The Marathon

Today I successfully completed the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, finishing in Albany, New York. This 26.2 miler was my first, and I finished with a time of 3:38:50 (unofficial). This time FAR exceeded even my wildest hopes, and I couldn't be more thrilled.

Trevor's cousin Leya and her husband Nate, who live in Albany, were kind enough to allow myself, Trevor, Bob, A-Low, and a new addition to the runners list, Kevin to crash the night before the marathon. Trevor, battling a bone bruise on his knee, was forced to drop down to the half marathon, and his friend from work, Kevin, decided to use Chris's registration and run the half with him.

So the marathon was down to myself, Bob, and A-Low. We got to the Crowne Plaza to pick up the bus around 6:30, and at 7:00 we were on our way to the start. The bus ride was among the more difficult of my pre-race moments, as I spent about 35 minutes thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong over the next few hours. We got to the starting line with a little under an hour to spare, so we hit the bathrooms and sat in the sun, trying to stay warm. It didn't seem like long before the crowd was off, and the moment had finally arrived.

Bob had decided that he was going to run with me for "at least a third" of the race. A-Low quickly took off, and Bob and I were on our own.

I had told myself coming into the race that my first mile would be between 9:15 and 9:30. We ended up running an 8:50. That would be our slowest mile by a significant amount.

My memory of the race seems quite surreal at this point. Bob and I hit a rhythm, and we knocked off mile after mile. While our splits did fluctuate, we maintained a steady 8:15 - 8:20 pace. I started to get sore around mile 13 ... and I had to stop to adjust my shoe around 12.5, but the first 20 were smooth sailing.

The last six miles were both my least and most favorite. Heeding the advice of Bob, as my body started to break down, I poured all of my focus into maintaining the correct form. As runners wilted around us, we maintained the same pace. From mile 20-26.2, we probably passed 50 runners, and we didn't get passed at all.

At 25, I hit "the wall." I stayed strong through the end, and I give much of the credit for this to Bob, who convinced me that I could indeed run faster ... all I needed to do was imagine that I was being chased by a bear.

When we hit the finish, I felt an enormous wave of emotion. Maybe I was relieved I was done. Maybe I was thrilled that I completely destroyed any sort of time goal I was bold enough to have. Maybe I was overwhelmed by the fact that my training had paid off. Who knows. What I do know is that today I ran a marathon, and according to the standards I had set for myself, I absolutely killed it.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to all who have kept tabs on me and supported this endeavor. Bring on the next one.

Paranoid

After feeling sluggish, catching a cold, and struggling through shorter runs, I'm extremely paranoid that I'm tapering too heavily ....

Don't know where that leaves me .... this is all a mental battle.

Race Info

For information about the Hudson-Mohawk River Marathon, go to this website:

http://www.hmrrc.com/index.cfm?method=Race.mhrm

There is a link to an extremely detailed "spectator guide" for any ambitious soul who wants to keep tabs on my progress.

Unfortunately, both Trevor and Chris are out due to recent injuries (cartilage tear in Trevor's knee, stress fracture in Chris's foot). Trevor is still planning on going to cheer myself, Bob, and A-Low. With the loss of Chris, I become the only marathon newbie of our group.

20 miles of fun

Unfortunately my extremely busy schedule has prevented me from doing much blogging. I do feel compelled to note, however, that I successfully completed my 20 miler this past Sunday. My good friend Bob drove out to my apartment in Hudson. We hit the roads, travelling through downtown Marlborough, hitting up parts of Southborough, then back roading it into Westborough. We stopped at my parents house in Westborough for some rehydration and a short break, then hit the roads again and ran all the way back to Hudson. We brought maps, fuel belts, and powerbars with us, all of which came in handy!

Bring on the marathon.

Solid 12

This weekend's long run was light ... only 12 miles. This week I prep for my hardest workout of all next weekend ... a 20 miler.

19 reasons to cheer

It's been a while since I've blogged, and I've been so busy and tired that this will be short. Yesterday I ran 19 miles without the major difficulty I've experienced with my long runs on the past. I credit this to Power Bars and Hydration throughout, which was really sustaining. I also took ibuprofen about halfway through to help with my knee pain. I don't feel bad doing that on the long runs. We're getting close.

Busy

Now that summer is over and I'm back teaching (for those of you who don't know, I'm a high school history teacher), I've found that my schedule has become much much tighter. This was expected, of course, but it's difficult nonetheless. Strangely, one of the things that's most hampered my training has been the fact that I'm assistant cross country coach this fall for the school. On the surface this seems like a good thing, and if my goal was simply to stay active and be in shape, then running a few miles with the kids every day would be wonderful. The problem is, I've been running a few miles with the kids, then realizing that I didn't do enough of a workout, and so when I get home I head out for more. This makes for disjointed training. Besides, I don't really like running in the heat of the afternoon, which is when we have practice.

As a second year teacher teaching a new course, my outside of school schedule has been predictably packed with planning, and so finding time for runs has been a struggle. Today (Labor Day) I did a 13 miler and felt okay. Next week my long is supposed to be a 19. We'll see how that goes. My knee hurts on every long run. But during day to day activities, it really doesn't bother me at all. It's strange.