Getting back to Boston

Ran on the Vegas Strip this morning. Nice day for a run, cool, clear, not much traffic. Could have done without all the escalators and stairways to pedestrian bridges though. Those were more of a workout than I really wanted. Now off to St. George.

Dawn run down a trail I didn't know was there 10 minutes before. Nice and cool, although not nearly as cool as it's supposed to be in the morning up at Central. I hammered 4 minutes plus on the way back to start the Aussie carbload, then went straight to breakfast and had waffles and OJ. Probably will go to the expo, get my stuff, come back and rest, then go back this afternoon for the first timers lecture. Then the pasta dinner at 4 or so.

Best marathon time since Boston. I got all my legs had to give me today so I can't complain. I knew BQ was highly iffy; my training just did not go that well. Missed too many tempo runs and ran too many 5Ks in there. But if I'm not as fast as I was 2.5 years ago, I can still wring what I have out.

Too dark to see the Garmin for the first 3 or 4 miles so I just ran by feel and what traffic would permit. Which actually didn't work out too bad. I averaged 8:01 for the first 10K, which would have been OK if I could have followed it up with a strong second 10K. But between the toughest part of the course, a 1:43 stop at the portapotty and just some not very strong running, I got to the half in just under 1:51, and 8:27. Third segment was largely downhill and I took some advantage but not enough, averaging 8:08 from 21.1K to 30K. Last 7 miles were largely downhill as well and I just didn't have it. Then I pretty much bonked at mile 24 and struggled for the rest of the way, with 8:39 and 8:44 miles for 25 and 26. Managed a semi "sprint" for the last 0.22 which just got me down to the 8:00 pace I wanted all along.

But thanks to that little sprint and the pitstop in the first half, I wound up with my first lifetime negative split on a marathon. A whopping 22 seconds, but negative split nonetheless. Then I cramped. Bigtime. Hamstrings and calves. Nice volunteer helped me stretch the hammies as I lay supine on the grass. I wound up having to walk most of the way back to the hotel, which actually helped. Although I am hurting like a big dog now. I would say though that I squeezed out everything my legs had to give. I felt the calves trying to go a couple of times in the last three miles; after the finish they just went.

It's my fastest marathon since Boston, 2.5 years ago. I'm just not as fast as I was then; there's a reason why the BAA bumps up the AG standards by 5 to 10 minutes per five years. And I didn't execute the training plan properly either. Maybe if I'd trained properly I could have gone under 3:35. My time without the pitstop would have barely been a BQ next year when I jump up to the 55-59 AG. But I'll need to do better than that (and train better than that) to actually have a chance to get in the race for 2016.

Six mile run this morning then a mile plus walk with Sheri and Jill. Legs felt amazingly good four days after a hard race. I might actually be able to race decently at SC.

Out on the amphitheater loop from the school house with Sheri and the girls. Cindy S. pushed the pace pretty good and got me down to MP for the last 1.13, then a little walk recovery afterward. I thought it was pretty good speed five days out. Maybe I can run a decent SC 10K after all

Did the Southside/horseshoe loop for the first time in months. Nice change of scenery, even with the morning traffic going to AB, SHS and elsewhere. That spot on my left knee was initialy bothersome but settle down. It occurred to me that it could be an avulsion, or tendinitis of an attachment. I need to check out the anatomy of that area. Whatever, running doesn't seem to make it worse, although it may well keep it in a constant state of irritation.

Had to push it to keep up with Kathy L., Lo and Tiffany M this morning. Especially after a shoe-tying break. Wound up with sub-9:30 average even with brief walk breaks.

So much for saving my legs for Saturday. Busted the amphitheater loop trying to keep up with the crew, and largely failed. Even at that though I averaged 8:21 miles even with 8:56 first mile. Weather was great, in the upper 40s. Worked up a pretty good sweat anyway though, with AHR in the low 140s.

Course PR by 1:34 at Survivors Challenge after wrecking my car Friday night. Fortunately only part of me wounded was my wallet between the ticket and the upcoming car repair. I felt good. Second mile uphill was tough, but once I got on the horseshoe I started pushing it, and good thing because Lionel wasn't letting me pass him. But I did pass Lia. It was nice to beat her after she's smoked me on so many Thursday morning runs. Wound up 55th overall, sixth in AG. No bling but should be some nice GP points, especially since Kim Howard didn't show.

Miles were 7:34, 8:03, 7:39, 7:41, 7:27, 7:24, and then the last chunk was at 6:26 pace. Garmin says I ran 6.31; that extra 160 yards slowed me down a bunch :) Calculating my time for 6.214 gives an average of 7:41 instead of 7:35 on the Garmin. Given the hills and being two weeks out from a marathon at my age, I'll take it. But I still should have pushed that second mile more. I'm hoping to run about a 7:40 average next week at Soaring Wings but we'll see how that works.

