Part 2
Ronald Boos is a member of Team Ordinary and the United States Marine Corps. A whiz at trivia, he can be found frequently on our Early Morning Zwift Training Rides. This is Part 2 of a 3-part series. If you missed Part 1, you can see it here.
The folly of the ignorant:
The miles were ticking off one by one. I felt good, really good. I came upon the first aid station at mile 8 feeling a little cocky. I was ahead of my goal pace but figured that if I felt good it wasn’t an issue. (Strike 1).
I grabbed some orange slices, refilled my water and continued forward. At some point in this first stretch I wasn’t paying full attention while removing warming layers and I slipped on the trail, banging and cutting my knee. I’ve run through injuries small and large before, this would be no big deal. I rinsed it off and kept moving forward, a little tenderly at first but shortly after it was as if nothing happened.
I found myself keeping pace with a group of runners that had experience on this course from years prior. What I didn’t realize at the time was that they were completing the 18 mile race, not the 50, and that they were pacing themselves accordingly. (Strike 2).
Around mile 14 I started going uphill, and kept going, and kept going. After 4 miles, and 1,110ft of climbing, I came back upon the starting line, which was also the first drop bag area. I swapped my hydration bladder, grabbed my stage 2 bag of nutrition, received encouragement from my brother-in-law / last minute crew, and pushed ahead.
The New Normal
COVID has obviously thrown a shadow across sports worldwide. How does one find the motivation to train when there’s no event to train for; worse yet when faced with the disappointment of full calendars suddenly empty?
I’ve always had the luxury of training for a monster in the distance – some big scary beast that I must prepare for. When events began falling off the horizon there wasn’t anything to keep me honest with training. I try to live by the concept that when motivation fails, discipline prevails. It’s hard to use that mantra when you feel like it’s your discipline that failed you. Faced with a lack of motivation and underlying doubt of discipline, I simply stopped.
For the first time in 3 years I missed more than 2 days in a row of training, and that snowballed into over 2 months. But there was something, the Ordinary Marathon was there to get me back into the swing of things. Sure, it’s a 10-day virtual race. There’s no starting cannon or finishing arch, but there’s a midnight madness mile, and a crazy final day (for two people this year at least). I poured everything I had into ticking off the miles, determined to exact revenge for the year prior. 163 running and 116 cycling miles later I came out on top of an epic back and forth battle that relit the pilot light of my discipline.
The Ordinary Marathon, combined with the shiny new habit of cycling, kicked me out of my funk and gave me new purpose in our crazy corner of sports. After years of wanting to attempt a triathlon but not having a bike or time, a new determination, a road bike, and being furloughed left me with no excuses to not get back at it. I committed to completing a full IronMan distance triathlon in 2021, of course (see Part 1).
The monster on the horizon has been reacquired, and it’s guiding me in towards revenge.
Stay tuned for our epic conclusion…