My one and only call of shame was early last summer on the first 30 mile training run I tried, I have shortened other training runs or walked home but this is the only one where I had to call for help. I planned to do it on flat dirt roads with a stash of water and food at mile 10 then run 5 past and back to my stash then home. It was a easy simple to follow plan, right?
That night a few friends stop by and we ended up playing a few card games and probably drank a few to many beers so my 4 am start time turned into 7am and it was already hot and sticky but out the door I went. About 2 miles in I already felt thirsty, those beers dried me out more than I thought and my first hand held bottle was gone in no time. A mile 8 I realized I put my stash 2 mile short of the 10 I planned, I took a good drink, ate a PB&J, filled my bottle and figured what the heck it's only two miles farther. The second bottle didn't last much longer than the first and by 15 I knew I was in trouble. The sun was beating hard on that east west road and the trees and farm land offered little in the way of shade. By mile 18 I was doing more walking than running and felt like I was overheating, by 20 I felt foggy headed and beat. I came across a weed filled ditch with a mucky bottom but it had a small trickle of water in the bottom. I didn't dare drink any of the water but it sure felt good to lay down in it and cool off. After about 15 minutes of laying in the mucky water I started getting my senses back I started to figure I was still 2 miles from any drinkable water and food and 10 from home, I said heck with it and made the call. When the wife got there she made me ride in the back of the truck cause I was covered in black stinky muck from the creek. I think this is her favorite story to tell whenever the subject of running comes up.
In hind sight I think I learned more from this failed run than any of my successful training runs.
Tell us about your failed training run.
Great thread!
This past summer, my neighbors and I went to the local state park for a 3 hour run. The plan was for D and me to run an out and back. When we turned around, we were to call R, his wife who is slower than us, and tell her to turn around too. Two miles in and the deerflies were SO BAD that I had gagged on them twice. I made the call and we turned around to go home and finish on roads. When we reached R, she was so bloody from deerfly bites that we initially thought she'd been a crime victim.
D and R dropped me back at my house - I was going to exchange some gear - and the plan was for me to run to D's (0.5 mile) and pick him up to finish our run. When I got to Ds, he was sitting in an adirondack chair on his lawn looking pathetic. It was really humid. D made it 0.2 miles with me before bagging it due to the humidity. He went home but I soldiered on. Three miles later, I was hot and miserable and I bought a slushie. Not even the slushie could save my run, though, and about two miles after buying the slushie, I found myself sitting under a tree at the high school feeling sorry for myself.
flashlight and sidewalk
Last winter I mapped out a 25ish mile long run. The plan was to run 8 miles from my place to the Long Path, follow the Long Path North for 12 miles, then work my way back into civilization where I would catch the train back to my house. My GF was going to a family event in the city, so I was fully invested in knocking out this run. At about mile 14, I was miserable. I was severely chaffing in my tights and nothing I tried was helping...it was bad. I was seriously dreading the next 10 miles, especially since I was running in an unknown area and I was moving slowly on the snowy trails. Right when I hit my lowest point, I felt my phone vibrating. It was DGF who was calling to let me know that she wasn't going into the city after all. I do not regret asking her to come get me. I went another 2 miles to our agreed upon meetup spot and shivered there for 30 minutes, but it was worth it to stop the chaffing. I haven't attempted the run since, but this exercise is making me think about getting revenge...I'll wait for shorts season though.
PS I did manage to sort out the chaffing in the tights issue with some decent underoos...I think it was a combo of friction and cold that caused it.
**Ask me about streaking**
Tim
I think I told this story before, on RWOL, so sorry if you've seen it before.
Going back about 20 years (when cell phones were car phones) we were on vacation at the Outer Banks (Duck, NC) and I planned a long run because I had a fall marathon. My idea was for DW to drop me off 20 miles from our rental house and I would run back along the road and bike path. It was a hot August day and I tried to start early to beat the high heat. She dropped my off at exactly the 20 mile mark and I was off. I carried only one water bottle and had some money in my shorts. I filled up my bottle along the way at any vacant house that had a visible hose out front. The heat was unrelenting and I was getting slower by the mile. I decided to make a slight detour to jump in the ocean to cool off, and was almost immediately stung by a jelly fish on my right thigh. It was a pretty good sting, so I packed some sand on the leg stated walking. I had 6 miles to go and things were going down hill fast as my leg was killing me. I walked another mile to a small store and pulled out my wet money to buy a Gatorade and get change for the pay phone (remember those). I had the number of our rental house on a small piece of paper, but it was too wet to read, so I called the Realtor's office and asked them if they could call my wife so she could pick me up along the road. Not knowing how much time I had, I continued on, and about a 2 miles before our place I see my wife coming towards me. This was before she was running any long distances, and all could say was "I hope you had fun". My reply was "well,at east I got in 18".
“Paralysis-to-50k” training plan is underway!
Nice stories!
I shared this one in June: http://trailsanity.blogspot.com/2013/06/desolation-wilderness-trip-report-june.html
3/8 Way Too Cool 50k WNS
4/19 Tehama Wildflowers 50k
I didn’t call in for a ride, but it was an epic bailout on a planned 20 mile run. Last May a friend and I drove to a park about an hour from home to do a nice 20 mile loop trail. A typical sweltering pre-dawn run with 100% humidity, welcome to east Texas in the summer. It was brutal and we started out really slowly.
