Rhett

1 mile slow then 1/2 mile at mp and another 1/2 easy for a total of 2 miles followed by very light core work and rolling my legs.

When I signed up for this race I was excited that it all was going to be downhill.  Well now I get the real scoope in an email from the race.  Here is there description of the first 4 miles:

"Starting at almost 7900 feet evelvation, the first 3 miles of the course are challenging.  From the very start, the first half-mile of the race gains about 100 feet elevation, which is nearly identical to the famous Heartbreak Hill in The Boston Marathon. Mile 2 loses roughly 250 feet of elevation and can be extremely fast, with an overall downhill grade of -4.7%.  Mile 3 and 4 are where you can expct to slow down the most.  Mile 3 gains over 290 feet of elevation, and that is at altitude of roughly 8000 feet.  Breathing will be difficult, and the climbing will be tough.  Mile 4 offers a little less of a challange, but it still has about 150 feet of gain."

I'll have to admit.  Those first 4 miles have me a bit intimedated especially since I live and train at 500 feet evelvation.  I figure I'll probably lose about 5 minutes off my goal pace in those first 4 miles.  That's a lot of time to make up over the next 22 miles, but they really are downhill so who knows.  I just plan on running by how I feel and not try to hit specific splits. Hopefully I will be able to run a smart race and finish strong.

This is the most bizarre thing. I slept in this morning, didn’t run, drove to Tucson, got my race packet, went to my hotel and felt great. Then when we went to dinner my left calf, which is not the one I recently injured completely knotted up and won’t loosen back up. I tried gentle stretching, massage, and I brought my stick so I tried that also. I sure hope it loosens up while I sleep or I won’t be running the marathon tomorrow. 

Mt. Lemon Marathon

It was a tough lead up to the race having nursed an injured right calf from about 5 weeks out.  I was able to semi train the last five weeks with a lot of supplemental elliptical work and about 10 days out it finally felt 100% so I was at least feeling healthy, although a little undertrained heading to Tucson on Friday.  My son, Chase went with me. We showed up around 3:00 at the race expo and did that stuff and then checked into our hotel and sat around for a couple hours watching football.  Then we headed out to dinner when I noticed my left calf, not the one that had been injured, hurt when I walked.  By the time we got to dinner, I could hardly walk on it.  There was a knott in the upper medial muscle that was so tender it really hurt to touch it.  After dinner we went back to the hotel and I tried everything to loosen it up and nothing worked, so I went to bed.  It kept me up durring the night, as every time my other leg touched it the pain woke me up.  When I got up in the morning it still hurt to walk so I went outside and tested it out running and hopping and surprisingly enough, it didn't hurt to run or hop on it, only to touch it or walk, so I decided to give it a go.  I was very nervous that I was not going to be able to finish the race though.

They bussed us up to the starting line in nice busses, good thing because it was over an hour on the bus.  When we got up there I was surprised to see there was a lodge up there that they allowed us to wait in. That was nice.  Some of the busses were late getting up to the start so they delayed the race about 15 minutes, but let us hang out inside until right before the race.  It was cold up there, just above freezing. 

Not being sure about my calf I decided to just run the race by feel and everynow and then it would remind me to slow down a bit.  Luckly the first 4 miles are the toughest, especially at 8000 feet so I had some time to warm up my calf and just ran what felt comfortable.  Here are my splits, remember I ran the whole thing by feel so my splits are all over the place.

1- 8:14 startig with a steep climb

2- 6:32

3- 8:50 almost 300 foot climb

4- 8:35 150 foot climb up to 8200 feet

5- 6:37

6- 6:26

7- 6:13 my fastest mile, must have been really steep downhill

8- 6:31

9- 6:26

10- 6:29

11- 6:46 there was a nice little climb at the beginning of this mile

12- 6:30

13- 6:17, my quads were screaming at my by the half

14- 6:37

15- 6:22

16- 6:57 anthor small climb

17- 6:57

18- 7:04 lack of traing catching up with me

19- 6:48

20- 7:01 starting the mental games

21- 6:52

22- 6:43

23- 6:41not sure how I'm still running fast

24- 7:13

25- 7:10 wheels are coming off

26- 9:28 hit the wall hard, walked for the first 2 minutes of the mile

26.2- finished last .2 running well.

Avg pace miles 1-4:  8:03

Avg pace miles 5-25:  6:42

Avg pace entire race: 7:13

Total time 3:09:15 for what I thought was a 15+ minute BQ, but did anyone else notice that on the Boston web page, starting in 2020 all times are 5 minutes faster so now I need 3:20 for my age.

After taking a week off with no running or any real exercise, I was excited to get back out running this morning. I hit the trails for the first time since the snake incident about 6 months ago and just took it easy for 7 miles.  My right hammy was still a bit tight from my marathon 8 days ago but otherwise my legs felt fine.  I plan on rebuilding my cardio base with a lot of slow miles and a lot of that on trails for the next few months.

I got back out on the trails again this morning.  My hammy had loosened up but the tightness moved to my knee. By the end of the run it was improved.

6 fun easy miles. 

6 more miles on the trails. My legs felt like they had a little spring back in them today.  The little post marathon aches and pains seem to be mostly gone.  Hopefully that means I'll be able to run a decent 5k this Saturday. 

Trail run followed up by some strides, totalling 5 miles.  It felt good getting my legs turning over quickly with strides. 

I kept it short with a few strides at the end so I will hopefully have some juice in my legs for tomorrow's 5K.

3 miles.

Today was the annual 5k Turkey Trot here I Lake Havasu City. Our high school cross country runners showed up this year to give us a faster field than usual. Dan of course led the race from the start and ended up finishing around 16:30. He’s only 3 years younger than me and is still blazing fast. One of the cross country kids did his best to hang with him and finished about a minute behind him. Then there was the next group which I was in. I managed to pass them all but one who I was trying to kick and catch at the end but just didn’t have it today. It was nice being able to run with other runners that pushed me.

I ended up finishing in 18:59 which I was both happy about and a bit disappointed in. I was happy to be under 19 but was hoping to challenge my PR of 18:22 which I set last year in this race. I’m guess with only two weeks since running a hard marathon, I didn’t fully have my legs back yet. All I n all it was a fun morning. BTW, the weather was amazing! 50 degrees, sunny, and no wind. 

I’m up in Utah for Thanksgiving so I got out and ran the mountain trails this morning. 

9 miles with 2000 feet of elevation gain. 

I survived the annual family thanksgiving day turkey bowl without pulling a hammy this year so I’ll count that as a victory and 3 miles running. I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful day with their loved ones. 

Cold, breezy, and snow flurries all day so I did a TM run. 

5 miles

8 mile trail run. This was actually yesterday’s run and the one I posted on yesterday was today’s. 

It's time to get serious about logging miles.

10 nice and easy then core

10 easy then core

I had a couple hours to run this morning so o went out and enjoyed the trails. 

13 miles then core. 

10 more at a nice slow pace then core.

10 on the trails then core.