Could be the 3:15am wake up or the REALLY...long run this am... but I am seriously contemplating going to bed NOW.. what time is?.... 4:30ish... ok.. fine bed at 6pm.The weekend was incredible... Friday was Pizza night and Saturday am we took our butts to Wilson Park in Chesterbrook for some laps around the park in the sun... and back home for mowing (Joe), wash (Wendy), a bit of javelin practice (Wendy) and a second Run (Joe)... so then Sunday brings about our long runs.. Joe (14miles).. Wendy (16miles).
Because I am the SMART ONE... I scheduled my long run on Sunday during a race.. thus I would have support... and be able to get fresh water every couple miles... Joe said he had NO interest in doing that and would rather do his long run at home....SO BACK to why I was up at 3:15am..
I had to leave the house at 4am in order to drive the hour and a half to York, PA... and pick up my race packet, and actually find the start of the race... race was to start at 6:30AM...OH yeah and the race was a Marathon.. the Bob Potts Heritage (memorial) Rail Trail Marathon to be exact...
Now before you all get hysterical on why I was doing a marathon.. I was technically “not” doing the marathon.. I was running 16 miles and then I would walk/jog in the last 10.. thus get my long run in. See SMART!
OK...so here is the race report... and I have to be honest... sometimes my logic scares the b-jeezes out of me ..
Sunday, May 31st
3:15am up..first thought upon the alarm sounding was.. WTF was I thinking...
4:00am headed off into the darkness for my hour and a half trek to York to run...
5:45 am arrived a little later than expected due to a couple mis-turns.. yeah I know I have a Garmin but honest to G-d I didn’t understand when she said take ramp right.. what right ramp (there were two) she was talking about... after the fifth time of making a giant circle... and re-putting in the coordinates.. I realized it was the 2nd ramp,... SOUTH ... the big ole S-O-U-T-H on the screen should have been an indication... yikes ....but alas made it with 45 minutes to spare..
6:00 am waited a bit at the port-o-pots.. not that the line was long mind you but it appears the person ahead of me was taking residence in there.. GRRR...
I debated on what fuel to bring with me during run.. I thought perhaps Perpetium.. it's what I use for the tris and since I should practice with it prior to Eagleman I picked that... although when I mixed it.. it just didn’t look right.. like wtf did I bring.... kool-aid?.... I also opted to bring along a few gels..some shot blocks (gel things) and a gummy snake to eat..
6:30 am it was a cool morning .. damn near perfect running weather... 55 degrees with low humidity... and NO RAIN! The course was an out an back utilizing the rail trail... first mile would be on road then down rail trail and back... mainly flattish with a hill coming in at end towards track.. then half lap on track.
I had my schedule.. I was to take 8 miles of the 16 and run them at marathon pace.. so warm up a couple miles.. marathon pace for 8.. then warm down... great plan.. it's what the scheduled called for..
I lined up with the 400 other marathoners... foolishly I lined up in back and lost about a minute or so getting to start.. although dropping my sunglasses and having to back track and retrieve them while hordes of people were running TOWARDS me didn’t help either...
The first few miles were basically uneventful except the rooster...and the really cool dark tunnel we had to go through...
By mile 6 I was keeping up a fairly good pace.. running with a gal about my age...she reminded me a lot of the cupcake (Aka my running buddy).. how she could actually duck into a port-a-pot around mile 10 and still caught back up to me.. yeah a lot like the cupcake... but then I noticed that we were pushing the pace a bit more than I wanted.. and before I knew it I had cleared 16 miles at a 8.45 average pace...2 hours and 20 minutes... UM..
8:50am I knew I had to stop and walk after 16.. I could NOT derail my training trying to hot dog it... and so I told the girl I was running with good luck.. I was done at 16.. told her I would look her up at end to see how she did.. and I stopped and walked... I walked about a quarter mile and was bored..
Ok.. so if I walk the remaining 10.. I will get back by lunch time.. EWE.. no.. I decided I would jog a bit.. and next thing I know I am jogging a bit faster.. UGH... so in order to MAKE myself walk.. I said to myself... fine you want to jog or whatever.. you can only until the mile marker then we walk a bit... OK.. ?
The last thing I wanted to do was fatigue myself doing a full marathon right before Eagleman which is two weeks away or get injured when my longest training run in the last 3 months had been 13 miles.. although I have been putting in some great 35 mile weeks.. and cross training and such.. sigh I don’t know..
I became one of those people.. the people I hate.. those that walk and then you pass then and then they come sprinting past you and then they start walking again.. UGH..
When I was taking my walking breaks I would bite a piece of my gummy snake...... and realized that the extra sugar does wonders for me... by the time I hit mile 20 ... I felt great.. like man only 6.2 to go... BUT Wendy you must still take walk breaks.. grrrr...
It started to get a bit toasty now.. sun was out full blast and it was heating up... thankfully most of the rail trail was shaded... VERY NICE... the last mile I just couldn’t walk, time to just get done... and so I just motored.. then came the hill.. nice all that hill workouts did good .. although I did have to grit my teeth as that is JUST MEAN to put a hill in at end of a marathon.. and up I went.. to my delight I passed a woman..... and got on track and just brought it in...
.......SWEET 4.08.55 ..that is 4 hours 8 minutes and like 55 seconds... on the clock .... FREAKING NO WAY.. just ran my best marathon time ever.. taking walking breaks! WTF!! Checked Garmin, yep correct distance.. wow..
They gave us a nice finisher medal and then PIZZA and smiley face cookies.. I was in heaven.. truly...heaven....
Although the mixture of nutrition and fuel caused me to race to the port-a-pot and yes take residence there for a bit.. I was pleased and happy that I got my long run in, got a finisher medal.. and FOOD... poor Joe.. he had to run at home and missed all the excitement.. now to figure out how to drive home... http://www.bobpottsmarathon.com/