But by mile 10 my stomach was so bad all I had to do was stop before the barfing started. Mile 10 !!! We were at the far end of the loop, but fortunately I knew a shortcut back to the car. I was a bit light-headed but the stomach was so bad that it made me stop before I got into any really bad heat-related stuff. I barfed another time on my walk back to the car, giving me a total of 16 run/walk miles. My friend decided that he would continue on the full loop. After dinking some water at the car I had another barf session while I was waiting for him. He was toast when he got to the car and told me he wished that he had taken the same shortcut that I did.
In the end I was so messed up, he drove us home in my car. We had to pull over twice on the way home so I could barf again. So I didn't call for a ride, but got a ride home in my own car. I was kind of woozy the rest of the day.
The worst part, the family was supposed to go out to dinner that night for my DD’s birthday and I was in such bad shape that they reschedule the dinner to the next weekend. I was kinda in the doghouse for a while, because they had told me that perhaps I shouldn't do a longish run that day.
tbd.
Occasional Runner
This has only happened once, but like with most bad things that happen to me, it was pretty dramatic.
I was running a section of the AT in Virginia on a perfect fall day. My wife and her Father had dropped me off at a trailhead and left together to go get breakfast at a nearby lodge. I was going to do a point to point run and they were scheduled to pick me up at another trailhead in a couple of hours.
About 5 miles into my run, I was making a steep descent and I was having a lot of fun with it. I was launching over rocks and logs, just acting like a kid. As I launched myself over a fallen tree, I noticed a few loose rocks on the other side. These rocks were about the size of my head and were just lying in the middle of the trail. I tried to avoid them but there was nowhere to go so I tried to land directly on top one of them. As I did, my weight shifted, my ankle rolled and I heard a loud CRACK! I tumbled to the ground in a hard landing and didn't move for a while. I eventually got the nerve to uncover my ankle and take a look. It was already swollen to the size of my knee and it had turned black. I got up and tried to put weight on it and pain shot through my body. I was screwed.
I didn't know where I was, so I just began to hobble down the trail. I eventually found an access point to the road and sat in the grass while I called my wife. No answer. I sent texts and kept calling. Nothing. So I decided to hobble down the road. Eventually, I had to rest on the shoulder of the road. While sitting there, my wife and FIL drove by and saw me. It turns out they didn't have cell signal where they were and had no idea I was hurt. They loaded me up and I spent the rest of the weekend being pampered by Jo while her Father made fun of me.
A week later I was healed and set a PR at the Baltimore Marathon followed by another fast marathon in Syracuse NY the following day. I've been far more cautious with my screwing off during technical descents since then.
^ That is one of my running nightmares I often think about while I trudging through a long run during some of this extreme cold weather. I m always asking myself would I be able to make it home right now if I rolled a ankle? Some days I think I could roll my ankle on a dime.
Gatoreye, I worry about this too. Actually, I don't worry so much because I pack a ridiculous amount of extra clothing.
I've only fallen 7 times while trail running and I broke multiple ribs on 2 of those occasions. A ride wasn't possible either time, but if it had been, I would have taken it.
Le professeur de trail
I have not called for a ride...yet. But last fall I was attempting a long run (something in the 3-4 hour range. I was out early and got in probably 90 minutes before light. About 3 miles in, I needed a bathroom bad. I was not in the woods though. I ran from my house to a local park and hit some trails there. Not remote enough to use nature (well most of the time). Long story short - about 5 distinct bear attacks between two parks. The one park I made loops (1.25 mile) and each time around I needed to go. About the 5th time I was done. Ran the mile home with my tail between my legs. Sometimes it is just not worth it to keep going. But I have not called for a ride...yet.
My favorite day of the week is RUNday
Faster Than Your Couch!
Run for fun.
I am a very crappy hot weather runner and just can't seem to acclimate to it since I had the onset of heat stress during a HM several years ago. Well, I had planned on doing a hilly 15 mile run on some paved paths at a park about 30 minutes away. I had a 70oz camelbak, S!Caps, an either gu chomps or honeystinger chews. To try and beat the heat I started my run at about 6-6:30, but the humidity had me sweating profusely by the end of the first mile. Thankfully, I had planned the route so the farthest I was from my vehicle would be about 5 miles. I made it to the first turnaround point (5 miles) and was already really dragging. About a half mile after the turnaround point, I stopped for about five minutes in the shade under an overpass. I had probably already drank close to half the water as well. I started running again and noticed my HR shot up high fairly quick. I decided to walk any shaded areas to help cool me down and run the sunny areas (not sure if that helped or hurt me). I made it to about mile eight and started to get light headed and a case of the chills started. About this time I noticed my HR was barely coming down during my walking portions, so when I came to a overlook that had a bench in the shade I took advantage of it and rested for probably 30 minutes to an hour. I dumped some of the water on my hat and used it to help cool me down. After I felt better, I ran about another half mile before shutting it down and walking back to my car. The planned 15 mile run ended up being 10 miles and took me about 1.5 hours longer than the 15 miles should have taken.
I spent the rest of the day feeling really fatigued and just couldn't get warm. To date, that has been my most miserable failed training run.
Eric
FTYC, that sounded like a near miss, thankfully you DH was around to rescue you. I ve had one major mistake in cold weather with my choice of clothing but lucky for me I made it home before I totally locked up. That experience changed the way I do long runs in extreme cold, I still don't carry extra clothes but I now plan shorter loops or loops with short cuts in case of weather change.
Lace, Running with freshly broken ribs had to be the worst. I broke a couple a week or so before Christmas and had to take a week or so off before I could even think about running again. Even now if I twist right I can still feel them.
It was absolutely miserable, but I won CC100 and ATY 48 Hour with broken ribs, so maybe that's my secret to success.