Grivet Outdoors

... the seemingly endless incline literally took my breath away ... disastrous to her. Broken bones need proper care and protection to heal. The “scooter” half marathon would need to remain an idle fantasy.

The next morning provided nearly perfect marathon conditions. A wispy layer of clouds was lightly draped overhead with occasional brief appearances by the sun. The temperature was cool but not cold. Winds were light and only rarely did a few lonely raindrops make their way to the ground. We couldn’t have picked a better day for our outing.

It had been a few years since I had run a race on the streets of Birmingham, but I recalled that there were two identical laps to the course. What I didn’t recall was that the first five miles of that lap were forged on a relentless uphill.

When I had last run here, I was a younger man who was much fitter than I am now. Back then, I found the hills challenging, but the corresponding downhills more than made up for the increased effort.

This time, however, the seemingly endless incline literally took my breath away, and I struggled to hold onto my pace.

When the downhill finally did arrive, my legs felt wobbly and weak. I had to squander my opportunity to make up some lost time, and instead I used the downslope portions as a chance to recover my legs. My hope was to have enough power left to survive the relatively flat part portion that ran through the downtown area that completed the course’s undulating circuit. It was slow work.

Chris, on the other hand, was used to running in the hills. His school – UT-Knoxville – is surrounded by them. He rolled over the course with practiced patience on the uphills and opened up on the sustained downhills. He finished in sixth place overall in a deep field that included a few professional runners. It was a good day for him.

I finished much later. I had collapsed into a runwalk strategy once I hit the flat portion of the race for the second time.

My legs protested mightily the whole way. They simply wouldn’t move faster no matter how much I