When I started this blog I mentioned that the marathon was my least favorite distance. That is not completely true. I actucally like the training and all the preparation that goes into it. What I hate is the last two weeks leading up to the race. All the training and preparation is done and there is nothing you can do at this point to improve your chances of runnng your best race. There is a lot you can do to mess things up, but as they say in this marathon business, "the hay is in the barn." These last two weeks your head starts to play lots of nasty games. It tells you, "you could have trained harder," or "remember that Tuesday when you had a 12 mile progression run scheduled and you bailed? You'll be sorry!" Your brain also tells you about how bad the weather is going to be or even worse yet, "what a waste of time this all was, you're too old." Then lots of things happen during the taper that reinforce these thoughts. You cut back on your mileage and intensity dramatically, yet you feel lousy. Your legs ache and feel heavy on a simple 5-mile recovery run. You try to knock off a few miles at marathon-pace and its a struggle. What the hell? I ran over 90-miles just a few short weeks ago, and now I'm struggling with 50. Happens everytime and you can't let it get the best of you. I just need to keep telling myself that; nevertheless, it's still my least favorite two weeks of the running calendar.
I'm happy to see so many people racing and running well. I'm excited to see how my marathon clinic participants do in Twin Cities' Marathon. They have been an inspiration to me and have really taught me about perservnerance and dedication. I tend to caught up in my own training ups and downs and have really appreciated the fact that I can get caught up and hopefully help another runner with his or her struggles or play a small part in their breakthroughs. Running is really such a wonderful activity. It does give you back many-fold whatever you are willing to put into it. I'm so thankful that a friend of mine turned me on to the joy of running back in 1983. I feel blessed that I can run as well as I do at 50 and if I'm lucky, I can still be doing this when I'm 70!
Oh yeah, I won my first race! I decided to run an 8K in my hometown. Timing was perfect as my Pfitzinger plan called for an 8 to 10k tune up race on Saturday. It was a bit of a windy day and it was an out and back course. We had our wind to our backs and I knew it was going to be tough coming back. I went out fast and ran with three or four young whippersnappers. Mile 1 was 5:54; not bad! If I could bank some time I could still break 30 minutes, even with the nasty headwind I knew was coming. Mile two I settled into a 6:03 pace and also passed two of the three whippersnappers. Just before the half-point turnaround I passed YWS #3. He was gasping pretty good, so I knew I had this thing in the bag. I turned around and headed back to town and "Holy Crap! What a wind!" It had to have been over 20 MPH. My pace slowed to 6:19 and it was a total struggle. I did not bank enough time and finished with a disappointing 31:09. Oh yeah, I never, ever, ever say this, but the course was long; about a tenth too long.
Happy Running!
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