put our feet up for a few minutes before walking back south to the finish line to meet D. I was afraid we left the hotel too late and that we would miss her: a BQ time for her had to be somewhere between 3:45 and 3:50 (she's on the cusp of an age group, so 3:50 would have qualified her next year). She had trained incredibly hard the past several months, and even had dropped several pounds (which is quite amazing since she was a veritable rail in the first place). I was certain that this would be her year for a qualifying time.

We made our way to the barricades at the finish line, and I watched runner after runner cross the line between 3:45 and 4:00, thinking that because we hadn't seen D cross yet that we'd missed her already, and hoping hoping hoping that that was the case.

As we waited, I saw one runner barf his guts out upon crossing the finish line (thankfully it was all Gatorade and nothing too nasty), watched another runner be carried across the line between two friends, and witnessed several people crying.

And no D.

At 4:05 I began to worry that she was still out on the course, crippled or otherwise badly compromised, and tried to remember her number so I could find an official and see if she'd been picked up. Soon after I began my plan to find her, though, she came running through.

J ran into the chute to meet her, but I hung back. I knew she had to be devastated, and I saw her face scrunching up a little as she was talking to J.

My heart completely broke for her then. I didn't know what I was going to say to her, and everything I mustered up in my head sounded hollow and ridiculous.

The thing I ended up saying was probably the stupidest, though: I raised my hands above my head and said "Wineglass!" to her, indicating that I was thrilled that she'd have to run the Wineglass with me in October to try to qualify again.

Her look was murderous. I hung my head, immediately wishing I could take the words back. She sputtered something about a husband asking his wife to have another baby as the doctor sewed up her episiotomy.

My gaffe was quickly forgotten as we made our way into the convention center to get D some pizza. As we wandered around the guts of the hotel, trying to find our way out, a woman sitting on the floor, alone and wrapped in a mylar blanket, asked if we could get her back to the hotel.

"You *are* in the hotel," I told her, since the convention center and hotel were essentially one big monster building.

"I can't find my boyfriend, and I'm lost," she continued. I looked at D and J, who looked down at the woman. She shook and there were lines of salt streaked down her cheeks.

"Sure, we'll show you out," I said, and D and J bent over to pick up her water bottle and untouched cup of beer.

As we took her from the convention center to the hotel, we politely asked her questions about where she was from and how she did. She, too, had had a horrible race. She told us she'd came in 10th at the marathon in Eugene, Oregon only a couple weeks before, but that this race had been hell. She said she'd thrown up at the finish line and then immediately was disoriented and sick. I asked her if she wanted us to find her a medic but she said she just needed to find her room.

As we approached the main elevators, she said she could find her way from there. She asked our names, and we told her, and she thanked us profusely. I pulled her bib number strip down so I could see her name, and it was Michelle Chille an elite runner.

At any rate, we left the race a little melancholy, sad for D and sad for Michelle, all of us just kind of wanting to go home.

D's race report is posted at her blog. When J posts her report, I'll offer a link as well. Sadly, I no longer get to post my friends' race reports here, as they all have their own blogs now.

Posted by mryonker at May 26, 2008 11:01 AM

Comments

Posted by: Deb at May 26, 2008 06:16 PM

Posted by: Deb at May 26, 2008 06:26 PM

Posted by: madeline at May 26, 2008 06:39 PM

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Posted by: Chris Geyer at May 27, 2008 12:02 AM