Getting back to Boston

Cap off the month with a five-miler recovery run on the TM. Don't know if I would have run today without the treadmill -- it was cold, wet, blustery and nasty today. If marathon day turned out like this, I might think twice about running. But I finished the month over 250 miles for the first time.

GA/progression run on the TM. Did OK despite not much sleep (helping teenager finish long-put-off assignment for chemistry). Marathon dress rehearsal tomorrow.

Had the marathon dress rehearsal. Put on the whole gear -- cap, headband under it, neon green tech shirt with white singlet over it, tights with RaceReady shorts over it, tucked my car key in the car key pocket, carried a water bottle in Tyler's fanny pack, and headed for the River Trail. Stretched when I got there, but the legs did not want to loosen. Weather was clear and sunny but temps were around 45, I guess. Even after my three-mile warmup run down to the FOP clubhouse, the legs were still tight, and I stretched some more before heading back.Once I headed back, had a little trouble with my pacing; the planned 8-minute miles became 7:39 and 7:42 (that, ladies and germs, is why I need a pace bunny); darn near a tempo run instead of MP. Anyway, once I slowed to the cooldown pace, I jogged back and forth across the Main Street Bridge, and reminded myself once again why I don't like the MSB; that walkway is awfully narrow and that steel railing, combined with my acrophobia, gave me the willies. I could just imagine falling over that rail into the river below, and people who fall into that river tend to be carried out in bodybags. Yikes. Anyway, got back and forth with no incident and finished the run.

I guess the hay really is in the barn now. A couple of short, slow jogs left, maybe some strides on Friday, and then show up at the starting line Saturday morning in Memphis. I guess the good part is, if I had trouble slowing down to an 8:00 pace, the real thing maybe won't feel difficult Saturday. If I actually ran a marathon at 7:40.5 pace, that would be about a 3:21.

Just got an interesting piece of information. It seems active.com has a database which ranks times in races all over the country, so you can look up how your marathon time ranks among 24-year-old females in Utah if that's what you happen to be. Since I happen to be a 47/48 year old male in Arkansas, I looked up the rankings in all five distances I've run this year -- 5K, 10K, 20K, half and full marathon. Turns out I'm in the top 100 in all of them for 45-49 year old men, except for 20K, where they do not have any results at all recorded for Arkansas. My crash-and-burn marathon is 71st. My Gallowalked 5K is 92nd. My Gallowalked 10K is 39th. And my half-marathon time -- gun time, not chip -- is 19th. NINETEENTH. I don't think I've been 19th in the state in anything since my PSAT score in 1977 was third in the state, or so I was told. Nineteenth doesn't get me anything, whereas that PSAT got me a National Merit Scholarship, but it's still surprising and a bit gratifying. And for 47-year-olds only, my time was SIXTH. The first-place time? A guy I went to high school with, who was born the same day I was (the half marathon was the day before our 48th birthdays) and didn't even run track in high school. Of course, he beat my butt by 17 minutes at Conway (and his marathon best beat mine by an hour and a half, although I expect to close that gap considerably on Saturday).

Easy jog at 10:10 pace just to work the kinks out. Starting to carb-load now.

Had a twinge in the middle of my left hamstring; it's been there for several days, dating back to when I was stretching my quads Tuesday morning for my dress rehearsal. But it hasn't gone away. Finally, today, I started to panic, when I realized it was in exactly the same spot as the spasms that shut me down at mile 18 at Little Rock in March. Stretching hasn't worked. Warm baths, ditto. Used electric massager to no effect. So I called John at work and he told me to come in for some treatment. First 10 minutes of ultrasound to the spot, then 20 minutes of iontopheresis. Maybe it's a little bit better; I jogged up to the apartment office a half hour ago to take my rent check in (and test the hammy) and felt no pain, although it still felt tight.

John told me to come in tomorrow for another treatment if I want to. I'll see how it feels in the morning. Maybe I'll get a treatment. Maybe I'll go for a short/slow jog as I had originally planned for Friday. But if it's no worse, I can run with it -- with my fingers crossed that it doesn't do what it did on Lookout Hill in March. Can I run 3:30 with it? That's the unanswerable question until Saturday morning.

Hamstring feels much better today. Maybe it just needed a rest, or maybe John's ultrasound and iontopheresis did the trick. As long as it holds up for 3:30 tomorrow, I'm good with it.

We'll be leaving for Memphis in a couple of hours. Tyler signed out early from school, and Pam's leaving work at noon. We'll hit the expo as soon as we cross the bridge, then go check into our hotel. Tonight, spaghetti with some of the RWOL forum crazies at the Spaghetti Warehouse, then early to bed. I'll be up at 4 Saturday to go find an open IHOP.

BQ is a big undertaking, I know, but I've worked too hard for the last six months not to take a shot. If I fail, there's always the other goal -- sub-four.

Aw man, this thing ate my RR. Knew I should have saved it. Cliff's Notes version: Below BQ pace for 22 miles, right calf threatening to cramp for last 10 miles, cold, windy, and worst, directly into the wind from about miles 18-25. Pacing not the best in the early miles, but I gave it everything I had, and if I run the same time next year at age 49, it WILL be a BQ for 2011. Finished 337th out of 2213 finishers, at least posted so far, and 51st in male 45-49.

