October 2008

4:49:34

At least they didn't cancel it this year.

Round 2

Its been a dramatic year.

My niece was born.
Moved into a new apartment.
Career change, followed by unemployment.
Deciding to run the marathon again.

The Chicago Marathon is less than two weeks away, being moved back to its traditional time of the first weekend in October. I have mixed feelings, but the prevailing one is excitement. That followed by a fear of not finishing because I'm so excited. People warn of starting out too fast and crashing at the end. I've improved my pace and its difficult to go slow knowing this. I want to break the 5 hour mark at least. Last year I had two goals 1) finish 2)finish arounf 4:45 if possible.

Well, given the many breaks I needed to stretch cramping & tight muscles and a short walk break near mile 24, I finished around 5:07 and some change. Was I disappointed? Yes & no. I fiished. That's the important thing, I kept telling myself. The competitor in me wanted a better time. The other part of me wanted a beer at the finish.

So, here we go again. I want to prove to myself that it wasn't a fluke. I want to finish strong and take away all I can from this experience because I don't know if I'll run a marathon again in my life. I want it to be untainted. Only I know what I mean by that. A few others can guess.

Oh, and I will have a beer.

I did it.

I did it.
Holy crap.
5:07.

Whew. . .

Into Perspective

I read an email today from the folks at Team in Training. Our patient honoree, a little boy named Keegan, died this weekend. He went in for a bone marrow transplant and was recovering, but I guess his body had just been through too much. I've only met him a few times, but he was the most happy kid despite what he was going through.
His parents have now lost two children. I can't imagine what they must be going through.

Explain This One

Soldier Field 10 Mile:
1:45:31 (clock) 1:43:19 (chip) 10:20 (pace)

Park Forest Scenic 10:
1:44:41 (clock) 1:43:08 (chip) 10:28 (pace)


Whose lying?

I'm Just Not That In to You

I don't know what's wrong. I began training for my first marathon attempt with such gusto.
I got some gear, new shoes, and started this blog to use as a training journal. This time I'm not so excited about what I'm doing. I've been here before. There's no real anticipation except the fear of getting injured again. Am I just waiting for the other shoe to drop? I'm supposed to do sixteen miles this weekend. Am I ready for it? I'm not sure. Do I care if I break down and walk part of it? Not so much. A few months ago, I would have felt defeated walking part of a long training run. Now it just gets me through. Am I training smarter not pushing to extremes or am I lazy and apathetic?
Maybe its the summer? Maybe the heat is hindering the extra spring in my step?

Dumb, hot weekend.

Well, I had this brilliant idea that I would runa 10K this weekend. The problem with that is when I had this brilliant idea, I was under the impression that this week was a cut-back week as far as the marathon training went - like Saturday would either be a run for time only or maybe 8-10 miles. Well, we were scheduled for 12 as it turned out. I didn't want to drop out of the 10K because it just makes me feel like I wasted the entry fee and another opportunity to hone my race crowd dodging skills.
It seemd okay. Saturday was unbearably hot and I mostly ran-walked 9 miles, cutting the 12 short due to the race today. The bad news was that today was hotter that yesterday and the race started an hour later than when I typically run in this kind of heat. This 10K kicked my ass. There was not enough shade or water stations and I shared a heat-griping session with as we walked a portion of the course. No records were set. I was about 15 minutes (yes, minutes) slower than I should have been.
Now all I want to do is sleep and eat.
Meh.