The Rehoboth Beach Seashore Marathon

I tried out a couple different things for the Rehoboth Beach Marathon. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be setting a new personal best, so I decided it was a good time to experiment. Instead of General Tso’s chicken or Pad Thai the night before, I had alfredo pasta with shrimp. And instead of donuts and a sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich for breakfast on race morning, I just had a bagel with cream cheese and a couple mini-muffins. This allowed me to relax a little bit, instead of rushing around the night before finding a Chinese or Thai restaurant, and then in the morning looking for an open Dunkin’ Donuts. Long story short, I’d say it worked out okay. At no point in this race did I feel like I was under-fueled.

The Richmond Half Marathon

I left work early Friday to drive down to Henry and Liz’s place in Richmond, Virginia. I’d had Chipotle for lunch, as you do, and was settled in for the traffic I was sure to encounter, passing through Washington DC during Friday rush hour. Sure enough, it was terrible. Fortunately, Henry had picked up our bibs and race packets at the expo, so I didn’t need to worry about that.

I’ve often extolled the virtues of pad thai as an effective carb loading meal, so Henry gave it a go Friday night. The rice noodles are about the purest form of carbohydrate you can get (nothing complex or fibrous), and of course it tastes pretty good too. Liz had picked up donuts for Saturday morning, and inexplicably, also picked up a sheet cake, so we had a piece of that before going to bed Friday night. A short and quiet evening.

‘Tis the Season

Ever since the summer of 2012, when I realized how horrible I am at running races above about 70 degrees, I’ve wanted to treat the winter months as my “running season” (for many professional and college level runners, winter is the “off season”). Over the winter of 2012-2013, I ran my first 2 marathons. The following winter, I ran 4. Last winter, I ran one, then was sidelined by a foot issue that set me back a few months, and I didn’t fully recover until just before my trip to Newfoundland (where I got 3 extra weeks of winter to make up for it).

So how many marathons am I looking to run this winter? How about 6? That sounds easy enough. I mean, it sounds easy from a scheduling standpoint. Actually running 6 marathons will probably be kind of hard. But, as I said to a certain relay partner when I ran into her a couple weeks ago, I run marathons because I suck at them. I run them because they’re hard. I run them because it’s always an open question as to whether I’m going to finish. It’s funny, running is the only thing in my life for which I have this attitude.

Possible December Race…s?

Henry got in touch with me last week to let me know that, in his words, he “flew too close to the sun” in his marathon training. Those were good words, so I stole them and made them mine. So Icarus and I won’t be running the Richmond Marathon this year, but we’re still on for the Richmond Half Marathon, which we ran last year. It’s always a good idea to listen to what your body is telling you. Instead of hurting himself and putting himself out of commission for weeks or months, Henry’s going to use his training to crush the half marathon. Last year, neither of us was feeling well before the race, but Henry led us to a strong finish. It was his first half marathon, and my second fastest time for a half. I don’t know how he did it, but I think we can do even better this year.

I’m already registered for the half (I registered a few days after last year’s race). A while ago, I mentioned in a post that I needed someone to remind me to upgrade my registration to run the full, but no one did, so it all panned out. Great work, everyone!

2015 Freedom’s Run Marathon

It was around mile 22 that I started wondering what had gone wrong. That’s pretty standard. Mile 22 is a deep, dark hole in every marathon. I had just passed a guy who had missed the mile 21 marker, and was despairing of ever seeing it. “We passed it about a half mile ago,” I said. “You’re not just messing with me, are ya?” I assured him I wasn’t. The mind plays funny tricks on you. Under no circumstances would a marathon runner ever kid around about distance with another marathon runner during mile 22, but the marathon runner’s mind at mile 22 is a funny, suspicious thing, and tends not to trust others, even other marathoners at mile 22. My nickname for that guy was Struggle.

It’s Good to Have Goals

It’s been a while since my last post, and I’ve got 3 posts worth of stuff to say. For the sake of convenience, I’ll put it all in one post.

Score

I bought my 20th pair of running shoes yesterday. I’m pretty sure it’s the 20th. I stopped keeping track 2 or 3 pairs ago. Plus, there was that one pair I only put 10 miles on before returning. Maybe I shouldn’t count those.

I’ve donated most of them, but I still have a few pairs next to my bed. There’s the pair with the red Xs drawn on the side, to remind me never to run in them again. There’s the pair I ran the Relay for Hope in, which still have Newfoundland road grime all over them. There’s the pair that I inexplicably got over 400 miles out of. There’s the pair that haven’t quite reached the end of their life, that I can still do the occasional hash run in. There are my trail shoes that I’ve used once. And there’s the pair that I’m currently using.

Marathon Training: Week 7

I was going to title this post “Weak 7” because I’ve been sick, love puns, and am hilarious, but it’s not as funny now, because I’m no longer sick. Which is nice. So now I have to run normally. No more excuses. Dang it.

Recovery Run

Stupid mono. After 2 weeks of fever and headaches, 1 week of… really phenomenal digestion issues, and a few more days to make sure they were gone, I finally felt up for a run Thursday.

Henry and the Angry Virus

After my first experiment with trail running, I wanted to make sure to ease into it. I went for a nice 8 mile run on a trail near me, and got a good workout without destroying my calves in the process. That’s progress from the first time, when it put my calves out of commission for 3 days. So I went to the running store and had them fit me with trail running shoes (the shoes I usually wear are more suited for road running). I also ordered a hydration vest from Amazon. It arrived, and I put it next to my new trail shoes, ready to go on my next trail run.

Two liters of liquid refreshment

In the meantime, my friend Henry, who ran his first half marathon with me at the 2014 Richmond Half Marathon, emailed me with a challenge: he wanted to run his first full marathon in Richmond in November 2015. I’ve run the Richmond Marathon, and it’s a beauty. I think it’s good for a first, and I’d already signed up for the 2015 half anyway (upgrading means just paying the difference), so I told him I’d be happy to join him. It’s 5 weeks after the Freedom’s Run Marathon, which I am also already signed up for. I’ve done marathons 5 weeks apart before, and I think it’s the perfect recovery time. Henry asked about training plans, so I sent a link to my trusted Hal Higdon Intermediate 2 plan, which I’d used before, and felt comfortable with. I may have mentioned to him that this plan has him running a total of 617 miles, while the plan I had already started for Freedom’s Run had me doing 1,070 miles. It’s a funny bit of cheeky hubris, because I was already starting to feel a little under the weather. I had just chalked it up to the heat.