Going Long (again) in 2024

Tempo Run on the treadmill this morning.

10 miles at 7:47 pace.

Physically I felt fine.  Mentally, I had to fight the brain that kept telling me to stop.

Treadmill; 9:22 average pace.

Easy treadmill run; 9:18 average pace.

My final long run for this training cycle.  On the treadmill.  Pace was 8:27 steady, with the final 3 miles at Marathon Pace (7:52).

Other than a couple more strength and tempo workouts, I'm pretty all set to go for A1A.  Just gotta do something about those temperatures down there.  

Treadmill at 9:05 average pace.

Three weeks from today I'll be running A1A.  Today's temperature in Fort Lauderdale:  currently sitting at 14C/57F.  It's almost never that low there.  I would LOVE to see those temperatures three weeks from today!

Strength work on the treadmill this morning.

4 x 1.5 mile repeats @ 7:30 pace with 800 recoveries.

10 mile Tempo on the treadmill; 7:41 pace.   

Two weeks from today I'll be in Key West.  Bring it on!

Treadmill recovery run; 9:15/mile pace.

Easy treadmill run; 9:12/mile pace.

Was notified yesterday that my flight to Fort Lauderdale was changed AGAIN.  4th time.  This time, not by a few minutes either way.  I now leave Sudbury Sunday night instead of Monday morning, and so need to stay over night in Toronto.  Ah well.  I'll get there one way or another.

Treadmill; 9:10/mile pace.

Treadmill; 9:20 pace.

Just finished running when my mission Church in Skead called to cancel the 9am Mass.  Nobody can get out of their driveways due to a massive snow storm.  Ah well.  A few bonus hours to myself.

Final Strength Workout.  Treadmill.

6 x 1 mile repeats @ 7:30 pace with 400 recoveries.

Except for the pain in my left foot, which is still there, everything else is firing on all cylinders.  Long range forecast for Fort Lauderdale (ha, as if that is accurate) shows decent temps on race day.  Sure hoping that happens.

Final Tempo run.  Treadmill; 7:41 pace.

All easy paced taper runs from here on in.

Treadmill recovery run; 9:15 pace.

Treadmill; 9:14 pace.

A bit of a scare last night; e-mail from Air Canada telling me my flight was cancelled due to a lack of airplanes.  No way to get in touch with anybody - they won't talk to you unless you are within 24 hours of departure.

So, several hours of plotting options:  driving (25 hours!), flying out of Detroit or Buffalo, dropping the Key West portion of the holiday, etc.

After several hours, another e-mail.  New flight booked out of Toronto an hour or so earlier on Monday.  So, for now, I'm somewhat back to where I was.  For now.

Treadmill easy run; 9:10 pace.

As far as I know, I'm flying Sudbury to Toronto tomorrow night.

Easy treadmill run; 9:15 pace. 

My next run will be tomorrow afternoon in Homestead, Florida.

Okay, I'm in Fort Lauderdale.

But yesterday was in Key West.

And the day before (Monday) was in Homestead.

So, a flight that was delayed many times over.  Left Sudbury late Sunday night.  A late arrival in Toronto.  A sleepless night.  And early departure.  And I'm in Homestead, at an Airbnb, after driving down from Fort Lauderdale.

So, Monday afternoon, off for my 5 mile easy run.  First time outside in over a month.  And it's hot.  24C/75F.  After 1 mile, I'm wondering why I'm doing this.  At 2pm.  In this heat.  But I did it, and I got faster and faster as I went.  Ended up running an 8:30/mile average.  And it felt okay.

I noticed:  the drivers in Florida are no different from the drivers in Sudbury.  Good and bad.

And, although weed is legal in Ontario (and not in Florida), it doesn't seem to make much difference.  Still passed 'zones' where tokers left their scent.

Tuesday off.  Driving to Key West.

So, I arrived in Key West mid day Tuesday.  It was colder than it has EVER been in Key West.  WOW!  

The staff in the bars were dressed the way I dress when I run in -40 temperaturs.  Seriously.  Down coats (where do they GET down coats down here???), scarves, touques.  (Seriously, they wore touques!!!).  Even balaclavas.  Unbelievable.

All the boat tours were cancelled.  Snorkelling too.  I couldn't do my snorkelling in Key Largo - cancelled.  Just incredible.  It felt like home in Spring.  

I wore the same jacket and hoodie that I wore at the airport when I left Sudbury.  And it still felt cold!  Very strong wind from the north.

