I Run

After five marathons, I got my Boston Qualifier at the Clarence DeMar Marathon today. I came in at 3:28:59. The day could not have been better - well, maybe it could have been cloudy. I could actually see my breath at the start. It took about 6 miles for me to warm up enough to quit blowing on my fingers. I cruised down to Keene from Gilsum at just under 8:00 minute miles, remembering that last year I went out too fast and cramped up later. I alternated water and Gatorade at the aid stations, taking the time to drain the cup. After the halfway point I picked up the pace to between 7:30 and 8:00 since I felt I needed a bit of a cushion of time. The 20 mile point is where the real race began, and I was pretty sore. But I managed to keep the pace at near 8:00 (except for a nasty hill between 22 and 23) until the last two miles when my legs threatened to cramp. So I brought down the pace, knowing that I had some time saved up. Even so, it took an awful lot of willpower and gritting of teeth to push past the pain and get to the finish under 3:30. I think my training this time around better prepared me since 1) I didn't get injured (unlike past years), and 2) I pretty much stuck to it, not missing any more than a couple of days throughout the 18 weeks. A somewhat slower training pace also, I think, was key to keeping healthy. So, I'm going to Boston. Which means training in the winter...nice.

They've started, those dreams where I'm late for the start of the race. Last night I dreamed I was late for Boston, which also happened to be my potential qualifying marathon for Boston (weird things happen in dreams). I didn't make it to the expo to get my number. But there were scalpers at the start selling bib numbers for exorbitantly high prices. A couple of my co-workers who happened to be in a better financial position than me bought their bibs and ran off. I went back to the hotel to consult my wife. After a while I found myself back at the start, moping. A kinder scalper offered to get me on my way for half the cost, so I bit the bullet. At this point it was pretty late in the day so he gave me a light since it was obvious I'd soon be running in the dark on the streets of Boston. Then I woke up because in the dream I couldn't decide whether to just start running or go back to the hotel to tell my wife I'd be gone for a few hours. If you can't find a good terrifying fall in your dream, a little bit of paralyzing indecision is guaranteed to wake you up.

When it rains my glasses get wet. So I've had to run without the aid of corrective lenses recently. While I can see the road in front of my feet, it's more difficult to determine if what's coming at me is a truck or an elephant. It would be nice just to be rid of my dependency on any sort of corrective wear - think LASIK - but with a mortgage, property taxes, and a household salary that can't keep up as it is, it seems I'll be stuck with these 10-year old spectacles for quite some time. One good thing about running without good focus: I don't dwell on the scenery.

I'd planned on getting out the door at 7:30, but a quick check of the radar showed a pretty heavy band of rain coming our way. It looked like it would last about an hour, so I waited. Sure enough, it stopped between 8:30 and 9:00 and I had maybe a 3 hour window to run before the next batch of precipitation. Not that I wouldn't get wet anyway: over the course of a 21 mile run my body will put out quite a bit of moisture. But at least my feet would be fairly dry, which is the most important thing. I hate blisters. This was my last 20+ miler before the taper, and I think I pulled it off pretty strongly. I'm feeling pretty good about the marathon. On Wednesday, the last of the Red Clover Rover summer fun runs was held. It was an Australian start (handicap), so I started 10:37 after the first runner left. My official time was 30 something (since it was a handicapped race); my actual time to do the 3 miles was 19:47, the first time I broke 20 this summer.

What a perfect day for a race. It was actually so cool before the race started that I sat in my car for a while to keep warm. A little before 8:00 I started warming up, and then it was time to go find the starting line about a half mile down the road. This race was dedicated to its founder, Elijah Barrett, who died of cancer last week. His father was the official starter. I figured I'd go out at marathon pace, but I felt good enough to keep a sub 7:30 pace through every mile, and a couple were even sub 7:00. After about mile 3 nobody passed me until the very end when I was trying to catch one runner. I got ahead of him by about a foot, then almost ran into a sign that was in the middle of the sidewalk. He pulled ahead and I came in 2 seconds after him for a final time of 1:34:10 (34th out of 300 runners), which is a half marathon record for me. The first time I ran this course my average pace was 7:33; this time it was 7:11. So...sub 7:00 next year?