IAAF World Team Championships of Race Walking..... Done!

Deep breath in..... hold it.... aaaannnndddd exhale!  Whew!  This is the first time since the race that I've sat down at my computer with WIFI for longer than 10 minutes.  Wow, oh wow, what a week it's been.

I purposely laid low before the race.  I had no idea what my reception was going to be there and was trying to keep my stress/anxiety level down.   Luckily there were some fantastic people on the team that were able to keep me laughing.  And of course going around Rome was amazing. 

An interesting side note.  A lot has been going around about how Team USA did.  I'm not going to get into that, but one thing I've been thinking about is this:  We don't get many chances to travel to race.  Sure, we race in the US, but that's a known quantity.  You know the food, you know the language, things like that.  You leave a day or two before the race, so any tapering you do is at home.  When you travel so far there's a lot more to it.  You've got the flight and the jet lag.  You've got new food to figure out if your tummy likes.  You're in a foreign environment, which for some is a small stressor.  There was a lot of concern about going out and doing tourist things before the race, afraid that we'd go out and walk ourselves to death.  I get it, I know that standing in a museum for three hours can make my feet as sore as a 50K.  But, if I was at home I would be tapering, but still doing things.  I'd be working in the garden, taking care of the animals, doing housework, doing yard work.  I'd be active and out and about.  When I'm overseas I don't have those things to do.  I personally would go totally crazy if I was sitting in a hotel all day for 5 days before a race.  And I know my body well enough to know how much I can take with walking around.  I actually think that more people who stayed in the hotel and didn't do touristy things got sick than those who went out and about.  But that's one thing that needs to be practiced, and one thing that other countries have over us, practice tapering away from home.

At the Vatican with Dee Mahoney, physio extraordinaire!

Anyway, it was great watching the juniors race.  AJ went for it and couldn't quite hold it, but still was less than a minute of his PB on an international stage.  It's motivated him to work harder, which is great :)  And it was fun cheering for all the other people I know and have met from other countries.  We had some PBs in the junior races which is great.

Very proud of this kid! 

I didn't watch the senior races, because that I knew would be too much standing and excitement.  Luckily it was on TV so I got to watch it!  Definitely got me excited for my race!

I woke up earlier than I usually would for a 9:00 race and I didn't need my alarm.  I also ate earlier than I normally would because I could tell I had some butterflies in my tummy flying around.  I didn't want any issues so I figured the earlier I could digest the better.  that was totally the right call as I didn't have any tummy issues at all.

The 6:30 bus left and arrived at the stadium about 7:00.  That left lots of time for a potty break (the porta potties were n-a-s-t-y) and getting loose.  I didn't really walk to warm up at that point, just did some mobility stuff, and was feeling nice and loose.  That's mainly due to Dee Mahoney working on me and getting stuff moving and teaching me some incredible mobility exercises that are going to help me get my full range of motion back for the future. 

It can't be all serious before the race, I'd be a mess, so why not jump on the podium?

We got called to the call room and I headed in.  I saw some people I knew and said hi.  I had some guys I didn't know come up and shake my hand, which was very touching.  No one said anything negative or shot me any bad looks, so that was really nice.  As we headed to the course there were people lining the course who were smiling at me and giving me thumbs up.  A few asked to have their picture taken with me.  When we got to the start line I did some walking and pick ups and felt great.  More people wanted photos with me, and the announcer announced me, which was cool.  I was doing my best not to get over excited, but my heart rate had been probably 15-20 beats higher than normal since I'd woken up. 

Finally we lined up.  How cool is that, we... me and the guys.... we lined up to start a 50K.  I was lining up at the start line of an international 50K!!!!!!  The gun went off and it hit me.   Look where I was!  Look what I was doing!!!! Oh my gosh!!!!  I started to choke up a little.  To actually be there, to have done it, to have made it, was just surreal.  But I threw that out of my mind and got down to business.  My plan was to go out at 4:35:00 pace, which is 5:30 per K pace.  I felt pretty unsure of pace, especially across the cobble stones, but when Ian and I got to the K mark we were at 5:32, almost like we planned it :)  I settled into my pace and it felt great.  Felt easy and smooth. 

I was staying very focused, but it was hard, because it felt like EVERYONE on the sidelines were cheering for me!  The announcer kept announcing my name and people would yell and cheer.  I couldn't help but smile.  After the race people said I got more cheers than anyone else.  Other nations were cheering, tons of Italians were cheering, the people at the aid stations for other countries were cheering for me, it was nuts. 

My plan was to get through 25K at pace and then start to kick it down a little.  As the race went on I felt like it was going to be perfect, I was on pace, a bit over, but nothing crazy.  So 25K came and I thought, yes, let's start to pick it up..... got to the next split, and I slowed down!  What?!?!?!  I didn't feel like I went slower.  So I collected myself and thought, okay, back up we go!  And was still slower.  And that's how the rest of the race sort of went.  I gradually slowed down, at one point decently slow.  It was so frustrating because I wasn't sure why I was slowing down.  By 40K I think it was just the beating from going at that slower pace.

