Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon 2008

This photo is the team just prior to lining up at the start.  Today is Sunday, post marathon, and since I can’t walk, I thought that I would sit and blog some.  Here are the facts:

Bib	Name	Sex/Age	City, State, Country
352	Durham, Bobby	M44	Lexington, KY
Gun / Chip Overall Sex Div  10K   15K   25K   30K   Chip Time   Pace   4:12:21  /  4:08:36    490 /1206   363   66   0:57:18   1:25:26   2:22:53   2:52:19   4:08:36   9:29

I’m now wondering about my choice in homes.  This place has way too many stairs!  Actually, I’m already getting around better than I did yesterday afternoon, but I think that I’ll be feeling the after effects of this for a while.  As for the marathon, I couldn’t be happier with my time!  And the weather co-operated too, except for getting rained on before the start.  It wasn’t overly hot or humid.  It was a HUGE challenge though, and there were definitely points along the way where I had my doubts.  At about mile 20, I started to get spasms in my left hip flexor…never felt that before.  I didn’t know if this was some kind of early warning signal that the whole thing was going to cramp up or something.  With the view of the bridge ahead and knowing the climb up and over and back was coming, I just wasn’t sure about what was in store for me.  That was about the time that I thought of the comment on a recent post by my niece, Kelly.  Citing an inspirational quote she noted: It’s not whether it hurts or not, it’s whether you mind.  Thanks for that one Kelly!  I decided right there that I wasn’t going to mind about any spasms.

Thanks also to my own personal Scream Team!  My Sisters, Susie and Debbie, and my Dad met me at several locations and gave me a much needed lift.  Special thanks to Susie…as the family expert on running, I got alot of great advice from you.  Special thanks to Debbie who drove all the way from Chicago and my Dad who drove up from London…I know that a marathon is not the greatest spectator sport!  I can’t thank you enough for the support, and for helping me hobble around post race.

This has been a huge accomplishment for me, and there are so many people to thank for their help and inspiration.  Thanks to all of my teammates for their support and dedication to a very long training program.  Your commitment to this was a great motivator!  Thanks to all of my family, friends, and donors to our charity St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  Your words of encouragement and your donations have been a great source of inspiration.  At this point we do not have a final count on our fund raising, but we will be around $13,000 with our company match added (here’s an update, 5-12-08, it looks like we will be around $14,300 total).  That’s GREAT!  Thanks also to my co-workers who helped in the fund raising efforts in our office.

I’ve logged 491 miles of running since I started training for this, so I know that I’ll think back on all of my training experiences as well as race day when I think of this marathon.  Congratulations to all of my teammates, including the mini-marathoners.  I’ll remember the lunch after the marathon with my sisters and dad, when the manager of the restaurant asked me if I had won the marathon when he saw my medal hanging around my neck (obviously not familiar with marathon customs).  I jokingly told him that yes I had won the marathon, and then proceded to explain that everyone who finished got a medal.  Now, I’m thinking that yes I did win and it does make sense that everyone gets a medal.  If you finish, you win!

 

 

 

 

Persistence and Determination

We went 21 miles this past Saturday…our longest training run on the schedule.  I’ve been trying to think of what to post on this.  It’s hard to put into words how challenging it is to run this far.  A co-worker asked me last week if I was ready to go 21 miles.  My quick answer was, yeah as ready as you can be!  I thought afterwards that getting ready is not only the physical side, but also the mental side as well. 

Thanks to Taylor for the great post on this.  I just read the quote “In the Arena”, and enjoyed reading it again.  It’s one of my favorites too.  I have another Presidential Quote that I want to share as well.  I came across it by accident years ago, and it’s by Calvin Coolidge (yeah, I don’t know anything about Calvin Coolidge either!)

”Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” –Calvin Coolidge

I’m not sure in what speech or context this was delivered, but for me it had a ring to it about facing life’s challenges.  Now it has a ring to it about facing a Marathon!

Papa John’s 10 Miler

Well, I’ve now completed my first race.  It went well.  I’m happy with my results.  I finished in 1:30:29 which is a 9:02 pace.  That’s a personal best for me.  I’ve never run 10 miles or longer at that quick of a pace.  I’m kinda surprised that I was able to do that well, since the first few miles were really jammed-up, and I had to dodge alot of people who were walking.  I might try to do things a little bit differently now that I know what to expect.  Overall, I had no major problems and it was a good experience for a first race.

20 Miler

 I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have some apprehension going into today’s run.  Afterall 20 miles is only 6.2 less than a full marathon.  But I made sure that I was rested and prepared.  It went well.  We did two 10 mile loops at the lake.  I got in a gel at each 5 mile water location, and that really helped.  The group that I finished with averaged about 10:30 minute mile pace.  I felt really good about that pace, especially since I didn’t know what to expect on such a long run.  This was a real confidence booster!  If I can stay healthy, I now feel that the 26.2 goal is within reach.  Speaking of healthy, Mike, I hope that you can recover soon and rejoin the group.  Also, one last thing, a big thanks to Rebecca for getting the Cinnamon Crisp Bagels.  That was the best tasting bagel that I’ve ever had!  Running 20 miles has a way of sharpening your appreciation of things!!

Only 12…

You know that you’ve gotten into some hard core running when you find yourself saying things like “that run is only 12 miles”!  This weekend was a scaled back recovery run of 12 miles, and compared to the 17 miler from last weekend that does seem like only 12 miles.  It went well.  I had enough gels, and I was rested for it.  David, Mike, and I did a variation on the Lake route again.  I like that route and haven’t gotten bored with it yet!

