Day 4,209—Behind on Everything and Part II of the OT 100!—

 

      I am running behind now, but I just finished the second section, part II of the race. This morning, I was thinking about how lucky I am that I haven’t been injured to the point where I have had to stop my streak. Injury could happen to anyone, and the only reason it hasn’t happened to me is luck and not because I have somehow figured out the perfect way to prevent injury. So many people who succeed at anything convince themselves that it is because they have done something to deserve it. I know for me this is not true. I do what I can, but so many times I have been so close to serious injury, and only luck has kept me going this far.

 

Part II: The Tape Keeps Falling Off, but I keep Moving Forward

 

        I went and gathered the tape and reattached it to my shoe. It lasted a little longer and then fell off again. I bent down again and put it back, trying to curl the tape back to keep it from sliding off. When I started running, I was feeling like it was holding on a little better, and I was trying to decide on a strategy to know how frequently I should be stopping. Should I wait until it falls off, or should I tighten it up when I feel it getting loose? I didn’t want to spend too much time messing with it, but I also didn’t want to lose the tape and have to spend more time going back to find it.

        I ended up letting people pass me only to catch them when my tape was on, and then they would pass me when I was bent down trying to get it back on. The next aid station was only at 19.3 miles, so hopefully they would have duct tape, and I would be able to put it on so it doesn’t keep falling off. When I made it to the next aid station, Stillwell Hollow, I was desperate to get this fixed. They had duct tape! I sat down and explained the situation to the volunteers. Someone asked me if they were a favorite pair of shoes. I told her no and that I hadn’t even put that many miles on these shoes. They might have a couple hundred miles on them. She suggested I write a review. She asked me where my other pair of shoes were.

        “At the Hazel Creek at mile 65.” She asked me if I was sure it wasn’t at a closer aid station, but I told her I was sure. I could tell how much she wanted to help me. She offered me her duct tape, but it was an almost full roll, so I didn’t want to carry something that heavy. This might seem like an inane decision in retrospect, but at the time, I truly believed that the tape solution would work. I just didn’t do a good job my first time trying. This time, a guy helped me do it and taped both of them up as best he could, putting on many more layers than I did in the past. I was confident it was going to work better this time!

        The tape on my right foot immediately fell off. It was the foot that had worked up until that point. Now, it was suddenly like my left foot had been and started to fall off. When it did, I would put it back on the best I could, tighten my shoes, and start running again. Then I would try to think of the positives. At least it is not falling off both shoes. At least I am distracted thinking about my shoes and not focused on something being wrong with my body. At least I am getting plenty of breaks, and I have no risk of exhausting myself early. The negatives were there too, but I was doing my best to counter everyone with something positive, and if not positive, neutral. It is easy to see what is wrong all the time, much more difficult to be optimistic. I was losing daylight!!! And with daylight gone, it will be hard to make up time on the second half because the terrain will require me to go slower so I don’t fall. I knew this was true, but I chose not to think about it. I instead thought maybe there will be fewer rocks and roots after the sun goes down. Also, my headlamp was at mile 47.2, which initially seemed like an easy goal to complete in 12 hours, but now that I was going at a pace that was dependent on my shoes, I didn’t know if I would make that cutoff. I did not want to be out there in the dark. I could use the light on my phone and walk if it came to it, but my phone battery was already depleting quickly. I have two power banks in drop bags, but I was unsure how the charging would work because lately my phone had been finicky about connecting to a charger cord. There was nothing I could do about any of these things, which made them all feel so scary, but at the same time irrelevant because I could do nothing about it.

        By the time I made it to the next aid station at 24.6, I still only had tape on one of my feet, except it was the opposite foot. This time, the aid workers knew about me. The woman at 19.3 must have radioed ahead and told them to expect me. I got my water refilled, and I sat down again to tape up my shoes. I was still ambitious to try something different this time with the tape. I put tape on both shoes with one of the aid workers help. I was trying to learn from my mistakes and not give up on the idea, but once again, as soon as I started back on the trail, the tape started falling off again.

        This time, on my right foot, the tape was coming off on both sides, and on my left shoe, it was sliding off. Both of my shoes had the sides ripped, so I could slide out of them, but consistently, my left shoe was worse than my right. With my right foot, I could manage running slowly and carefully without tape and be okay, but with my left shoe, it was almost impossible. I tried to run faster, only to fall on my face and cut my finger. It took a couple more falls before I started slowing down on all treacherous terrain. I had accepted any area where the rocks were unavoidable; I would need to walk. I would get into a rhythm, and then the tape would fall off. I would start to feel optimistic about my progress, and then someone who I was far ahead of a short time ago would pass me. Then, I would have to wade through water at a stream crossing, and the tape would get looser and start catching on rocks and roots as I was running. More than once, I caught myself almost tripping because of something catching the tape, and more than once, I wouldn’t catch myself, and I would fall. I started thinking maybe tape was the wrong solution, and if I only had some small rope or shoelaces, tying that around my feet might be enough to keep them secure.

        When I made it to the next aid station at mile 31.3, I was less optimistic about finding a solution that worked and was content with having to struggle through each mile, frequently having to secure my feet. However, the guy at this aid station and the woman who helped me were different. The guy said he had something like this happen before, and he had gorilla tape as opposed to duct tape. We strategized before we started. I explained how I thought the rope might work, so the woman who was there cut off the bungee cord she had on her headlamp to let me use it. He carefully layered the Gorilla tape on both shoes and then let me tie the cord around the left shoe. Lastly, he put athletic tape around each foot over the gorilla tape. He explained that it would be tighter than the Gorilla tape. Before I left, he handed me the rest of the Gorilla and white athletic tape. I thanked them both profusely and started back out on the trail. Would this solution work? I was cautiously optimistic. It certainly felt more secure.