Earlier this year, a very good friend said that they wanted to do a marathon for their 60th birthday. While I’ve avoided marathons to this point, I was willing to get the training in because of them.
When my second half of the year (Holy Half) sold out before I could register, I went looking for other halfs that would fit into my calendar. What I found was the Warrior Dash in Wheaton.
With it being on a trail, the RD allowed us to begin before the main start. This helped us to get most of the first loop in before the crowds came.
The race began with roughly a half mile on grass, followed by about a mile uphill on the path. The race itself was a lot of up and down hills, with minimal flats.
As we got back towards the grass (heading in to start loop 2), I was in a decent amount of pain. When we got back to the turnaround, my left leg was completely numb.
After standing for a few minutes and trying to get feeling back to it, I wanted to go back out. But after less than a hundred feet onto the second loop, I could feel it going numb again.
At that point, I made the decisioin that it wasn’t safe to try and push it. I was concerned about potentially tearing something — especially with the first 1.5 miles being a long, challenging stretch. So I had to throw in the towel and accept the DNF.
While the day didn’t go as I had hoped, it was still a great event. I’m grateful to John for guiding and all his help and support. I’m also grateful to the RDs and the rest of the staff for their help and support!
