11/14/2015
Gettysburg, PA
Over-coming a pretty serious injury, Gabriel was unsure if he was going to line up to feed his family this year. But some great dry-needling work by his PT, Lacey Erwin, Gabriel had put in a good solid week of training and felt good enough to give turkey hunting a chance.
His eldest drove out with him, as she would compete in the 1M jaunt. He did not have a sufficient warm-up in the 40-degree wind-chill, but he felt good. His entire plan centered around going out relaxed and attacking the second part of the course. He felt he went out controlled, but by the major descent of the opening loop, his left side had tightened. He was barely able to operate at full strength. This was troubling. He wasn't running like himself. He was concerned. But he kept working. Stopping to stretch and running, he kept forcing the pace, forcing the effort and he knew his body would respond - or at least he hoped it would.
Finally, after stumbling down a big downhill, something clicked and Gabriel found himself flowing effortlessly along the trail. He set to attack. He knew the CR was out of reach, but he kept running hard to give himself some reward for making it out to race. He hammered up the last climb and bombed down the last hill to finish as strongly as possible.
Although the CR was not reset, he was very pleased with the final 3-4 miles and they were faster than the 2014 race. At least he took some solace in that: a minor victory.
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