Legs felt like lead this morning after yesterday's race. I toyed with the idea of stretching it out to 12 or more. Nope. Ten was plenty. Lots of fog this morning with temps in the mid-40s which was kinda surreal. Rose and David disappeared ahead of me into the gloom, and I'm sure I did the same to Kathy, Sheri, Jill and whoever else was out there (can't remember).

Ladder intervals at Ben Geren. It was COLD, folks. Which felt good, actually. 400-800-1600-800-400. Could have done more, didn't feel like pushing it to throw in  1200s or something. Turnover was good, several intervals under 7:00 pace and I actually beat Jamie and Deb on the last 400.

Easy crack o chickens run with Tiff and Jamie. We went all over the place; reminded me of the Monty Python 100-meter dash for people with no sense of direction. Recovery was the idea and I kept it pretty slow.

Pajama run, predawn silliness at Ben Geren for George's last group run. Jamie organized it and then didn't wear jammies -- but what she wore was OK too. Slow, slow, slow.

Legs just didn't have it in Conway this morning. Struggled to average 8:02 on a course I ran nearly 5 minutes faster five years ago. Sucked it up and pushed hard late; good thing or I might not have broken 1:50. Given how the legs felt, I guess 1:45 was OK.

Easy 10K at SHS after work, pretty consistent at 2:25 per lap. Legs still a little sore, but not really tight, after yesterday's race

Slow progression run at dawn through the fog. Only got down to 8:52 for the fastest mile, but two days out from a hard half, that's OK. Now to see if I can do strength intervals tomorrow. If I'm going to run a fast time at Memphis, I'll have to bust it. Now if Jill decides she wants me to pace...

Plan was for intervals at Ramsey. But it was raining and the cinder track turned into a lake during my warmup run. So I drove over to Southside and did the workout there. Still some puddles on the track, but no lake and I could run without fear of slipping in the mud. Wavered between 3 X 2 and 4 x 1.5 on the plan. Wound up with 4 x 1.5 at 7:43, 7:40, 7:38 and 7:36 averages. With recovedry jogs, warmup and cooldown, total of 10.40. I think the rain helped because it was 65 and humid, but the liquid kept me more comfortable.

Hills. Humidity. Lots of soreness from last night's track session. But I got 8.26 done this morning up and down Massard and the amphitheater path (the easy way). Then I took a three hour nap. We'll see if I'm up to MP run tomorrow.

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I've tended to give this blog short shrift for a while. Too much stuff to do, too little time. But I think today is an appropriate day to change that, at least for one day.

When I resumed running in July 2007, at age 46 after 21 years of indolence, I didn't think I had a snowball's chance of ever qualifying for Boston. Even the thought of training 40 miles in a week was overwhelming. But Sasha planted a seed in the spring of 2008, that maybe there was more left in these old legs than I thought. And that seed quickly sprouted into an obsession. I trained like a madman and a year and a half later, I had that precious BQ. A year and a half after that, I ran Boston, had one of the most wonderful weekends of my life, and vowed to return.

Then they made it six minutes tougher to qualify. I haven't been able to find those six minutes yet, or even improve on the PR that got me the BQ. I thought I might have to wait for the next age group bump to return.

Then those pressure cookers exploded on Boylston Street last April. The runner in the orange singlet who was knocked down by the blast? He was just about exactly on the path I took to the finish in 2011. After that, I had to be there in 2014. I had to show those bastards, and every other coward who might consider something similar, that runners are not going to be cowered by terrorists. We deal with searing heat, draining humidity, icy winds, foot-numbing cold, torrential rain and the vagaries of our own bodies. A hardware-store bomb is not going to deter us either.

How was I going to do that? Well, I'd run five marathons this year, four since the bombing, with varying degrees of speed but no BQ. So I was left with charity spots. I knew of a charity that friends had run for, more of a national-type charity than the more local ones for the Boston area. And I got hooked up with them. Tuesday night, I got the email that registration for those spots would open on Wednesday. And by dawn on Wednesday, I had registered. And made my hotel reservations shortly thereafter. I will indeed be in Hopkinton on April 21, 2014.  I'll run through Ashland and Framingham and Natick and Wellesley and Newton and Brookline and into Boston. I'll high-five kids, and kiss a coed or two, and hear the boisterous cheers on Heartbreak Hill and on the BC campus. I'll run through Kenmore Square and past Fenway Park, where Red Sox fans celebrated last night. And I'll cross that line on Boylston Street. And I'm sure I'll look over at the spots where the bombs detonated as I come down that final half-mile.

I have no doubt that the experience I have next April will be different than I had three Aprils previous. How could it not be? For all the prestige of qualifying for and running Boston, it had been just a race. Not any more. Now it's a statement, by a city, and by 36,000 runners who are making sure they'll be there. New York is rebuilding at the site of the World Trade Center. There are no destroyed buildings on Boylston, but we are rebuilding  too -- with our passion, our sweat, our endless miles and the molecules of shoe sole rubber we lay down on roads and sidewalks and trails all over the world. We are runners and we cannot be defeated by terror. We are all, indeed, Boston Strong. That's why I must be there, and why I will be there.