So
I am not so good at this blogging thing! I can blame work or kids and say I don’t
have time, all of which would be true but honestly I just have not MADE the
time! Slight nuance but for me an important distinction, as I am a big believer
of we make time for things we want to make time for. I am less than 3 weeks away from running the
Boston Marathon and I have not updated this blog since December! I guess that means I have a lot to bring
everyone up to date on.
First
let me say thank you for all of those that have donated. While I was willing to pony up the $4000 you
need to fundraise to run for the DFMC myself it’s very nice that I will not
have too and I have raised over double my original goal. That said you can still make donations here
and remember every last dollar goes to fund cutting edge research.
So what has happened in the last 3 months? I have run more miles then I have ever run
before in my life and loved every moment of it!
I only started running in November of 2011 so to voluntarily run a
marathon 17 months later, well is in line with my never quit and never a
challenge too big attitude! Although others including my wife just call it plan
crazy, which is slightly true. If I had
to do it again I would because setting such a high goal has kept me motivated. My training has gone pretty uneventful except
for the last week or so but we will get to that. Since December I have logged around 300 miles
which is probably the total distance I had run in my entire life up to then. I have been trying to run 2 to 3 times during
the week keeping my mileage below 20 miles or so with a long run on the
weekends never peaking about 40 miles for a week. I tried a few weeks to run closer to 30
during the week and found my long runs suffered or my body made it be known
that it did not appreciate the abuse. I
have successfully upped my long runs from 5 miles to 18 miles and did one competitive
half marathon finishing in 1 hour 59 min (which I should say was done in February
in Boston during a N’orestern). I have
run the actual course more times than I can count and have run heart break hill
enough times not to be afraid of it. Then came the big finale this weekend, a 22
mile run with 17 miles under your belt as you hit the Newton flats (only in
Boston could you call a 4 mile stretch which includes heart break hill as “the
flats”). Roads were barricaded in
certain spots since there were over 2000 runners on the course for their final
long run. It was supposed to be a celebratory
weekend marking the beginning of the end.
For me it was the worst run I had since I began training.
I had been told to expect at least one run during my training to
be bad but since things had been going so good I thought I had dodged that
bullet. I mean come on I ran my 18 miler
is less time than my 16 miler and felt great what could go wrong. Well just about everything! The morning started poorly. I had forgotten to go to the store to pick up
my normal breakfast for the morning of the long run, couldn’t get out of the
house on time and had to go back because I forgot my GPS and had only logged
about 4 hours of sleep the night before.
It was also the only week I had logged less than 10 mile during the week
due to a variety of reason and not carefully laid out all my running cloths the
night before. The run was off to a bad
start before I even took one step! Then
I took bunch of steps and it didn’t get better.
I usually warm up and find my zone by mile 3. My body adjusts to the weather (the cold) and
I maintain a good temperature throughout the run usually resulting in me taking
off my gloves and hat. On this run I had
dressed inappropriately and missed my mark by about 10 degrees and was
constantly cold. Then I made the equally
stupid mistake of running the same pace as I had the week before. I knew this was dumb and told myself this as
I set off but let my ego get the better of me.
All was OK through mile 10. Then this
was my point of no return. It was a
decision point. I could head back, settle for 20 instead of 22 or push it. The ego won and I pushed it and immediately
realized I made the wrong choice. I
started to have some intense right foot pain which led to left hip pain. This lasted until mile 14 at which point I
should have just headed in but I didn’t. My pace had dropped to between 13-14
min/mile pace almost 5 min slower than my normal long pace. I tried to keep going telling myself I could just
run through it. Then my body just stopped
leaving me a mile to walk before I could ask for a ride back to my car.
Well, all I can say is that I am glad to get that out of my system
and am looking forward to my 14 miler this weekend!
