Seeking a better country...

Running around the westside at twilight.  My left calf is sore from sat.  I spring off that leg when I'm trying to go faster, but not all out.  Sometimes I stand up and almost fall down, until I remember.  It feels better this am.  I have sick kids at home today hugging the toilet seat.  Hopefully I can get them to puke before I go to work.

My daughter turned 7 today.  There is no one on the planet sweeter.  After we got the cake, chaser and presents done, I put her to bed and hopped on the TM.  I think this is the last tough workout before the marathon.  8 miles, 6 at 6:45.  

Following 1 mile of warmup, I did the 10k in  41 minutes even, while watching 24 and biggest loser.  Instead of a nice bowl of strawberry ice cream, I'm having wheat toast instead.  I should have stuck with 24.  Great after work day today.   

TM, 8:30 pace.  Arguably the best moment of all 8 "24" seasons came up on the run...when George takes over the plane and detonates the nuke.  There was a tear in my eye as the run finished.

OOH.  This was my last "long" run.  To freedom hills, with a couple of laps around, and one trip up the switchbacks, just for fun.  Guess what?  The drinking fountains were operational!  That's great news.  It's time for 6 of the best weeks of running all year to begin!  Wow.  That's a lot of exclamation marks!  

My nerves are all a-jangle in anticipation of next week's race.  I need to stop checking the weather... 

I went on this run to make sure I still know how.  At this stage, going for a run this short seems silly, since my legs never fully warmed up by the time I came home.  But the plan says what the plan says, and I'm sticking to the plan.  (I was only supposed to go 3.  Talk about pointless...)  I have ants in my pants about some race that happens in 6 days.  

It seems like the taper is making me more sore than training.  I've got aches and pains everywhere, it seems.  My theory is that scaling back the running is allowing 4 months worth of numbness to subside.   

 I think I'm going to watch Biggest loser and pick rocks out of my shoes.  I don't want to carry all that extra weight on the marathon.  I've been contemplating a radical weight loss program as well.  The theory being that whatever percentage of weight you lose leads to a corresponding increase in speed because you are carrying less.  My wife discouraged me from dropping under a buck fifty.  So I'm still eating candy all week long--Cadbury mini eggs and starburst jelly beans.  Many people eat fruits and veggies in season.  I eat candy in season.   I figure I gotta go with what got me here.   

This was an out and back run around Burlington, MA.  I saw a real live turtle on the running trail.  I picked it up and moved it off the path so no other runners would come and step on it.  

By the time we got back from touring around Boston it was dark and raining, so I did my final tuneup on the TM in the exercise room.  There was a girl next to me that wouldn't talk to me.  After she left, I opened the door to the outside to get cool air in the room, and the run felt much better.

Wow.

 To limit this to a race entry seems impossible.  I had a great trip with my wife and parents.  My mom also ran in the race, performing very well in what she claims is her ultimate marathon.

Relating to the blog, we got together in Chinatown Saturday night with smooth, runningmama, tomslick, rhett, doone, hillbillyrunner, rattletrap,  and others I'm forgetting.  Regrettably, the tables weren't large enough to accommodate all who wished to partake, so our group was split in two.  Thanks to Smooth for coordinating what turned out to be a very pleasurable and palatable meal.  It was wonderful to put faces with names, and get to know some inspiring and kind people while eating dim sum. 

Each evening upon returning to the hotel, we watched the local news, and the forecast got better each night.  Monday arrived partly sunny, with a rare westerly wind.  The conditions held until 10 for the start of the race.  My dad got us to Hopkinton state park in plenty of time to use the portapotty and catch a bus to the starting areas.  We got to town around 9:00.  Rather than head to the village, we hung out in the park, and watched the wheelchair, handcycle and elite women start.  I did catch a glimpse of AmberG as she took off, and sent good thoughts Nan's way for a fantastic race.  

After that, I headed back to corral seven with 1000 other nervous skinny people.  Right on time we were heard the gun.  4.5 minutes later I crossed the starting line.  

Impressions and musings:

I have never run a big marathon, so this was unprecedented, to see nothing but a sea of athletes in front of me.  No glimpse of the road was available at all.  The first couple miles were a bit congested, but things opened up a little as the roads got wider.   Seeing men peeling off every 100 feet to pee in the woods was a crack-up.  Turns out it's maybe something I should have done.  The crowd was a fantastic thing to experience for the first time.  I gave a few fives, got a few yells, and ate lots of oranges.  The girls at Wellesley were something else.  The Newton Hills weren't much, but as it turns out, they were enough.  Seeing the Citgo sign was more enthralling from Fenway Park than from the middle of the road, and the distance to the finish line from where you first see it is farther than it looks.

I had an aggressive/unrealistic goal of 3:07.  By race day, I knew that wasn't possible and revised to 3:11.  At the last minute, I decided I wanted no splits in the 8's.  I didn't do a lot to keep myself on track, other than know I needed to run around 7:15 miles.  I wore no pace bracelet and wrote no splits to keep myself on track; my only check was infrequent glances at the current pace on my gps.  This was dumb for achieving a goal, however, it made the race more pleasurable.  

I didn't know how much of a bump to expect coming to sea level.  There is 12% more oxygen at sea level than at home.  I think this made a noticeable difference.  I don't remember feeling ragged or out of breath during the whole race.   In hindsight, I wish I wore the HRM to see if this was true or all in my head.  I also wonder if all the gels and 5 hour energy had anything to do with it.

