WTF was I thinking

To finish off the weekend up at Squamish, I could not have predicted what I got myself into. I started Sunday morning off with a complainypants blog write up about how I did not run the race (if you can't tell I'm still bitter about it), while my parents were getting ready. We decided to have lunch together and then go our separate ways. They headed off to the Sea to Sky Gondola while I headed over to Farside aid station to hang out and hopefully get a jump on the traffic home.

How I started my afternoon

So I made it to Farside and ended up just hanging out with everyone watching the runners come through. So I didn't feel like I was completely useless I did cut up some watermelon but that was about it. The day progressed and I found out that traffic was already getting backed up so I knew it was going to be a late evening. Oh well I didn't have anywhere to be so I was okay with that.

As the last runner to clear the cut off comes through, over the radio Kyle hears about runners getting stopped by a bear that wouldn't move. That when everything became "interesting" (I'm using quotes because I don't think interesting is the right word). This is when Kyle, Courtney & I volunteered go go scare the bear away. Like the title says, WTF was I thinking, I don't chase bear, I run away from them. 

We made good time getting into the forest and I couldn't remember a lot of the trail, lucky Kyle knew where we were going. We'd made a couple short cuts and caught up to the last runner who was very scared of the bear. We'd stay with him from this point on. We'd come across a cub and talked to a few fellow hikers and bikers. From what we could gather the mother and cubs were making their way from Mount of Phlegm. We picked up the sweeps and another marshall by the time we were on our way down. So overall I can't say we actually did much bear chasing but it was still exciting. 

By the time we got to where I could hop off the course, the others took off ahead of us and Kyle and I decided to also run to the finish. Kyle, Courtney, Jennifer & the other sweep (sorry I can't remember your name) I can't thank you enough for turning my first DNS into a very fun adventure. Although I didn't get to run the race, I was able to appreciate the last 10k and it's not as hard as I remembered. I still think I should of ran on Saturday & Sunday but glad I didn't since I didn't want to end up in the hospital. 

For those who are interested, I haven't had any kidney pain since Saturday morning at 2-3ish and haven't needed to take any medication since then. Sorry to disappoint those who like to hear about my sufferfest, I promise to make sure I have a sufferfest soon enough.

I should be back to my usual adventures with good stories soon enough. Until then let's hope I pass the stone quickly and painlessly or painfully if you want me to cry. On the plus side kidney stone pain is suppose to like child birth so I'll always have that.

Emergency

I was excited about Squamish 50 weekend, I had something to prove to myself and deep down I knew it was going to be hard but doable weekend. I felt my little issues with muscle soreness and tight tendons was all resolved. I had mostly everything packed up and Friday morning I spent at the parental units place using their printer. That's when things fell apart for me.

It started at around 7:30AM, I had a very familiar pain on my left side, dull at the beginning but within 30 minutes it was getting more intense. I looked at my mom and said, "We've got to go."

We rushed out of the house and headed straight for the hospital. I got into emergency and the pain was getting excruciating. Lucky there wasn't a lot of people there and the staff got me into a room and started pumping some good drugs into me very shortly. My worst fear for the weekend was answered, kidney stones. I've had them before a little over 4 years ago and I remembered the pain.

After spending most of the day in the emergency room, I was still thinking how I will start in the morning. I decided I will to go full steam ahead with plans and see how I feel in the morning. The doctor did hook me up with some really good painkillers.

The pain did die down and I wasn't taking the full strength of the medication I was allowed to so I thought I might have a chance to start. But at 2AM, 3.5hours before the start of the 50miler, I woke up with mild pain increasing. I took some more meds and made the sad realization that Squamish 50/50 this year will not happen and this will be my first DNS. It was a tough pill to swallow and I went back to bed to have myself a little pity party.

It was a bitter sweet ending to my weekend plans, sad that I wasn't able to at least start but happy that I wouldn't be out there in the killer heat. On the bright side I was able to spend more time with the parental units. I even helped out crewing for Nancy with friends, when I say crewing I was mostly playing with Pheadra. Plus I got the best story to embarrass Pheadea with, while at chilling at Furtherside aid station, I was holding her up and all of a sudden I felt something wet dripping on my foot. It turned out that Pheadra was leaking out of her diaper and basically peeing on my foot. I yelled over to Sean and let him know what happen. I think everyone there had a good laugh.

So my weekend didn't turn out as planned but I still got to spend it with family and friends. Sorry Gary I wasn't able to start but I did gain a new fan.