I have learned a new vocabulary word: "bonking." (Don't think I'll throw it around casually though. I found that it means "reach a point of exhaustion that makes it impossible to go further" but also "hit or strike" and "have sex." Context is everything! )
It is mind-boggling that despite the heat, meniscus and bonking, you came in second and you guys beat everyone else in your age group! I can't believe you did this in spite of everything -- I hope you're OK now. I also don't know how you went on to teach a workshop after all that! Maybe this enormous effort offered a sense of renewal, once you rested? Does extreme effort and exhaustion lead to a sort of reboot, new energy and perspective? I hope the meniscus has been suitably humbled now, and will hang up its shingle and stop bothering you.
It's true that "to bonk" has one very specific meaning in sports and another if you're in the UK!
The heat was certainly a factor--at least for me. Centigrade temps mask the real extent of the heat. I grew up with "40" being a dreaded temperature, as if anything in the high 30s was ok. I now realize that when we spoke ominously of a 40-degree day in Athens, we were talking about a temp of 105. So for the bulk of the race, we were probably at about 98 degrees. Oops.
I have learned a new vocabulary word: "bonking." (Don't think I'll throw it around casually though. I found that it means "reach a point of exhaustion that makes it impossible to go further" but also "hit or strike" and "have sex." Context is everything! )
It is mind-boggling that despite the heat, meniscus and bonking, you came in second and you guys beat everyone else in your age group! I can't believe you did this in spite of everything -- I hope you're OK now. I also don't know how you went on to teach a workshop after all that! Maybe this enormous effort offered a sense of renewal, once you rested? Does extreme effort and exhaustion lead to a sort of reboot, new energy and perspective? I hope the meniscus has been suitably humbled now, and will hang up its shingle and stop bothering you.
It's true that "to bonk" has one very specific meaning in sports and another if you're in the UK!
The heat was certainly a factor--at least for me. Centigrade temps mask the real extent of the heat. I grew up with "40" being a dreaded temperature, as if anything in the high 30s was ok. I now realize that when we spoke ominously of a 40-degree day in Athens, we were talking about a temp of 105. So for the bulk of the race, we were probably at about 98 degrees. Oops.
Dude.
Ha!