Personal story time kids. Gather 'round.
Let me hijack this guys feat (did you catch that pun there?) to highlight a similar, yet less impressive, personal story of mind over body experience. This happened to me in 8th grade (1985) during the 1 mile run. At this point in history there were still a lot of school tracks that had not yet been converted to that nice spongy blacktop coating, it was loose pebble clay gravel (best description I can come up with). That reddish orange old school shit.
Waterfall start, and damned if someone didn't step on my heal on the first turn and one of my shoes slipped right off. I don't know if I physically hesitated, but I know I was very confused on how to handle this turn of events. By the time I got to the back straight I had decided that I would just see about picking it up after the first lap and then skip along as best I could while trying to get it back on. On the front stretch I was now sold that this would be the plan because this gravel was pretty friggin painful. In order to account for the time I was going to lose I really let stretched out my stride to move up as far as possible. Finally came around to where I lost my shoe and it was nowhere to be found.
Now I realized that I no longer had a plan. Obviously, someone had moved it so he runners wouldn't trip on it. At this point I noticed that I was in 3rd place and my acceleration had very little effect on me. I felt pretty good and damn, I was still going pretty fast. That jackrabbit in 1st was going to fall back and the guy in 2nd was the one to beat. I guess I got a little shot of adrenalin and realized that I didn't even feel the pain in my foot anymore. Even though the best I had placed all year was 3rd, I now planned to win this race.
As suspected, by the end of the third lap the rabbit had been passed and it was just me an the better runner. I was starting to feel the pace a bit, but I just tucked myself in behind him and decided that was where I'd stay. He tried his best to shake me on the final back straight, but I didn't budge. Even I was surprised.
The final turn and here. we. go... I timed my kick perfectly out of the final turn an just left the other guy so far behind it was insane. i felt like I was barely touching the ground at all. I have only been that far in the zone a few times since. I was hauling ass and a few of my teammates began sprinting along with me on the infield. It wasn't even close. Winner.
A man handed me my lost shoe as I came to a stop and then I remembered my foot. My sock was all red and wet, and it wasn't from the red clay. My foot was pretty torn up and 15 minutes later I knew it and felt all of it. But, I've never felt better about a victory and still remember that run every so often.
So even at 13 years old the adrenalin of a race pushed me through the pain. It happends.