No run on Tuesday.  Wednesday morning, I ran 6 miles around the Key.  8:40 pace.  In the afternoon, I drove back to Fort Lauderdale.  I just arrived.  In an airbnb for the next 7 nights.  Ready for A1A!!!  Bring it on!!!  The one thing I could not control was the heat.  And now it looks as if that won't be an issue.  All is good!

This is a very nice airbnb.  I've lucked out with those on this trip.

Morning run down to the water and back; 8:56 pace.  Still on the cool side, at 14C/57F.  

Marathon morning is predicted to be a touch cooler at the start:  12C/54F.  Pretty close to ideal, which is amazing for here.

Today I'm off to Miami to do the touristy thing.

A full day in Miami yesterday.  Did 4 tours.  A Duck Boat tour out of Miami Beach, then a Jet Boat thrill ride out of Miami, followed by a Cruise on the Island Queen (Millionaire's Row), and then a night tour on a bus through both Miami and Miami Beach.

All were very good.  It was warm and sunny for the Duck Boat, cold and rainy for the Jet Boat, mixed rain and not rain for the Cruise, and a torrential downpour for the Bus Tour.  The Atlantic Ocean was shooting up through the street drains.

The guy narrating the tour on the bus was incredible.  A long day, but I managed to cover a lot of territory as a tourist.

Today, a humid run.  100% humidity.  Fortunately, just 19C/66F.  8:42 pace.  

The forecast for race morning hasn't changed:  13C/56F with 75% humidity and dropping humidity as the morning goes on.

This morning, I'm doing a snorkelling tour out of Fort Lauderdale.  Will make up for the one I missed in Key Largo.  Then will head down to the Convention Center this afternoon for the Race Expo.

Easy shake out run through the local Cemetery.  It's a quarter mile from where I'm staying, and one loop is exactly one mile.

8:42 pace.  19C/66F, but with the 93% humidity, it felt hotter than that.  Sure will be glad for tomorrow's lower temperature and humidity.

Then a trip back down to Miami Beach to do the lazy 'do nothing' thing that is perfect for the day before a marathon.  Sat in the sun and watched all the gorgeous beach bodies go by.

Am meeting Tom and a few of his family/friends at Church for 5pm, and then we'll go out for dinner afterwards.

Oh, yesterday's snorkel adventure was exactly that.  Definitely NOT the same as doing that in Maui!  The little reef was off shore and the swells were pretty intense.  And there were a LOT of jelly fish.  I was the first one in, and quickly realized I had forgotten to put my flippers on.  So, while trying desperately to dodge jelly fish and not being able to move too fast in the swells, I panicked and swallowed some sea water.  Yuck.  

I made it back to the boat to get the flippers, but now the taste of sea water and the huge swells led to me getting sea sick.  After sitting for a while waiting for it to pass, it just got worse.  And that, boys and girls, was the extent of my snorkelling.  Ah well.  The boat ride was fun.  And honestly, I didn't want to ruin 16 weeks of excellent training with one stupid jelly fish sting on my leg.  So, in hind sight, I was okay with not going back in the water.  Besides, when I up chucked over board, there must have been several dozen fish drawn to it.  I saw all I wanted to see in the fish family that day.

Last night, attended Church and then to dinner with Tom and his friend Scott, along with their lovely wives Donna and Diane.  My deep appreciation to my newly met friends who split my bill between them.  

This morning, up at 3am to launch what was intended to be the ultimate focus of this holiday.  I had a good training cycle.  I did not miss any training for any reason.  No injuries; even my left foot has been fairly quiet.  I felt strong and healthy.

I met Tom in the starting coral around 5:30am.  My goal was a 3:30 marathon, which should get me to Boston again.  My BQ time is 3:25, so beating it by 5 minutes was my intention.  This was Tom's first Half.  Hard to believe, with so many races under his belt.  So, he set a very loose goal of under 1:45, but we both were pretty sure he'd do much better.  In any event, our initial paces were projected to be the same.

It was pretty tight at the start, as per normal for races.  Based on the results, there were just shy of 600 marathoners and 3,000 half marathoners starting at 6am.  We stuck with the 3:30/1:45 pacers to begin, but they really started out too fast.  The first 2 miles were 7:36 and 7:44.  Not what I wanted, and it did seem fast.

At mile 2, Tom was off.  He looked over his shoulder at me to see if I was following, but I had to stick to my plan.  He ended up with an excellent PR event:  1:37:57 for a 7:30/mile pace.  Awesome job Tom!  I look forward to reading your report.

So now, I just tried to settle in to an 8:00/mile pace.  I was slightly ahead of the pacer, and planned on sticking to him like glue (if he finally settled into the right pace).  I ran the next 5 miles at 7:55, 7:49, 8:08, 8:07 and 7:55, so pretty much on track and feeling good.  

