Niagara Falls Marathon 10/25/2009

This was my 6th marathon of the year not counting the 24 hour. Marsha, Charles and I decided to do this after talking the the Niagara rep at the Cleveland Marathon. This was going to be my attempt at a BQ but with the extreme miles I put in in the previous 30 days I had it in my mind that it may be unlikely but I was going and going to give it a shot. We left on Friday morning and were spending the whole weekend there, 3 nights and 4 days. I slept great on Friday night which was good as I never sleep good on the eve of a marathon. Saturday we spent the day with Charles and family and toured the expo. I like going to a marathon a day early but this was 2 days early and I was going crazy having all day Saturday with not much to do but wait for the next day to get there. When we got to Canada we were glad to find out we could text back to the U.S. for free and we did alot of texting. Sunday morning finally arrived, a little earlier than I would have liked though, got up for good about 3 am and headed down to the lobby with the laptop to let Marsha sleep. I went back up about 5 and got Marsha up and we tried to duplicate Columbus morning wearing mostly the same clothes and eating the exact same food for breakfast, a honey wheat oat bagel with peter pan peanut butter and a banana. Around 7 am we met Charles in the lobby and walked down the block to get on bus at 7 am for along trip through customs and to Buffalo where we then went into an art museum for the last hour plus til the start of the marathon. We had been in constant contact with Jeannine and she was going to be texting us during our 26.2 miles and had a message we had to decode after it was over, which was D D A L O G for me and to Marsha, I actually started writing it down til I saw what it said. I was wearing my Muddy Paws shirt on race day and at least 4 people running the marathon also ran this local race, one being the bearded guy Jeannine and I ran into during the Columbus Marathon a week earlier. The race started promptly at 10 am and off we went, said goodbye to Marsha and Charles and I was off, felt pretty good but nearing 7 miles my quads started to get sore and I knew that was gonna be a problem. I did get to see MC n CE right about mile 7 also as we passed on a turn around, I kept my pace hitting the half way point at 1:39:48 but was getting a little more sore all over as time went by, I ran with the couple guys from around here for the first 8 miles then another fella for a long ways parting ways in the last 3 miles. The wind was in our face most of the day which had slowed us all down plenty I would bet but I still would have struggled with or without it. The last 3 miles I was taking 25 second walk breaks at the water stops but was running slower and slower and had some calf cramping wanting to happen, quads wanting to cramp and once even my hamstring stopped me completely for a minute but I kept moving and running real slow til it mostly went away. My slowest mile was 9:38 and my fastest was 7:08 early in the race. The last mile was down hill so when I hit mile 25 I ran almost to the finish line when again the cramps made me walk just before the finish just like in Cleveland. I finished in 3:36:04 just 4 minutes and 16 seconds from my PR but overall was really happy with my time knowing that I was happy just to finish another marathon after all I had done recently. I was the 111 th finisher of 786 runners and Marsha was around 300th. Charles ran into a few problems and was done by mile 20 getting a ride in. Marsha's 4:05 was a 7 minute pr.

The Columbus Marathon 10/18/2009

Marsha, Janet, Jeannine and I left for Columbus Marathon on Saturday afternoon and went to the expo then out to Olive Garden for dinner but they had a 1.5 hour wait so we went to Bob Evans and had a nice dinner with no wait. Then we went back to our hotel room and rested up , watched a little TV, did our Facebooking and went to sleep. Sunday morning we got our wake up call at 4:30 instead of 5:30 but we were all able to go back to sleep. We got up and headed to the Marathon, it was cold, maybe mid 30's so we were bundled up and ready to run. At 7:30 the race was on, Marsha ran with Jeannine Janet and I til mile 3 then we were on our own. This was such a great course and we had a large showing from the Medina area seeing quite a few people we knew either at the expo or during the run itself. I was pacing Jeannine for her second Marathon and was lucky to be able to, one week ago I was thinking it would be a miracle if I would be able but some how I have been able to get through these injuries and run the runs I wanted to do. We had a great run with no problems unlike the things that happened at Akron. We hit the half way point in 1:57 and we both felt great, the course was one of my favorites of the runs I have run so far. We had almost even splits coming across the finish line in 3:55:01 and 3:55:02. I tried to make sure Jeannine finished just in front of me but I must have crossed the start matt just before her cause the final time put me 1 second in front of her again. I'm starting to like being a pacer, it's so much fun to help someone to a goal and not feel the pain of running a hard marathon which is what I may be feeling next weekend in Niagara Falls.I"m hoping to get the chance again to pace Jeannine to her Boston Qualifier time sometime next year if she can wait that long. I'm looking forward to a nice long get a way in Niagara but not looking forward to marathon pain but it will be worth it if every things comes together

