But before that happens...

The CC team got their t-shirts today. In an earlier post I talked about the Prefontaine quote they chose to go on the back. ('the only good race pace is a suicide pace, and today looks like a good day to die") The following is the team's motivational reading for tomorrow's meet, which was inspired by both the quote and my love for A&P.


“Today looks like a good day to die”
But before that happens…

The human body has an amazing ability to cope with an obscene amount of physical stress. Runners understand this better than most because they willingly put their bodies under the most intense of stressors. So even though it feels like a “suicide pace” and that you’re going to “die” just know that the body will do all kinds of things to cope before that happens. How close you’ve come to your own “suicide pace” is indicated by how many of the following experiences you’ve actually had:

__ I went so hard, I vomited. (the body can only divert oxygen-rich blood to so many areas at once; if your muscles are hogging all the blood because you just keep pushing them and pushing them, then the digestive system gets none. And if food is not being digested, it comes back up)

__I ran so hard/long, I passed out. (similar to vomiting, if all the blood is being hogged by muscles because they need all the oxygen, then not enough oxygen gets to the brain. The brain shuts down temporarily and you black out. This actually protects you, keeps you alive, if you’ve passed out, you’ve stopped running and the blood in your muscles can return to the brain where it is needed more)

__After a workout, I collapsed. I’d try to stand but my muscles wouldn’t stay contracted even though I was telling them too. (the muscle tissue has a limit, and even though it takes its signals from the brain, there is a point where it can’t contract anymore regardless of those signals. The tissue has either run out of energy or been damaged. However, it can heal the damage (it actually heals it back to be stronger) and the energy will return when you eat again)

__I have hyperventilated. (Though uncomfortable and kind of scary, this isn’t a bad thing. You are low on oxygen because your muscle cells are demanding so much and your respiratory system goes into overdrive to compensate. But the higher rate of breathing will make up the difference and eventually your muscles will get the oxygen they demand)

__I have felt excruciating pain and then suddenly… no pain. (the infamous endorphin kick. Your brain can make a chemical that’s exactly like opium (what morphine and heroin come from) and when the pain becomes too much, it will release this wonderful chemical for you. It takes the pain away so you can keep going and even makes you high so you’re okay with(even happy about) going a little further and a little harder. High levels can even make you hallucinate)

__A run made me laugh/cry. (Physiologically, laughing and crying are the same thing so whichever one happened, it was the same reaction. When physical stimuli reach every neuron that handles those particular physical signals and there are still physical signals being sent because you are doing so much, the brain diverts them to other neurons, neurons that control emotions. And so a physical occurrence has no choice but to manifest in an emotional way.)

Whether you understand the science or not, this is what it means: Unless you are throwing up, passing out, collapsing, hyperventilating, getting high, and/or laughing or crying hysterically, you aren’t running your suicide pace. You can go faster…you can go harder… you can take more pain… override your brain and make it happen. And don’t worry: most of the time your body will override you if you actually get close to death.