El Burro Blanco

3 miles easy in the morning over to Hidden Valley.

8 miles total this afternoon with the boys at my parent's house. We did a 2 mile warm up and then 4x1 mile with 4x200m finishes. It was supposed to be a slight progression run. Hit 5:32, 5:36, 5:27, and 5:19. The boys were antsy and super relaxed at the same time. Spirits are high and things are very positive right now. It is a blessing to coach this team. The boys crushed me on the 200s. I am old and slow.

Last small workout before the marathon. Met up with Steve at the DC and did a 2 mile warm up, 2x2 miles at controlled marathon pace, 1 mile cool down. Hit 5:36 average for the first two miles and then 5:33 for the last two. Felt great. Excited for the marathon. The hay is in the barn. Just nice and easy for the rest of the week.

3 more miles this morning with the boys to the bridge and back.

4 easy miles in the afternoon with the girls out on the trails.

3 miles this morning with the boys over to the Spectrum.

2nd workout on the day was with April and getting a massage. I was tight but not as bad as I have been in the past. Happy to get it in. I am excited for Saturday!

Another easy 3 miles this afternoon with the guys. Just kept it easy with everything planned for tomorrow and Saturday.

Easy 3 miles in the morning with the boys to the bridge.

Not going to be a really long race report. I really wanted to hit 2:25-2:26 today and things were looking good up until the half and then diarrhea and stomach issues wrecked my day. Such is the life of running a marathon.

Got out with the Dave, Ben, Mike, and Trevor Baker and just relaxed the first couple miles. The boys were antsy and I dropped back a bit after I dropped my bottle at mile 3. I knew I would catch back up with them on either Veyo or the other rollers after that. Sure enough I did. I closed the gap on Veyo and felt pretty good. I was only about 5-10 seconds back of Ben and Dave and told myself just to keep that distance until I hit the half point. As I got closer to the half point, my stomach turned and I had to take a road side stop for a bit. I had bad diarrhea and never have had this happen before.  I got back out on the road and really tried to close the gap again with the guys but my stomach just would not calm down. I hit the half at just over 1:14. I knew I could still get my 2:26 but my stomach didn't want to cooperate the rest of the way. My breathing was messed up for the rest of the race. I just kept grinding and knew some of the high school boys would be at Chuck-a-walla.

I made it to the high school boys and they were gracious enough to run with me the rest of the way. I appreciate them helping me in. It wasn't pretty but I finished. 2:31 and change for 16th place overall. Fairly bummed with the race but such is life. Just happy to see the family after wards. That helped knowing that Norah thought I won the race. I didn't have the heart to tell her I wasn't close at all.

Very happy for everyone else who ran today. Lots of good times, PRs, and placing from many others. The Circle minus me ran well today.

I think that this race gives me extra incentive to call it good on competitive marathoning. The Circle talked about this being the last but I think Clyde and Dave should still give it a go. I enjoy being on the trails more and will probably look at doing more of that.

On a side note, I talked with Nick Schutze (bib #1) at the start and he remembered me from 2007. He told me he wasn't in great shape but was getting back into it. He ended up dropping back to our group and he and I went back and forth for most of the marathon. He finished just in front of me and talked with me again at the finish line. A really solid guy and it was nice chatting with him.

Also really good to see Jeff Shadley, Ben Vanbeekum, and James Barnes. Really solid guys as well.