You never notice a tailwind till you turn around.  Mercifully, the course bore west almost entirely.  There were times I felt a push at the crest of a hill.  I know the absence of headwind helped.

In meandering all over the road to avoid drinkers, give fives and eat oranges, I ran an extra quarter.  My overall pace for the marathon was 7:24, compared with 7:26 in Ogden last spring.  So was this a PR even though my time was a minute slower?  Does it really matter? 

I made it to mile 23 before I really melted down.  Before that I had brief pauses to pound gels, but got right back into the flow.  I ran straight through the Newton Hills, and things looked pretty good for the finish I was looking for, but my mind just went crazy.  "This is stupid.  Who cares, anyway.  What difference does it make?"  I had 20 of those thoughts for every positive one, and I gave up the fight.  After walking for a while, I vowed that was the only stop.  A quarter mile later I was walking again.  More vows, and I lasted almost a mile before walking again.  I did manage to come in without any additional nonsense.  

After the race, I sat around in the cold waiting for my mom to finish.  She came in at 4:22.  I had a couple forbidden cheeseburgers for dinner, (complete with McStomach afterward) and slept very soundly.  

Splits:

7:24  felt slow
6:59  great
6:54  great
7:03  great
7:13  great  
7:08  great, gu at mile 6
7:13  great
7:11
7:04
7:07
7:16
7:07  gu here
7:16
7:07
7:20
7:01
7:31  5 hour energy here, hills begin
7:51
7:28
7:57
8:01  heartbreak hill
7:24
7:34
8:13  brain-fart 
7:59  continues
7:47  
7:42

Does anybody run a marathon that they don't wish they were 5 minutes faster?   I'm very satisfied with how things went.  In terms of best experiences in a lifetime, this trip and race are in the top 15.  

Also, I read Cold Mountain and almost finished 1776 on the plane today.  And we went to Gloucester, Plymouth, Salem, Cape Cod and a whole bunch of other places that had famous dead people and really old graves and stuff.  The clam chowder at Spanky's clam Shack in Hyannis was amazing, and I wish Dunkin Donuts would find it's way to Utah. Also, I moved up 2400 places from my 6366 bib seed, so that makes me glad.  Enough.  

My neighbor Jeff picked me up around 6:15, and we drove up to Eden.  He had family staying in their cabin there.  We stopped by to use the bathroom, but nobody was awake.  They thought the race was commencing at 8:00, so they were glad we woke them for the 7:30 start.

My participation in this race was not advisable, but I had to try.  I was in 2nd place in my age for the series with 2-3 minute cushion on the guys below me.  I wanted to hold position and get an award.  

The first 3rd of the race was fine.  I was hovering around Marathon pace, and running comfortably and conversationally with Merilee Blackham.  Once we hit the aid station at mile 6, she kept cruising along while I slowed for gu and water.  I found another "friend" to run with, but got dropped around the turnaround.  I was really starting to suffer.  My legs were just dead, and I still had 9+ miles to go to the finish. 

I held on all right until the last 3rd of the race.  By mile 14, I was walking and limping.  People were passing me like crazy, and it was bugging me.  My sister came up to cheer, and she caught me at my worst.  I thought about hopping in the car and catching a ride for my first DNF.  Instead, she went ahead to the next aid station and got me some drinks.  I took one last gu, and decided to keep going. 

 After she left, I would run for a while then walk.  Usually the threshold to put an end to walking was 3 people passing me.  Once the finish got close enough, I did hang on and run 1.5 in a row, and nobody else passed me, but by then the damage was done.  I'd fallen from 2nd place to 11th in my age group.  My time was 20 minutes slower than my 30k split at Boston 5 days earlier.

In hindsight, I should have stayed home in bed and let Jeff run on my entry.  It would have saved him $50 and got me some extra sleep.  He finished 30 seconds behind me.  We hung around for a little while after the race, then drove back.  During the drive home, things locked up pretty good.  I couldn't really walk, and my right hip hurt a lot.  I napped for a while and took a motrin, then finished the day mowing lawns for a few hours with my son.  It was nice to have a mower to hold onto...like a walker.

So now I'm trying to figure out when to go for a run again.  It would have been fine to restart on Saturday, but not for 18+ miles.  Maybe tomorrow, I guess.

To freedom hills, up the switchbacks, and home on BST.   The air was so brisk and scrubbed clean I could taste it.  The headwind on the way out was a bit cold, so coming home was perfect, right at sunset over a brooding western sky.

I got up early to meet Amy and AndyB for a run up City Creek Canyon.  We had a little trouble getting together due to accidents on I-15 and my inferior communication skills.  Once we hit the canyon all was well.  Amy was a rockstar and hung with the boys.  Andy never broke a sweat, and I had solid effort.  We couldn't get to the top of the road due to deep snow, around 2'.  I didn't want to flounder for the next 1/2 mile falling through the crust, so we turned around and enjoyed descending from 6100'.

Usually I have to go skiing to see scenery that beautiful.  I didn't expect to be running in 3" of snow one day before May.  I'm glad I was. 

My legs still aren't right.  I'm will continue to take it easier this week and let nature do it's thing.  I don't want the medical people getting involved if I can avoid it.  But scraping sounds kind of nice. 

 p.m. 6 hours core, upperbody and cross training with lawnmower, trimmer and edger.