Marathon: Fail. It was a fail by mile 6. I think I had an okay training plan until Mid November, when I decided to just stop running and see what happens. Well, disaster happens, people! I finished, but barely, slightly under the 4:30 mark. Eric crashed too, but he still managed to hit the Boston mark and beat me by almost 1 hour 15 minutes. Ouch. Well, we are somehow smiling here:
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| Don't let those smiles fool you. Running marathons suck! |
Major props to Maria Pruszynska for being such a great cheerleader and motivator. Okay, enough about that.
2011
Took a while after the marathon off, and picked it back up in late Spring. After meeting some great people in the Charlotte Running Club, I was invited to be on the Stache and Dash Blue Ridge Relay team with 11 near strangers. I would have a great couple days of training and it would feel like I was making progress in training, and then I would get hit with shin pain and have to take a week off. I could not string more than 3-4 days of consecutive running without leg pain. By the way, this was the same type of leg pain I started having in college which made me quit running in the first place. Crap. Maybe I am just not cut out to be a runner. Especially a good one. Well, I didn't have a great race at Blue Ridge Relay, but I made some great friends that I have enjoyed training with. Other than that, I raced minimally, and trained only when it was absolutely necessary.
2012
More of the same. Eric and I worked toward our lifetime goal of running a race in every state (more about that later). Inconsistent training, no goals and pain after running for multiple days. I met a friend at work, Lee, who was new to running. Within the last 6ish months, he has become a great friend and an awesome training partner. That's what I have been missing. I am a lazy, lazy runner, and without someone to keep me honest and to count on to be on the track every week, I have 0 motivation. And, the best part is that Lee is new to running, so he has no knowledge of training plans, so we basically whim every run and workout, rather than sticking to a regimented training plan that I set myself up to fail before I even start. I have learned that my sweet spot is 4-5 days of running 25-30 miles/week with a track workout and plenty of trail running. I backed out of BRR this year to save a vacation day, and focused my training on the Philly 1/2 Marathon in mid November.
Although I never made a plan, I put in a couple solid efforts a week, mostly pain free, and for the first time since I was 19 years old, I had a PR. My first 1/2 marathon, back in 2008 was 1:45:18. I didn't think I would ever surpass that effort, which is pretty close to 8 min pace. I was aiming for 8 min pace at Philly, but I decided to try and hang with the 3:25 (marathon) pace group, which would have me hit around 1:42-1:43 at the half. I didn't know how reasonable that was, but I figured that I would try to hang on as long as possible. My normal race goes something like this: remember your glory highs school days, set an unreasonable goal, start out fast, compromise, crash, burn, disappointment. Not today. I had a reasonable goal, started out at an even, almost slow pace (you don't really have a choice when 30,000 people are running around you) and kept an even 7:45 pace throughout the entire race. My first two miles were my slowest... I dont think that has ever happened, even in a 5K! So, result was 1:41:47, which breaks down to 3:30 minute PR.
I still don't think that I will start shattering high school records, but I look forward to staying healthy and having fun. Next planned race is a 1/2 marathon trail race!
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