I’ve had this feeling all week since returning from Australia that I need to hammer on my training to shake out the traveling cooties. You know, that nasty feeling you get when you’re away from home and on airplanes for a long period of time. If you don’t travel much, then trust me, these are real, bona fide nasty little feelings that saturate your body despite your best efforts to stretch, hydrate, eat well, and sleep… or your worst!
So yesterday when some of my bike racing teammates were emailing back and forth (no none of us really work at work) about which day to go for a long ride this weekend it popped in my mind that I could late register for the Air Force Marathon today, pig out, run it tomorrow, pig out, ride with the guys Sunday, and pig out again. What a great idea! So I went down to the expo and bought my $100 t-shirt and race number. Secretly I still have dreams of running the Great Floridian Ironman distance race in five weeks, so I figured if I can’t do this now, I really need to reconsider my opinion of my current fitness level and how it compares to the long dance in triathlon.
So the plan is currently in motion. I actually woke up early and went down to race this morning. I felt like I had a bad attitude. I was talking to some people at the start who were all pumped up about running a marathon and they asked me what my time goal was. I told them I didn’t really care because this was just a long training day with aide stations. I also told them that I don’t like running and just signed up last night. I wish I had a camera to show you their faces.
So of I went thinking “oh God, this is dumb and I’m in for a crappy morning” I found myself hanging out with the 3:20 pace group and feeling pretty good without much effort. Then the inevitable happened and I had to leave them for the company of the port potty at mile 11. I’m slow in that transition and they were long gone by the time I put the newspaper down.
From then on I was on my own with my tunes left to think about how dumb this is and how I haven’t run more than sixor seven miles at once since May or June. And guess what, it felt like it. My tender little no-running-shoe-wearing feet started to hurt and I had to hit the med tent twice for blister aide/prevention. So my confidence of effortlessly setting a PR with the 3:20 group that I gained at about mile 8 was very short lived and soon I was back to “just chill out, don’t hurt yourself, and get it done”. Which I did. I cruised it on in for a time of 3:36:21. Two minutes slower than last year in Fresno, but with two more stops. I was pretty happy with that and feel pretty good except for a couple of little blisters. I’ll be even happier to get back on my bike since I got my running in for the week!
Pedal Fast!
Jason
