Pain

"You bring me pain,

But you leave me pleasure."

- Rob Halford, Judas Priest

I doubt Rob  was singing about mountain running - or any kind of running.  But runners will find plenty of meaning in this classic Judas Priest tune.   For once, the worlds of British heavy metal and running collide.  But more on pleasure later.  First the pain.

Living with pain, if not loving pain, has helped me achieve racing goals beyond any of my initial dreams.  Early on, I was a wuss.  When pain came to visit I'd pretend I wasn't home.  Over time,I learned to answer the door.  Nowadays, pain is like the neighbor who just walks right in without knocking - ready or not.  Kramer.

Patrick and I are well aware that pain will be coming to visit during  the Transalpine Run - we're just not sure what it's going to look like.  Our friends Brent Knight and Brandon Newbould ran the TAR last year and Brent described the suffering like nothing he's ever felt. 

More on the TAR later, first some perspective. 

Some local runners shared their own insights with me on pain and racing at some more traditional distances:

Doug Herron is arguably the most talented runner ever from Alaska.  He ran a 1:49 800m in high school in 1985 (still at top-ten American HS time) and had a stellar collegiate career. 

"Running unconscious"

Doug during his record-breaking 800m

"You have to find the will to push through to the other side and get into that zone,"  Doug said of running fast on the track.  "You almost have to run unconscious"  Doug swears that the ability to tolerate the suffering, not talent, is the key ingredient to success.  And managing the pain has everything to do with having a clear goal.  "It's all about desire," he said.  "A person either has it or doesn't. The only way I could run that hard is because I had a very clear goal in front of me.  There is no way I could handle the pain without that goal."

Brent  is known as a ferocious climber who can push his threshold needle into the red and beyond. 

"You can push yourself in Mount Marathon until your eyeballs feel the swell of lactic acid burning through them," said Brent.  "It's 45 minutes of tough physical pain.  The difference for racers is in who has the ability to mentally tolerate the pain and hold oneself together the longest."

Mount Marathon record holder and 8-time champion Bill Spencer once said about the race, you have to "roll the eyes back in your head and go for it".
  

For Brent, his combination of talent and tolerance got him in trouble a couple years ago on a scorching hot day at  Mount Marathon.  He had crushed the field, putting three minutes on a  competitive pack by the time he'd climbed the 3200-foot mountain and descended back to the road a half mile from the finish.  He doesn't remember much about what happened next.  With the finish line a block away he stumbled, then he crawled, then he rolled.  Then he was carried off on a stretcher and received seven liters of fluid by IV at the hospital.  

Brent, Mount Marathon 09 

The Matanuska Peak Challenge -  a 15 mile race with 9,000 feet of climbing  -  is a different kind of beast than Mount Marathon with an altogether different kind of hurt.   Darin Markwardt is a contender in both races every year. He's also about the toughest person I've ever met.  I can't remember a race where he hasn't ended  collapsed in a heap at the finish line, every ounce of his 125 pound frame spent.    "Mount Marathon is like being stabbed for 50 minutes," Darin said, "while Mat Peak seems like a weeklong torture fest."  After his first attempt at Mat Peak, Darin lied an inch past the finish line vomitting for an hour before being taken to the ER.  He says he easily gets queasy and vomits during races after that experience.  But he keeps coming back for more each year.

Former Mat Peak women's record holder Nora Tobin said having a baby was nothing compared to the suffering she experienced during the race.

I've had my own close and personal meeting with pain on Mat Peak.  In 2001 under record-breaking temperatures, I melted down.  I had made it to a plateau half way up the last climb where my father was stationed with Gatorade.  I was severely dehydrated and drank about a liter but couldn't shake a deep-down despair.   It took me a couple minutes to even will myself to get moving again. The pain wasn't intense but it was complete.  I had a primal urge to curl up and weep like a baby as I shuffled over the last few miles.  I have no recollection of crawling into a ditch at the finish line and lying in some muck, but there was a picture in the newspaper to prove it.

Mat Peak  meltdown

So, what to expect with the TAR?   Rolling the eyes back and going for it?  Searing-lung sprints?  Mat Peak-like meltdowns?  Probably not.  Hopefully not.

"The pain in this race became more mental," said Brent.  "The body hurt more each day and convincing the body became the struggle. Mount Marathon effects were felt for a few days after. TAR effects lasted a few months."

Hmmm.... sounds great!  Can't wait!   What about the "pleasure" Rob Halford sang about?

There are the endorphins.  Endorphins are a pure and highly addictive drug.  And because they must be earned, there is no guilt attached to consumption. 

But the lasting rewards are bound to be more complex, especially in a race like the TAR.

"Each day I finished the stage, I felt like I did something and achieved some level (physically and mentally) I never thought I  could," Brent said of his TAR experience. "This to me was not a feeling that could be replicated in any other race.  Having one of my best friends there to go step for step with me was how I dealt with the pain. He was there for me and I was there for him. We didn't want to let each other down."

No telling what stories of pain and pleasure lie in wait for Team Chugach. 

Stay tuned!