Unfortunately, that where my GI problems started.  I sure wish I could get a handle on this problem.  I still can't figure out where things go wrong.  But I ended up having to make 5 emergency stops along the way.  Not as bad as Boston 3 years ago, but at least I had lots of good reasons to be sick when I ran in Boston.

So, during mile 8 I had to stop.  That meant a 9:19/mile pace.  I figured the pacer was ahead of me after that, but I never saw him again.  Still, I wasn't that far off pace, and I was hoping this was a once only stop.  I decided to just keep my pace and slowly close the distance.  So, the next 2 miles were 7:49 and 7:54, but then had to stop again.  That gave me a time of 9:18 for mile 11.  By now, I had taken 4 immodium and 6 pepto bismol caplets, and I had really emptied myself, so I was hopeful that unpleasantness was done.

The next 3 miles I ran at 7:52, 7:55 and 7:49.  I hit the Half Marathon mat in a recorded time of 1:46:06.  So, I did the math in my head, a quick assessment of how I was feeling, and decided I could still bring this home.  Other than my GI issues, I was firing on all cylinders at this point.  But then, an urgent stop during mile 15 which gave me my slowest mile on the day at 9:37.  Ouch.  Then after running the next mile at 7:50, I had to stop again.  So mile 17 was 8:26.

At that point, I figured there couldn't be much left in my GI system, and I was stoked to do what I came here to do.  I had 9 miles to go, and after doing the math in my head, I figured I could still pull this off.

So, the next 4 miles I ran at 7:39, 7:45, 7:42 and 7:45.  I knew I could do it at this point, and I REALLY tried to avoid stopping again.  But nature doesn't give you that option, sadly.  So, another stop during mile 22 gave me an 8:59/mile.  After that, I was SO close.  I didn't want to open it up just yet, but I did run faster over the final 4 miles:  7:38, 7:36, 7:28 and 7:07.  Plus, of course, the final .2.  Tom was there cheering me on at the end.  I was a little unsteady on my feet, and more unsteady in my GI system, but I came in just 21 seconds over my intended goal for the day.  I'm still 4 minutes 39 seconds under my BQ time, so I'm pretty confident I'll make the cut for the 2021 running of the 125th Boston Marathon.  

I added up the time it took for my 5 stops, using an 8:00/mile as my baseline, and calculated that I lost almost 6 minutes (5:45 to be precise) because of them.  Too bad - that would have put me in striking distance of beating my marathon PR I set in Chicago.  Of course, it's hard to say for sure that my 5 minutes of stopping and sitting along the way didn't also preserve my energy for running harder.  So, who's to say?

The weather, fortunately, could not have been better for a marathon.  In Fort Lauderdale!  Who knew?  It was around 12C/54F at the start and it only climbed to about 19C/66F when I finished.  But I only felt a bit hot during that final half hour push.  Clear skies.  Little wind.  Beautiful sunrise over the ocean.  Incredible views.

Tom, I don't know how you can pack down so much food and beer after running like that.  Amazing!  But thank you for sticking around for me, taking a few pictures, and coming down with me to stand in the ocean.  It was all worth it, and I hope we can do something like this again.  Put your name in for New York!

So, post marathon part of my holiday:

Monday, I drove the 2 hours to Marco Island and walked on Tiger Tail and South Beach for a whopping 7 hours.  Shelling.  And soaking it all in.  A very nice dinner, and then the drive back to Fort Lauderdale.

Tuesday, I drove the 1 hour North to West Palm Beach for an incredible 2 hour Lomi Lomi Massage.  Wow!  Just what I needed.  Then I drove another half hour North to Jupiter Island and walked the beach there for a few hours.  Also visited the Blowing Rocks Conservatory that is there.  Another nice dinner and the drive home.

Today, I leave later this morning for the airport.  I had time, and I wanted to see how I was feeling, so I headed back to the cemetery up the street for a slow run.  

9:28 pace.  Beautiful morning at 16C/61F.  Maybe a bit too early after the Marathon to run, but I know what I'll be looking at through the window tomorrow, and wanted one last chance to enjoy being (and running) outside in shorts.

Back to the treadmill; 9:23 pace as I slowly build back my mileage.

Next goal is my 100 Mile Ultra on July 4th, with my 50 Mile Ultra on May 23rd being essentially a dress rehearsal for it.

Easy treadmill run; 9:30 pace.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my training schedule for Sinister 7.  22 weeks away.  Training starts Monday.