Gettysburg, PA - Attitude Adjustment

Race Report – Gettysburg PA


Amazing what an attitude adjustment can do on race day. Gettysburg was supposed to be my mecca, I’d trained, I’d put in the 22 mile runs, I tapered (as best I could), I’d gone up without any distractions, I’d carbo-loaded, I was ready and excited about the race. Since it was an out and back course, racers got a nice preview of the return, I started out on pace and ready to rock. The race billed itself as only a 379 foot elevation gain with rolling hills, and as I ran out I mentally checked to redefine “rolling hills” and that it didn’t say that elevation gain 5 times! This course was one I would LOVE riding a bike on, as cramps started on the way back I knew the time I’d planned was chucked out the window. By Mile 18 my whole body felt like a nice big cramp, even the middle toe of both feet was cramped out in a “F” you to the road – it made me smile to think of this.

I could get mad and be disappointed at the time I knew I was wasting, or I could simply accept it for what it was, a bucket list race. A group of us formed, walking then running, encouraging each other to walk and then run, laughing as we picked obscure part of the body cramping (I think my eyelids just cramped) and enjoyed the scenery we didn’t get to see on the way out trying to hit a specific time. We had a lot of fun with all the roadkill on the road, commented on who resembled each poor animal, everyone laughing at the raccoon with a GU sitting on top on his bottom.

These types of race make you see what you are worth to just get to the finish line, when you’re feeling bad way to early in the race but determined not to give up and do what it takes to get to the finish line. Squelching that overwhelming desire to just stop by the side of the road and look like the roadkill rather than climbing the next hill.

As a bucket list race, this was pretty cool – it was like getting lost and rather than getting mad simply enjoying the scenery – looking at the battlefields as we passed them, the flowers blooming in the fields laughing as I limp because my toe is giving the road the finger again. Would I do it again? Maybe, if that year there were two courses and the South resembled our road here in North Carolina, judging from what I drove that probably won’t happen any time soon.