Today was a great day for a race. Temps in the mid 40's with no breeze. Very little sleep last night and did not eat breakfast. I picked up a bottle of Gatorade to carry with me on the run. I mean I was doing everything backwards from what I would normally do for a run. Put all of this together and you get.....
A NEW PR OF 1:15:15
I am glad that I could write about getting a new PR cause it has been a long time since I had any good news about a race. A special thank you to Kenny and Karen who helped pace me today and keep me on my pace.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Marathon # 10 Snickers
I just had to laugh when I wrote that cause I never thought I would say I just finish my 10th marathon. WOW, the time has gone by. 4 years ago weighing in at 305 pounds I decided to try and loose some weight by joining a biggest loser program. Well 3 months later and about 50 pounds off, I won and then my running career started.
The night before Snickers we were able to have a good pasta dinner while listening to others talk about their stories. Well one caught me off guard when a man sitting at the table with me was talking about being only the 3rd person to try and get a sub 3 marathon in 5 consecutive decades of his life.
That is crazy. I can even break 5 hours yet and this guy has been doing it for 50 years.
After dinner, Mandie and I sat with Tommy Chambers and his family at the Peachsports table. Tommy is the official photographer for the marathon. He really comes up with some awesome pictures for us.
The expo was nice but small. I think they had about maybe 10 vendors with my best one being RunFit sports. It is so nice to have a great local running store that has everything you need. And if they don't have it, they will order it for you.
Race day: did not sleep well. I was thinking about this race for a while. This is my race where I have come so close in the past. I laid everything out the night before so that I would not have to think about it in the morning. I got dressed and tried to eat a little breakfast before going out in the cold. OMG, it was 29 degrees. COLD. I put a trash bag over me before going out so that I would not get frost on me before running. As I made my way to the start line I ran into Kenny and Stef. They were going out to run the half-marathon. We walked to the start line and then I was off to run by myself. BOOM time to run.
As I made my way to the 1/2 mile mark, I came across a friend from Macon, Karen, who was running her 1st marathon. She said she was running 2:1 and I asked if I could join her cause that was the same thing I was running. We agreed she would keep up with the intervals on her gymboss and I would keep up with the average pace. We went out fast for the first 4 miles with an average of 11 min miles. Karen told me that she was trying to finish somewhere around 5:30. I told her that if we kept that pace we had a great chance to beat 5 hours.
We continued on our journey trying to slow down a little to conserve energy. When we hit the halfway point, we were averaging an 1130 pace. I was feeling good. We continued on until I came across my point in the race where I crashed before, mile 16 and 18. A big thank you to Karen for getting my attention off of the past and trying to look ahead. She was awesome in her 1st marathon.
I told my wife that if I did not break my 5 hour race that I just wanted to finish with a smile on my face. Well I did just that. When we came across the 25 mile marker, I saw the official clock and it said 4:58 and then I knew that it was over. Once again I failed myself. Then I looked over at Karen and said NO I am going to still have fun. I am not going to be mad at myself. I was going to push myself to finish, look good for Tommy while taking pics and finish with a smile.
We went into the train depot and that is when it hit Karen. She looked at me and said we are going to finish. Then I looked at her and said yes we are and now you are a marathoner. When I did this race 3 years ago, I had a runner tell me the same thing and it brought back so many memories. I told her to sprint into the finish and finish strong. She did and so did I.
SMILES EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!
The night before Snickers we were able to have a good pasta dinner while listening to others talk about their stories. Well one caught me off guard when a man sitting at the table with me was talking about being only the 3rd person to try and get a sub 3 marathon in 5 consecutive decades of his life.
That is crazy. I can even break 5 hours yet and this guy has been doing it for 50 years.
After dinner, Mandie and I sat with Tommy Chambers and his family at the Peachsports table. Tommy is the official photographer for the marathon. He really comes up with some awesome pictures for us.
The expo was nice but small. I think they had about maybe 10 vendors with my best one being RunFit sports. It is so nice to have a great local running store that has everything you need. And if they don't have it, they will order it for you.
Race day: did not sleep well. I was thinking about this race for a while. This is my race where I have come so close in the past. I laid everything out the night before so that I would not have to think about it in the morning. I got dressed and tried to eat a little breakfast before going out in the cold. OMG, it was 29 degrees. COLD. I put a trash bag over me before going out so that I would not get frost on me before running. As I made my way to the start line I ran into Kenny and Stef. They were going out to run the half-marathon. We walked to the start line and then I was off to run by myself. BOOM time to run.
As I made my way to the 1/2 mile mark, I came across a friend from Macon, Karen, who was running her 1st marathon. She said she was running 2:1 and I asked if I could join her cause that was the same thing I was running. We agreed she would keep up with the intervals on her gymboss and I would keep up with the average pace. We went out fast for the first 4 miles with an average of 11 min miles. Karen told me that she was trying to finish somewhere around 5:30. I told her that if we kept that pace we had a great chance to beat 5 hours.
We continued on our journey trying to slow down a little to conserve energy. When we hit the halfway point, we were averaging an 1130 pace. I was feeling good. We continued on until I came across my point in the race where I crashed before, mile 16 and 18. A big thank you to Karen for getting my attention off of the past and trying to look ahead. She was awesome in her 1st marathon.
I told my wife that if I did not break my 5 hour race that I just wanted to finish with a smile on my face. Well I did just that. When we came across the 25 mile marker, I saw the official clock and it said 4:58 and then I knew that it was over. Once again I failed myself. Then I looked over at Karen and said NO I am going to still have fun. I am not going to be mad at myself. I was going to push myself to finish, look good for Tommy while taking pics and finish with a smile.
