Reforged!

From the ashes a fire shall be woken. A light from the shadows shall spring. Renewed shall be blade that was broken. The crownless again shall be king. -- Arwen, Lord of the Rings.

One year after breaking my ankle at the Remembrance Day Race, I returned today to finish what I started. I have been thinking about this race for a full year. During the six weeks where I could barely walk and never thought I would run again. (I even looked into speed walking online just in case...)
In retrospect I am grateful for the injury last year. My ankle hurt too much to practice speedwork so instead I opted for the long slow marathon training runs. Completing the marathon was on of the highlights of my life and I never would have done it if it had not been for my injury.
My goal today was just to finish the race with no injury. No goal times, just focus on running strong and safe in the wet and muddy conditions. My race plan was to start slow, run strong on the uphills and slow on the downhills and no ipod until the last big downhill was complete.
I was surprised to see my friend Ryan at the race. He hasn't run in a race before so he really picked a crazy one to try--a muddy hilly slick and dangerous cross country run.
The race started and as expected there was a huge rush out of the gate. About half the participants were wearing team jerseys from local universities. They were running about 6:00 pace at the start. I suppressed the urge to sprint with them and held back. Within 400m I was in last place! Perfect...right where I wanted to be.
I settled in with the last place group. There were about five of us. Two yappy girls, a tall skinny guy in a pink shirt, a heavier guy with an ipod and me. I rested in the back of the group for the first ten minutes or so. We were running an easy 8:30 pace through the rolling knolls that make up the first part of the course. Eventually though they began to slow as the inclines began to take their toll and I had to leave them behind. I spotted another runner about 200 meters ahead and sped up slowly to catch her too. Her breathing was loud and her gait was slow and heavy. It didn't take long before she also slowed. I continued to spot runners in the distance, catch them and run at their pace until they couldn't sustain the pace, at which point I would move on to the next runner ahead.
We finally reached the group of three big hills in the middle of the course. Anytime a hill has a name you know its a killer. These ones were named "Hanson", "Eagle" and "Adrian's Hill". Adrian's hill is the biggest of the three. It is also the hill where I got injured. I was both eager and anxious when I reached the hills again. I recalled my epic competition with the old man last year as we raced each other up Hanson and Eagle. I also identified what I suspect is the rock that tripped me up on Adrian's Hill. Good thing I was looking for it this time because it is naturally camouflaged on an overcast, muddy and rainy fall day like today. Funny thing, though...those hills were so much bigger in my memory. It must be all the hill training that I do.

At the bottom of Adrian's Hill I knew that the rest of the course was rolling. With no more big climbs or descents to worry about, I turned on my iPod and started running hard. I was passing more and more runners. I forgot how psychologically satisfying it is to pass people at the end of a race. Finally I broke out of the woods and onto the grassy field and the finish. The organizers had us finish by running the perimeter of the grassy field, about 400 meters or so. As soon as I hit the grass I started running harder. Around the park and up a small muddy trail to the final 100m stretch. A straight stretch to the finish where I could finally stop worrying about slipping in the mud and just run. Some elite runners were loitering at the finish line. Their eyes got big as they saw me coming and they quickly got out of the way.
After the finish I collapsed and lay on the grass. I felt great. I had achieved my goal of finishing with no injuries and I had a chance to run hard at the end. It wasn't quite a lifetime accomplishment like the marathon. Still, I have to rank this run as one of my greatest. Here I was broken and here I was remade.