A review of the Susquehanna Super Hike......will have to wait until a different year

The theme of this blog post is about making tough decisions.

Last week I wrote about how much I was looking forward to running the Susquehanna Super Hike and Ultra Trail Run. This was going to be my last big race of 2012. All the work and sacrifice was aimed at completing THIS event. It was going to be my longest, hardest, most challenging race yet. I was ready for it in every aspect. The training was put in, I had tapered just like before every other big race, and gone over all the other small stuff. Try to get more rest in the week leading up to race—check. Drink more water to stay full hydrated—check. Garmin watch full charged, a change of clothes for after the race, and two alarms set so I make sure I get up on time—check, check...and you guessed it, check.

Apparently my body didn't totally get the message though!

The day before the race, Friday, I woke up not feeling 100%. My throat was just a little sore and scratchy, I had a stuffy nose, and I was a little tired. Nothing real bad, but enough that it was a nuisance. By mid morning my stuffy nose turned into a runny nose and stayed that way for most of the day.

I had really wished throughout Friday that I would start to feel better and hopefully when I got up early on Saturday I would feel closer to 100%. That was just wishful thinking!

Partly because of not be used to going to bed that early and partly because of nervous energy, I wasn't able to get to sleep on Friday night when I wanted to. That didn't help matters much. About four hours after I fell asleep, at 3:15AM, my alarms went off. I sat up and assessed how I felt and slowly made my way to the kitchen to eat. I still had the same symptoms as on Friday. I still didn't feel 100% either—more like 75 or 80% really.

Having run three marathons previously, I knew what effort and amount of energy it takes and what you feel like after 26.2 miles. And that's when I felt the way I should! Those other three marathons were run on the road too, with two of them on a pancake flat course—much easier than a trail race. The SuperHike was 28.4 miles of constant up and down on a (mostly) rugged course. It would be twice as tough as my other previous marathons.

I thought about going and simply hiking the course instead of running it, since that was truly an option in this event. That's were my second obstacle entered the picture. Weather forecasts predicted a moderate chance of severe thunderstorms in the early-mid afternoon timeframe. One local station forecasted up to 60 mph winds, heavy downpours, possible hail, and frequent lightning. Even had I ran the entire course I would have finished just before the predicted timeframe of these storms moving though the area. I knew I couldn't run the entire course! So now even if I hiked just part of the course, yet alone much or all of it, that meant doing it in those stormy conditions. Not exactly fun! Rain—OK I can put up with rain, but high wind and lightning isn't something to fool around with when you're in the woods.

So there I was sitting in my kitchen at 3:30AM Saturday morning wondering what I should do. I made the tough decision.

I chose not to even go to the race.

With having cold symptoms and trying to beat severe weather conditions, I felt attempting the Super Hike was simply too much for me on THIS particular day.

In retrospect now, I know I made the right decision. I felt a little tired the entire weekend after just doing stuff around the house and a little yardwork. I think 28.4 miles on that course would have done me in and I would have been sick for awhile. I had one cold this summer that lasted for two weeks—I felt miserable. I didn't want to possibly feel that way again—struggling to get to my college classes and suffering through the 8 hours of walking I do at my job.

I must admit though, the runner in me was both sad and angry on Saturday morning—wishing my body would have picked a different time to throw a minor cold at me. I had put a lot of hard training runs in for this race. The training run at the state park near where I live where I ran part or all of the longest hill I could find six times to train myself for hills when I felt tired. The training run that because of the heat and humidity, I felt like stopping after only five miles but knew I may face those same conditions come race day so I continued on for a total of 16.2 miles.

I don't regret choosing not to go to the Super Hike, but as you can see, it was a very tough decision to let go of something I wanted so much.