We went into the train depot and that is when it hit Karen. She looked at me and said we are going to finish. Then I looked at her and said yes we are and now you are a marathoner. When I did this race 3 years ago, I had a runner tell me the same thing and it brought back so many memories. I told her to sprint into the finish and finish strong. She did and so did I.
SMILES EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!
Clif Bars giveaway
I love to read other blogs where people are helping others out by giving things away and here is the next one.
You can visit his website at www.tridadoffive.blogspot.com
I tried to copy and paste onto my site but I am having problems doing that. Sorry for the inconvience but please visit his site.
You can visit his website at www.tridadoffive.blogspot.com
I tried to copy and paste onto my site but I am having problems doing that. Sorry for the inconvience but please visit his site.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Snickers report
Chip time 5:10:34
I am happy with this time. I wanted to try and break 5 hours for the first time but most of all I wanted to finish with a smile on my face. I did that and was glad I did. I told myself to start off slow so that I would have some energy left at the end. I was glad I did.
I got a chance to run with Karen and it was going to be here first marathon. She was so strong keeping us on track with our 2:1 ratio. She kept me on track until the end.
More to come later but for now it is time to get back into bed and rest the legs.
I am happy with this time. I wanted to try and break 5 hours for the first time but most of all I wanted to finish with a smile on my face. I did that and was glad I did. I told myself to start off slow so that I would have some energy left at the end. I was glad I did.
I got a chance to run with Karen and it was going to be here first marathon. She was so strong keeping us on track with our 2:1 ratio. She kept me on track until the end.
More to come later but for now it is time to get back into bed and rest the legs.
10 and counting
I never had any intentions of ever being able to say I have now run 10 marathons in my life. Nor would I have ever thought of running them in 2 years. I can truly say that my body is not the same now. I have gotten to a point where my body is conditioned to a long run. People still come up to me and ask me why I do this and I tell them the same reason why people run 5 and 10Ks every weekend. My body is just use to it. I am not going to lie and say it is easy to do it because that would be a lie. My back is starting to hurt, my feet are sore and my legs/hips hurt.
Looking back, I have traveled alot of roads to get here. Not only the roads to travel to the courses but the roads on which I have laid down some training miles. I was joking with my wife and I told her I have run enough miles in the marathons to go from Macon to Jacksonville Florida. Then if you were to log in my training miles and 5,10 and 12K races, I would take me to Miami.
I had a wonderful time at Snickers this year. I wanted to be able to finish this race with a smile on my face and I did just that. I will write a recap on the race when they publish the finishing times but I will tell you that I missed my PR by about 4 minutes this time. I am ok with this. I had other goals that I wanted to do and I will discuss them later.
I have one more marathon to do next month, Country Music Marathon in Nashville Tenn on April 24. This will be my last marathon that I have pre-registered for this year. I am planning on having fun with this race. My friend Melissa Cowart told me that she has never run a marathon under 6 hours and I told her if she wanted to run with me I would try and help her obtain her goal.
After I get through with this race, it will then be time to put all my training towards the Augusta 70.3 race. I need to put all my time to this race cause it will be my biggest training regiment that I will have put my body through.
For now it is time to sit back and give my legs a break today. When I get more on my finishing times I will get my recap posted. Until then, continue on.
Looking back, I have traveled alot of roads to get here. Not only the roads to travel to the courses but the roads on which I have laid down some training miles. I was joking with my wife and I told her I have run enough miles in the marathons to go from Macon to Jacksonville Florida. Then if you were to log in my training miles and 5,10 and 12K races, I would take me to Miami.
I had a wonderful time at Snickers this year. I wanted to be able to finish this race with a smile on my face and I did just that. I will write a recap on the race when they publish the finishing times but I will tell you that I missed my PR by about 4 minutes this time. I am ok with this. I had other goals that I wanted to do and I will discuss them later.
I have one more marathon to do next month, Country Music Marathon in Nashville Tenn on April 24. This will be my last marathon that I have pre-registered for this year. I am planning on having fun with this race. My friend Melissa Cowart told me that she has never run a marathon under 6 hours and I told her if she wanted to run with me I would try and help her obtain her goal.
After I get through with this race, it will then be time to put all my training towards the Augusta 70.3 race. I need to put all my time to this race cause it will be my biggest training regiment that I will have put my body through.
For now it is time to sit back and give my legs a break today. When I get more on my finishing times I will get my recap posted. Until then, continue on.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Getting ready....
As my body gets a couple of days of rest, it is now time to pack again and get ready for the Snickers marathon this weekend. I always look foward to this race because this is the place where I ran my 1st marathon 2 years ago.
I have been playing around with how I want to deal with this race. I always get so close to breaking the 5 hour mark at Snickers. I am trying to tell myself to star off a little slower this time so that I will be strong in the end.
I believe that is what I am going to do so that I can enjoy this one and finish strong at the end. This will be my 10th marathon and I will have only 1 more to do next month and I will be thtrough with my bucket list of 6 marahons in 6 months.
I have been playing around with how I want to deal with this race. I always get so close to breaking the 5 hour mark at Snickers. I am trying to tell myself to star off a little slower this time so that I will be strong in the end.
I believe that is what I am going to do so that I can enjoy this one and finish strong at the end. This will be my 10th marathon and I will have only 1 more to do next month and I will be thtrough with my bucket list of 6 marahons in 6 months.
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