IAAF says that you have to start your last lap by 4:35:00.  As the race was getting close to the end I started to be worried that I wouldn't make it.  Also, I didn't know exactly where "the last lap" was.  usually on a 2K course it's at the start/finish line.  It ended up that in this race it wasn't, which was a very good thing.  Had it been the 2K location I wouldn't have made it.  All the people at the lap counting area were rooting for me (and some of the officials I think)  With 3 or 4 laps to go they were cheering me on, saying, "You can make it!"  With two laps to go I was so worried, I really wanted to be able to finish.  Then one of the officials came over on the track and said, "You have 7 minutes!  Go!"  I looked at my watch and it was 4:30:00.  I had seven minutes to get over there.  Some of you may be doing math right now and saying, wait a minute, you said 4:35:00.  4:30:00 plus seven minutes is 4:37:00.  I agree.  And I don't know what made them change their mind.  I think it was just that they really wanted me to be able to finish as well. 

Tony, from New Zealand, can confirm this next bit.  When the official said I had seven minutes and I looked at the time I was still nervous.  I let out a crazy primal scream.  Mike Manozzi had just lapped me, so he was up in front of me about 15 meters.  I took off like a maniac.  The scream almost took all my air, but it got me fired up.  I took off.  I have no idea where the power to do it came from, but I brought my next split down to 5:40.  I had been at almost 6:40.  I was walking terrified. 

Some of this next bit comes from me and some from someone who was standing there, so this is pieced together.  I was coming to the lap counters looking at the officials.  I saw one walking towards me, but I wasn't really watching him.  My friend said he was making a motion as if I should stop.  But I didn't see him, I was looking at everyone else.  They were making a "calm down" motion with their hands, like I could slow down.  I yelled "did I make it?  Can I finish?"  And they said yes!  My friend said the one official looked like he was going to stop me until he saw the look on my face and then just sort of shrugged his shoulders.  I came across with one lap to go at 4:36:15!

It was a good thing they told me I could back off a little bit as the pace I had picked up to was not sustainable for me.  The last lap was fun, knowing that I was almost done.

As I came through the last time I went off the 2K loop and started up and around.  People were there yelling and screaming.  I saw Federica, the Italian girl I roomed with in China.  I said hi to her and asked her how she was doing.  She looked at me like I was crazy and said fine.  It was sort of the fine of, I'm great, standing here on the sidelines while you're racing a 50K!  I think it was partly I was so tired....  as I came down the straight to go into the stadium I started to get very emotional and almost hyperventilated myself. 

I came down into the stadium and the stands were full of people who were standing and yelling and cheering for me!  They had held the team awards so people were still there and the crowd was amazing!  I had done it! 

Coming in to the finish

I came across the line and there were cameras everywhere!  People were having me look every which way for photos.   I had I think six interviews, which was crazy.  My friends were coming up and hugging me, it was awesome.

My time was not what I wanted.  I finished 4:51 and some change, I'm not even sure.  But I never stopped, I never thought of stopping.  I always kept fighting.  I slowed down, but I was fighting it every step.  Someone said that the USA walkers don't fight for it.  I can tell you I fought for it.  I never gave up.  it would've been easy to have slowed up and not made the cutoff time, but I didn't want to do that.  I was passing guys, it just happened that once I passed them they would DNF. 

I placed 40th out of 68 starters (I think that's the right number, I may be off by one or two).  I did what some of the best walkers in the world couldn't do, finish.  And I will take a finishing time/place over a DNF any day, even for those who say you shouldn't be happy with being at the back of the pack.  I think finishing is more important than going out hard and dying and then stopping.  My opinion....

Since then I went to the athlete party, which was great.  I toured the Colesseum, which was really hard to walk around that much the day after the race.  I went and toured Pompeii and Mt. Vesuvius, which was amazing.  Now I'm in Vienna for a few days before heading to Budapest to stay with my friend.  Then I will meet Dave in Naumburg.  I'm thinking/hoping to race there..... no, not 50K, 20K.  Then we go to Brussels and race a 5,000 and then to La Coruna for a 20K.  That race I will for sure do.  The walking around I've been doing has been hard but I can tell it's helping recovery.  I will probably try RWing in a few days, right now I just want to enjoy myself for a while and figure out goals/plans for the future. 

Day after the 50K, seeing some sights.

Looking down into Mt. Vesuvius

Pompeii was incredible.  They had some very cool art in the town too.

 

Thank you again to everyone who believed in me and supported me.  To those who didn't, oh well, I still made it without you! 

Oh, and our second calf was born.  Now that we have two we can announce their names:  Essen und Fressen which means food and feed in German, since that's the country we'll be racing in together :)