I picked up my pace and quickly dispatched with red-hat and was gaining rapidly on mesh-shorts when mesh-shorts unexpectedly veered off onto a side trail right before Lookout Hill. I had wanted to pass him with authority, to show him that I owned the trail, and briefly considered following him down the side trail just to make my point, but ultimately that would have cut my run short, and so I let mesh-shorts leave the trail without conquering him.
As I neared the top of Lookout Hill and its 23' vertical I was surprised to hear footfall behind me. Red-hat was making a valiant effort to match my pace. The topography was cooperating with him, as the next stretch around the lake had no vertical. Red-hat nosed ahead of me and began to one-step me; no matter what pace I ran he ran one step faster. I realized that breaking him wouldn't be easy. I would have to grind him down. To do this, I would use Breeze Hill and its 95' vertical as a weapon.
At the base of Breeze Hill, I began to run at a pace that I knew I couldn't sustain for much more than a minute or two. I pulled ahead by one step but could not shake red-hat. Fearing that if I slowed, red-hat would sense that my fast pace was a bluff and gain confidence, I continued to run at an unsustainable clip. When my body started to crack, I promised myself that if I could just maintain this pace until Midwood, I would allow myself to stop and walk. We crested the hill together, and as we sprinted towards Midwood, I began to rationalize my defeat: I was dehydrated. I hadn't slept well. The extreme amount of vertical I was running each week, upwards of 1000', was sapping the energy from my legs.
Seconds before I was about to slow to a walk, Red-hat turned to me and said he was going to stop and refill his handheld bottles. "Nice run, man," he said. We exchanged names. "You were really pushing me there," he said. "Are you training for anything?"
"I'm just trying to get into shape," I said.
"I'd say you're already there. Have you done any half marathons?"
I thought this was an oddly specific question, so I answered it vaguely: "Ah, yes, there is one in a week or two around here. I might do that."
"Queens," he said. "I might do that one, too. Well, nice running with you."
We shook hands and then he pulled off the trail. I ran around a few more bends in trail and then leaned over and threw up three times.
I took the long way home, hoping to add mileage to my run, but I knew almost immediately that this was a mistake. I was fried. Miles later, when the trail merged with the road up by Grand Army, I vomited two more times and then forced myself to jog every other block, mostly because I wanted to get home so that I could pour myself a tall glass of water. I was sopping wet with sweat, and even when I was running it wasn't much faster than a walk. When I was a few blocks out off the trail I nearly ran right into the back of Red-hat. He was walking with a slight limp. His chin was on his chest. He hadn't seen me, and so I immediately crossed the street and went down a side road. I vomited one more time before I reached my apartment.
9 Weeks Out:
Saturday 7/10: Run 60min; 50' vertical (4.8M race)
Sunday 7/11: Run 50min; 50' vertical
Monday: 7/12: Run 60min; 150' vertical
Tuesday 7/13: off
Wednesday 7/14: off
Thursday 7/15: Run 10min
Friday 7/16: Run 60min, 200' vertical
Total: 4hr; 450' vertical
8 Weeks Out:
Saturday 7/17: Run 1hr, 35min; 1,100' vertical
Sunday 7/18: Run 1hr, 45min; 300' vertical; city hike 4hrs (10miles) and 108' vertical
Monday 7/19: Run 50min; 180' vertical
Tuesday 7/20: Run 60min; 150' vertical (track workout)
Wednesday 7/21: Run 60min; 200' vertical
Thursday 7/22: off
Friday 7/23: Bike 60min
Total for week so far: 11hr, 10min; 1,938' vertical