First Run Since the 24

It's been more than 10 days since the NC 24 race ended and I've been healing and healing but not running other than a 1 mile test to see if I could Monday night. I went to see Joe Tuesday night and he said I was 90% healed and I said "think I could run this weekend" thinking he knew I meant the Columbus Marathon and he says yes I could maybe run 7 miles or so. NO I meant run the marathon, I may have to go against the doc.s advice if my 6 mile run goes well tonight. Marsha and Janet are out running right now and I will be meeting Jeannine at 5:30 to run 6 miles. I am hoping to have no problems after this run which will reinforce my decision to run this Sunday. My only left over problem is a very tight maybe achilles tendon running up the back of my foot and I have been stretching it as much and as lightly as I can hoping to get rid of the tightness I can feel, maybe it will be gone after tonight. While I was sitting in Joe's office getting therapy I glanced over and saw a Readers Digest with the title "Bounce Back From Anything" which is what I really want to do after being on crutches last week. I posted the front of that RD to facebook and hope to be back and ready to run Columbus and really hope to have at least a glimmer of hope with one more weeks rest to maybe go for a BQ at Niagara. Maybe that's a tall order to fill but what can I say, gotta at least try, right. If Terry Fox can do it so can I. :)

North Coast 24 Oct. 3-4, 2009

This race was my first attempt at an ultra. The months leading up to this I spent many many runs running with all the guys and the ladies and doing speed work with them also because I was fighting an injury or two. The injury in my left leg cleared up just one week before Akron. Then 1 week before the 24 I ran the Akron Marathon with Jeannine and the next morning I ran 20 miles with Dan on the tow path and another 2 with Jeannine and Janet for a 48.2 mile total in 2 days and felt better than ever and very confident about this upcoming 24 hour run. I know it was alot of miles just 7 days before the big day but I planned on taking most of the week off. I was going to run just 5 miles on Thursday night and Jeannine was going to run to she ran here and we did 4 miles, my only miles in 5 days but now I was as ready as I could be. I took half the day off on Friday and got in 2-3 hours of sleep in the afternoon then got maybe 5-6 Friday night but that was the reason for the afternoon nap. I way over packed as advised by my many ultra friends but the weather turned out to be perfect with basically no rain for the whole 24 just a bit of wind at times. Frank and I spent about the first 10 hours together but parted ways about dark and I spent a lot of time talking to the runners. We had a nice set up with tables, chairs, our 9x9 canopy and Kim and Abra's tent to change in. Marsha and Charles spent alot of time volunteering and also ran there 20 plus miles during the day so Abra took care me quite a bit getting me drinks and food when ever I asked. I had a sore ankle 2 hours into the run so I loosened the velcro timing chip after 2 hours and then moved it to my other leg at 4 hours but had some pain in the right foot for 22 hours which was the worst part of this whole race. Jeannine came for a visit with Cliff and Ella in the late afternoon then she came back at around 3 am which was quite an amazing thing for anyone to do at that hour. Knowing I had a friend coming to visit helped me get through the night and she told me that this was a 24 hour race and not to quit early, easy for her to say but it did help, I was determined to hit that 100 mile mark. She had guessed I would do 96 miles and I hit that just as she was leaving around 5 am. So now 100 was in the bag and now I'm thinking 26.2 x 4 is 104.8 so if I do 105 miles I'll have 4 marathons in 24 hours. I walked most of the last 4 hours and was really wanting to hit my new magic number but wasn't sure where I was so with 10 minutes to go Marsha and I run the last lap together and I sped past the mat like it mattered after all that and got in maybe an extra 3rd of a mile and was going faster than I had all day and on this sore ankle, a very dumb decision looking back but I was about as out of it as I have ever been, on the verge of tears in the last half hour for some reason, Marsha was also which didn't help. So the whistle blows and the race is over, I drop my number marker on the path and walk back to our tent city and sit down and the rest was a little blurry as I passed out and woke up to a medical team working on me. All my vitals, heart rate, pulse, etc. were good so I was cleared to go but I couldn't walk because of the ankle hurting so bad, sort of funny since I was just on it for 24 straight hours. I was in no shape to help with anything so Marsha and Charles packed us all up and we headed home which I don't remember much of either but then as Marsha was trying to help me out of the truck I was having more than 1 problem and as I stepped out, the next thing I know I am laying in the cold wet grass, I look up almost laughing and say to Marsha, "did I do it again" I had to have had her more than scared a couples times in that last 90 minutes. Marsha and Cassie got me into the house and I spent some time in the middle of the living room floor before I had enough energy to crawl into the bath tub and get a shower / sponge bath from my dear wife. Other than that last 90 minutes after the race it was a great experience and I will most likely do it again next year or maybe a 100 miler instead of this. Quite a few of us are having right leg problems and are wondering if constantly going clockwise and mostly all right hand turns may have something to do with it. It was fun though.

5 Day Taper before the NorthCoast 24

Having run the Akron Marathon last Saturday and 22 miles on Sunday I was more than ready for a nice slow week. It's now Thursday and I have not run for 3 days and was planning on running just a few miles today only before the big race day Saturday morning. I was planning on running 5 miles but was talked into running just 3-4 miles by Jeannine as she ran to my house and added a little on her way having 5 in by the time she arrived. She wanted to run 8 miles but we ended up running 4 together giving her 9 miles for the night and me 4. It seemed a little weird cause I am the one usually adding the miles by running to a run but she was the one running more. Now less than 24 hours til the NorthCoast 24.

Other big news, Jeannine who on last Saturday couldn't wait to end her marathon and was by far not happy at 3 hours into it and was retired as she told me later that day has now officially signed up for the Columbus Marathon. I asked her if she would like a pacer for her 2nd marathon and I officially signed up last night just before the price increase today.