RUNNING UNDER THE INFLUENCE

I ran the 4 mile race in Central Park this morning on drugs. Not the good kind that makes you happy or enhances your performance. That's okay, I don't want those kinds of drugs. They feel like cheating and, besides, I don't do them very well. In college, for example, a young lady sharing a joint with me described my pot smoking technique as "like someone gargoling a hash brownie." Alcohol too. Never liked the taste and drinking more than half a glass makes me a little ill. My father, who had none of these problems when it came to enjoying a drink, sometimes wondered if, in fact, we were genetically related. So, no, I wasn't high on drugs this morning or even performance enhanced by them. I was on medicine; medicine that I began back in late April when my body decided that it was no longer going to pee. No consultation with me, no warning, just pffft in my office, no more pee. My doctors immediately knew that the problem was that my prostate (whose purpose is basically a mystery to me) felt that it required more room to perform it's unknown function and had begun to intrude on my urethra, impeding it's very simple purpose of carrying urine from my bladder to anywhere outside my body. They put me on flomax. While this helped me to pee again it also brought up scary thoughts of last year when, for less severe symptoms, I was also on the medication. Very nice, very helpful. And ruined my running. It didn't ruin my running right away although it did seem to quickly elevate my heart rate. I still managed some good runs and decent races until the weather became extremely warm. Then I couldn't run 3 miles without feeling so exhausted that I had to stop. The culmination was a horrible 5 mile race in June in which I averaged over 9 minutes per mile...a pace I'd normally do in a not very fast training run. From it I ambled over to my softball game in which I pulled a quad muscle while beating out an infield hit. Something had to be done. I stopped the flomax, my running improved and I hoped the symptoms wouldn't get worse. Which they didn't. Till they got much worse in April. So I was back on the medication. But I hoped that it wouldn't hurt my running so much for the following reasons: 1-Because maybe, you know, it just wouldn't. 2-Cause I changed to Rapiflow and, though it's the same category of drug maybe it would just be better. 3-I'm hydrating more. 4-I'm taking it as far from when I run as possible. 5-I really want it to. In fact my training has been better. Heart rate is lower, I don't have to stop and rest and I'm able to push the pace a bit. On the negative side, I'm a bit slower, a little more fatigued and I haven't pushed myself to run any long distance, nothing more than 8 miles. And I was warned that I might die. Not by a doctor but by a friend who was alarmed to hear that the medication elevates my heart rate. He warned me about tachycardia and arithmia and maybe other things too, it was hard to keep listening. I asked my doctor who said I should absolutely not worry and just enjoy my runs. And, of course, I did have the experience of running while under the influence most of last summer and nothing bad had happened. Nothing tells you your running condition then a race. But I've been shying away from them as I just felt reluctant to take on the all out effort, especially given that I've been a little slow and sluggish and there is that thought of dieing.... Today's race, however, was a good one because I'd raced it last year...AFTER I'd stopped taking the medication for about a month...so I thought it could really tell me something about where I stood. I completed it then in 33:03. If I could just run it a little faster, then, given similar weather conditions, that would be a pretty good thing. That's why I decided to do it. The race was scheduled for 8 AM and I arrived at 7. Sitting on the bench, putting on my racing shoes, team singlet and race number I began thinking that I really didn't want to be there. If it turned out that I was slower and knowing that I couldn't just decide to stop the medication (as long as I wanted to continue to be able to pee and not, as my podiatrist mentioned, turn yellow), then my running performance would be doomed. I could kiss running goodbye. As difficult as it is to maintain athletic ability through the aging process, this would be the last straw because of a Stupid Medication. And who's to say about tachycardia and arithmia, they're probably much more likely when running on hills, and.... Okay, it was a bit of an anxiety attack. I got up to begin my warm up jog. I took it slowly. As I gradually picked up the pace I felt less anxious. Soon I was in the coral near the starting line, listening to the pre race announcement. Several caused the other runners to applaud but I kept mine to a minimum. Energy saving mode. I kept reminding myself to go out slowly. I needn't have. The gun went off and it took a minute and a half to make it to the starting line. Even then it was too crowded to do anything but go along at the pace of those around me. Downhill we went, soon reaching the Boat House and the beginning of the dreaded Cat Hill with its statue of a leaping panther about half way up. I hadn't run on a single hill since April. Would my heart explode with this unfamiliar effort? Nope, never got above 150 beats per minute, around my usual racing pace. I did mile 1 in 7:57. Not bad! That put me well on pace to beat last year when I averaged 8:16 for the entire 4 miles. But though besting 12 months ago was the perfect goal I REALLY hoped I could be under 8 minutes. Nothing in my training suggested I could, but, still, that would be REALLY nice. Mile 2 has no tough hills so usually it's faster. But the Cat Hill climb had taken a lot out of me and I could only improve by a few seconds to 7:54. Two sub 8s in a row was a good thing and better than my fearful worst case scenario which involved either collapsing or quiting, but I also knew that I had no chance of continuing that pace for the entire distance. Mile 3 was nasty. It had the tough West Side Hills. And, worse, I was really tired. I pushed to go on, telling myself that every step put me in better shape. Then I hit the hills and forward progress seemed to stall. My legs felt really, really heavy. Other runners were passing me. I kept saying to just hang in. Then I saw the mile 3 marker not far ahead and my watch was not even at 7 minutes for the mile! Incredible! Expect it was the marker for the water station and toilet, not for mile 3. Oh, well. I finally trudged to the end of the third mile in 8:35. Yikes! Mile 4 began with the end of the last West Side Hill and was then mostly flat and slightly down. I'd love to say that I picked up the pace but I didn't have the energy to do that. The best I could do was maintain. By the way, did I mention that the day was really humid? It was! Sweat pored out of me even during the warmups. Not throwing that in here as an excuse. I'm just saying.... Now in my training runs I'd sometimes run a few miles fast. Of late I've not been able to do more than 3 of them. Then I'd be too tired to push on. At that point I'd usually walk to the nearby water fountain, drink, splash myself, rest a moment and then continue on at a much slower pace. But I couldn't do that here of course, as this was a FOUR mile race. So every fairly, moderately fast step I took beyond mile 3 felt really good, something better than I'd done in the last several months. I turned on to the 72nd Street transverse and finished the final mile in 8:13. My official time is 32:40 and that is 24 seconds faster than last year. That's clearly a good thing. What's more, I think (from various clues) that weather conditions were worse today. So I could have been even quicker had the weather cooperated. At some future race, it will. Sitting, relaxing, recovering afterwards and chatting with other racers I felt good. I certainly did the best I could today and I'm confident I'll get faster as I continue to train. Whether I can completely overcome the impact of running under the influence I don't know, but at least I'm looking forward to the next race.