Am I nuts? I have run a marathon one time. I have run 20 miles 5 times. I want to run my second marathon over 30 minutes faster than my only marathon. Am I sick? Do I need to see a therapist?
This journey began early this year at Bible Study Fellowship. My friend Chris Medley would chat with me about running while we dropped our kids off. He is a marathon veteran and was excited to get back into training since he had "gained some weight". As the year progressed, he would drop hints about possible marathons to run together in an attempt to qualify for Boston. My goal has always been to qualify for Boston and run 2013 and soon I realized I would need to consider one of these NON-Texas marathons if I wanted this to happen. Maybe Chris had something here. I blame BSF for all of this and trust God will bless this whole endeavor.
As we continued to talk and study all the factors of Boston Qualifying, I used Marathon Guide to search the US for races before September 10, 2013 the magic date when registration for Boston opens. We both wanted somewhere relatively close, cooler temps, and hopefully fast. We considered several and finally settled on Sioux Falls Marathon on September 9th. It is a small race with a hometown feel and cheap at $70. Driving it from DFW would take a full day, but a guy trip would be fun and could be planned around one of my vacations.
I was enjoying a light spring with no real race training going on and no heavy mileage, but that changed quickly with our plan for an early September marathon. My original 2012 Race Plan had a half marathon in September, but no full till early October in Tyler. I found a new running plan by Runners World and set a 20 week schedule to run by. It was manageable and gave plenty of time for several long runs. I am glad I took extra time.
Chris and I talked periodically, but kept track of each others training through a Google Spreadsheet. We were both working towards a 3:20ish time to be under the 3:25 standard for guys our age. We got together several times to run and would talk strategy and other running stuff. We ran a Trinity 5000 run together also in the heat of June. Then July came and the temps soared and my training stopped.
Maybe it was a blessing, but my upper legs just seemed to not be responding well to any training. They felt tired and weak even on slow short runs. Chris told me to take some time off and I did. It was good advise as the nearly 2 weeks off my feet did me well. Chris told me I may not be as fast when I came back, but would be able to regain that by slowly training. He took some time off as well for family vacation in July, so we both avoided tough Texas temps.
After my two-week hiatus, there was 7 weeks till race day. I had already ran one 20-miler and wanted to get at least one more in before tapering. Chris and I planned to do a long run together and unfortunately that fell through. The difference in our jobs really made any training together pretty tough. I also began to see Chris' training fall off slightly and it became clear to me that he may not make his goal. I kept up with my training and trying to spur him on. Also, I was able to get the mileage up in time to run two 20-milers in weeks 17 and 18. God is good and gave just awesome weather two Wednesday mornings in a row. That and some short stops at Quik Trip and Kroger for Gatorade made for great training runs.
I feel ready. Chris, however, will not be running. He will hopefully make the trip and share his knowledge with me to help make this marathon a personal record.....and a BQ.
This is race week. Time to plan, pack, prepare, and pray. The running is done. Trust my training.
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