Temp in mid-30s, cloudy and blustery at the start. Early traffic keeps the first mile pace down to 8:13. That's OK. Mile 2, 7:47. Whoa horsie. Slow down there. Mile 3, 7:57. More like it. Mile 4, 7:33. I know we had a little downhill here, but TOO DARN FAST. Mile 5, 8:02. More like it. Average through 5 miles, about 7:54.

Mile 6, 7:50. Back off a touch. Mat at 10K, time 49:36. Mile 7, 7:45, make that two touches. Mile 8: 8:03. That's better. Only physical issues to this point are some twinges in my right plantar fascia. Mile 9: 8:00. Perfect, and two good miles in a row. Mile 10: 7:59. Three good miles in a row. Average through 10 miles: 7:55. I wanted 7:57 or so, but this isn't too bad.

Mile 11: 7:59. FOUR good miles in a row. My online friend Bill from Georgia, who offered to help pace me, drops back at this point, so I'm on my own. I pick out a blonde 20-30 yards ahead of me who seems to be running a consistent pace and lock on to her, just trying to maintain the spacing.

Mile 12: 8:02. Still all good. We're back downtown now. Wind is picking up from what it was at the start.

Mile 13: 8:05. Still OK. Hit the halfway mark in another quarter-mile, so my Garmin is about 0.14 miles ahead of the course measurement at this point. Shouldn't be an issue as long as I can maintain an 8:01 or 8:02 average, and my average at 13.1 is just a smidge over 8:00. Chip time halfway: 1:45:08. Just about right if I can run even split.

Mile 14.1: 8:09. Need to pick it up just a tad. Mile 15.1: 8:02. That'll do. Mile 16.1: 8:07. Giving back a few seconds here and there, but still OK. Mile 17.1: 7:54. Better. But I have a sneaking suspicion when we turn and head west toward downtown again, Old Mr. Wind is gonna slap me upside the head. Plus I have a new physical issue: the right calf keeps twitching like it may go into full spasm at any time, and the quads and glutes are screaming at me (OK, that's two physical issues). Above the waist, I'm fine.

Mile 18.1: 8:05. Yep, I'm running dead into the wind now. Yuck. I bet it's blowing at least 15 mph. Mile 19.1: 8:08. Still giving back a few seconds, but I'm pushing against the almost insurmountable urge to slow down. Mile 20.1 (Garmin): 8:04. Still good, and according to the Garmin, I'm still under BQ pace. I don't feel any pianos dropping on my back, but boy do my legs hurt. Mile 20 (course): There's a mat at the 20-mile mark, so I click the lap button on my Garmin here. According to the Garmin, I've run 20.24. This is now officially the longest I have ever run in my life without walking even a single step. Chip time: 2:42:40. Didn't know it, but I was already well over BQ pace here (8:08 average).

Mile 21: 8:11. I'm still OK. If I can find the energy to maintain this pace for five more miles, I might just get that BQ. I start using my mantra now: "Do you want it? Go get it." Oh, yeah, that blonde chick I picked out 10 miles ago is still up there, although it's more like 150 yards than 20. I think she made a portapotty stop at one point because she passed me and kept on going. I tried to lock on again, uh, no.

Mile 22: 8:20. I get to this point in 2:59:15. Four miles and change left to run in 31:44. I'm not up to that kind of mental math, but I do know it's slipping away. Mile 23: 8:26. It ain't slipping now, it's slipped. I know Boston won't happen this time, but I also know that sub-four IS happening, even if I walk in from here. And I am not going to walk. Mile 24: 8:17. Downtown buildings are in sight now and that gives me a boost. The calf is still twitching and the quads and hip flexors are screaming, but I'm chugging. Blonde is long gone, but one of my 3:30 pace bunnies dropped back and is now in sight. I'm going after him.

Mile 25: 8:55. The good news is, we finally turned south out of the direct headwind. The bad news is, the right calf finally decided to cramp. Fortunately, it let go after 5-10 seconds of jogging and I was able to pick up my pace somewhat. I'm just gonna try to break 3:35 now.

Mile 26: 8:40. My family greets me at about 25.8 miles, at the bottom of the ramp from Danny Thomas Blvd up to downtown street level (who decided to run us UP A RAMP at 25.8 miles?). I'm struggling up the hill, but pace bunny is struggling more, and I passed him. YES! Now the ballpark (=finish) is in sight.

Mile 26.2: Didn't stop my Garmin right at the line, so don't know my final split for that last 385 yards. I know I was going to run as hard as I could get my legs to run into that ballpark, and I did. Then we had to walk UP THE STANDS to get to the concourse. Rode the elevator down to take a shower and change clothes, came back up, still no time posted. Met my family, handed them my clothes bag, headed back in to get food (hot soup after a December marathon is WONDERFUL). By the time I stuffed my face, my time is up: 3:33:42. Missed my BQ by 163 seconds -- less than seven seconds a mile. But it's in range to BQ next year when I'm 49 for 2011. Good for 337th place; I bet I moved up a few dozen spots in the active.com rankings for Arkansas marathoning geezers in 2008 with this one. I'm very pleased with it, but I have no idea when I'm gonna want to put myself through this kind of torture again. It may be a while, because I am in PAIN 10 hours later.