Traveling for work has made it challenging to get in the weekday runs.  This past week, I needed to get in a 7 miler on Wednesday, but was on travel to Robins, AFB.  Landing in Lexington later than expected due to yet another delay in the Atlanta Airport, I managed to hit the roads in Hartland at about 9:30 PM.  Surprisingly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought that it would be and I was able to keep a pretty good pace.  Training seems to be paying off.

Next weekend is going to be a 20 miler, so I’ll give you an update after that one.

Loop Around the Lake – The Sequel

Mike, Zach, and I got in the 17 miler this weekend on Sunday afternoon.  I decided to postpone on Saturday morning due to the heavy snow, and thankfully so did Mike and Zach.  The run was a modified version of the 10 miler from last weekend, making 2 loops at 8.6 miles each.  We decided to do the final lap in reverse and that added some good variety.  The weather really cooperated with the temp around 40 and the roads only wet.  Overall it was a great course, and I was really glad to run with Mike and Zach.  Great job guys!  I did make some strategic mistakes that really had me struggling.  I didn’t get enough carbs before hand and I didn’t bring enough gels.  My biggest mistake was running really hard on the treadmill the day before and not resting enough leading up to the run.  I won’t let that happen again!  We pushed hard though, and got in the 17.2 miles in 2:49:54, which is a 9:52 pace.  I couldn’t be happier about that, especially how bad I felt for the last 3 miles.

Loop Around the Lake

This weekend David, Mike, and I got in a 10 miler through some of the nicest neighborhoods in Lexington.  We started in Ecton Park and went through parts of Chevy Chase and Ashland Park.  We also covered some of an earlier route and went across the Lake to the Island, and then looped out to the south side and got in some hills on the west side of the Lake.  This turned out to be a very nice route and the weather was nearly perfect.  I’m definitely looking forward to running in more weather like this! 

0 to 230

Since getting started in late November of last year, I have now logged 230 miles.  Before this, I had only run occasionally (ok more like rarely) on my treadmill.  I had not done any road running.  As I’ve said before, I’ve been very surprised at how different road running is from treadmill running.  And while I can’t say that I really enjoy running, it’s not nearly as bad as I thought that it would be!  I can definitely say that investing all of this time and putting in all of these miles is paying-off.  I have much greater endurance than I had before.  Regardless of the question of pace or time to complete the marathon, at least I can now say that I’m starting to have the confidence that I can complete the marathon.

Now let me tell you about today’s 15 miles.  I think that it went great!!  The photo above is of Storm Cat, the star stallion at Overbrook Farm.  Our course today circled Overbrook Farm from my house, and gave us some nice scenery to pass the time.  I want to thank my teammates for agreeing to this route.  At our weekly running meeting at the office, I gave my pitch for this run and got a fair amount of scrutiny in the process.  I didn’t take any of that personally though.  I realize that you can’t be a good engineer if you trust an architect!!  Ultimately, I was very happy that this run had everything that I was hoping for.  It was a good blend of gradual hills with some steeper hills and some relatively flat running for recovery.  It was also a nice blend of countryside running with some suburban running and a park thrown in for good measure.  Best of all, I’ve been told that it is a good approximation of what the marathon course will be.  For me, this was a huge confidence booster.  With 230 miles under my belt, and facing hundreds more ahead in this training, I see that we can use these long runs to build our confidence, and come close to even enjoying it.

13.33

13.33 miles…but numbers just don’t tell the whole story.  I can now claim to have covered the distance of a mini-marathon.  That should be a big confidence boost, but unfortunately we picked an extremely grueling mountainous route (if you were driving you’d say that it was hilly, but when you’re on foot you’d have to call it mountainous!).  Intentionally or unintentionally, I think that we are over-doing it on the hills.  (I could go on here and cite Hal Higdon recommendations on pace, etc., but I’ll save that for later.)  I did finish the 13.33, but I felt like I could barely take another step, much less press on toward our real goal of 26.2.

11 Miles with Lessons

I think this photo is awesome!  Yes, that’s Bear Grylls on another mission.  But what does it have to do with my run today?  Let me first tell you how things went.  We gathered a little later today for a start at 1:30, and I felt a little off before we set out.  Maybe I just didn’t eat the right things for lunch.  But I settled into a nice groove as we got into it, and enjoyed chatting with my teammates, as well as checking out the old neighborhood where I used to live.  After messing up several mile marker locations on my watch, I decided to quit checking the pace and just focus on maintaining a consistent effort.  I remembered something that I’d read about keeping a consistent effort, and not try to keep a consistent pace up the hills.

That seemed to be working well, until after the water break and some jelly beans, and somehow that idea let me loose sight of conserving a little for the long haul.  By not checking my watch, I had started to go too fast.  Lesson one: I’m not a big fan of running these kind of distances on my own.  Pounding my way up Bellefonte, I had given in to a jog pace and was seriously considering walking.  About that time Greg, David, and Mike caught up with me.  Instead of giving in to the urge to walk, I found myself picking up the pace with them.  Lesson two:  It’s much easier to dig deeper when others around you are digging deeper.  The four of us finished the 11.28 miles in 1:50:00 which is a 9:45 pace.

So that brings me back to the cool photo.  Bear Grylls is an inspiration, pulling off tremendous feats.  But I’m reminded that these adventures are not just solo accomplishments.  They are the results of teams of people supporting each other.  And so, again I want to thank my teammates.  Great job again!  But also, I want to thank all of my generous donors to the St. Jude cause, as well as all of my friends and family.  All of your encouragement is greatly appreciated!!