Oh, this hurts.

I finished--4: 21:45

I was on the 4:15 pace group all race, until I started to fall back around 22 miles, and then cramps on the bridge finished me off, focing me to stop and stretch and go slower for the last of it.

My legs hurt for the rest of yesterday, but I was ok--made it back to Danville, etc. Obtained a pretty nice piece of furniture that calls itself a "bungee lounge" to lay in. Went to bed (for me) early.

This morning? Oh wow...

I can barely shuffle. Understand, my pain tolerance works a couple of ways--I complain, a lot, at first. Then I stop as the pain increases, and try to tough it out. Somehow, this morning, I've managed to blow right by both of those steps, and OH MAN does this hurt. And not just my legs, either, which I guess I was ready for, but all the core muscles you engage while running are pretty gone, too.

I don't know how I'm going to make it to the dining hall when they open. That invovles such impossibilites as steps, and a hill.

Countdown...

...22 hours, 47 minutes...

Motivation Week, Wednesday

One of the things that's gotten me most psyched about running this year, is my enthusiasm finally rubbing off on somebody else.

Oddly enough, it happened to two people, at the same time. And you know, I never really cared to run with other people--I'm SO antisocial about running. I go when I want, as far as I want, on my course and pace, to my music, and will not talk to you. Until now.

And then in the same week, my two friends that are so close they're practically family both picked it up. To embelish on a neologism from the dearly departed O.C., it was Chrismahanukwanzmakuh. I started running with them, helped them pick out shoes, even splurged and bought them both some gear so they weren't running in heavy cotton stuff (one was even wearing long sleeves. ew). I've totally come around to the social aspect of running, and through the backdoor, even. Go figure.

And I know I've been giving off inspirational running quotes...well, this one is a little different--this one is mine. I was asked not long ago if I was religious; here's how I responded:

"I don't know how to answer that...the closest I feel to God...I see a divine plan when I run. Maybe not any other time, and I certainly choose to get mad as hell at whatever God there is an awful lot...but I see him when I run."

Motivation Week Continues...

...I'll confess, I steal ideas from NBA players.

I write stuff on my shoes. Every year.

The first year I ran, I had a Great Aunt and Uncle die unexpectedly less than a week before the race--and the funeral was scheduled for the saturday afternoon of the race. Fortunately for me, it wasnt until long after I was going to be finishedrecovered/showered...so I could still run. I thought it'd be a good way to motivate myself, so I wrote their initals on my week-old shoes.

Of course, I hadn't trained that hard that year, and you talk about a painful, painful race...

Last year...
I was supposed to run the marathon relay with a fraternity team, and lo and behold, it started drying up. As we got down from a five-man team to a four, then, three, and two-man, team, I finally resolved to running the mini, by myself. This was ok, except, I was, you know, not really trained up for this...
My grandfather was in the same fraternity as I was, and the same chapter, and we sequentially list ourselves--they're called roll numbers. So I put both of them (672, and 1412) on my shoes, which made me feel a little better about the big Beta bailout on me, and even though I hadn't been planning on it, I ran a strong mini, and ended up deciding that day to do what I'm doing this year...

The full Marathon. So what goes on the shoes this year? They've been blank, and I want to put something on there about how running is my therapy...
We'll see. I've got three days.

Today's Quote:
Act like a horse. Be dumb. Just Run.--Jumbo Elliott

Forgive Today's Delay on Motivation...

...I've been working on getting that very first post-college job (even though I'm not graduating until December). Quoth Young Jeezy: Welcome to the life of a go getter.

Anyway, here's today's big-time runner motivational thingy, summarized from the QUOTABLE RUNNER:
One of New Zealand's all-time greats, Murray Halberg, once won an alarm clock in a race. Why was this bad?
The alarm clock was the prize for the first runner-up, a reminder to keep training harder next year, and bedside motivation--how would you feel to have your loss sounding reville every morning?
It could be depressing. It could have you up and out of bed extra fast for the next 364 days.

Of course, a fat lot of good that does right in the midde of your taper...but it's still a cool story, and if you're coming off of a bad race, it carries a more important message: no failure is permanent.

It's Motivation Week

Marathon on SATURDAY. Countdown clock as I type: 5 days, 21 hours, 2 minutes, 3 seconds

We're close enough now for the weather reports to have any meaning beyond an average of previous years, and the high for that day is going to be 72. I'll start the race around 50, at 7:30am, and sometime just between 11:30 and noon, if all goes according to plan, I'll cross the line.

That is a wide, wide band of temperatures to deal with. And it's going to be sunny.

Personally, I'm doing everything I can to get myself up; I'm asking my friends and family to help build me a playlist (being an ipod type as I am), and running early in the day as opposed to late so I'm "used" to it for the race, and trying very hard to guilt one of my collegiate friends into driving me up and back. This is partially because I don't want to work the clutch on the way back, and mostly because the people here are as much my family as anybody else in this world.

And, I'll be writing here about running, a lot. Quotes, motivational tricks, stories, you name it. And yeah, I've got papers out the (redacted) for school. But the big push is on, and I'm not letting up now.

Quote to get myself worked up over today:
Big occasions and races which have been eagerly anticipated almost to the point of dread, are where great deeds can be accomplished.--Jack Lovelock

Hot, Nasty, Speed

Yes, Ricky Bobby.

Ran my own little 5K tonight; took it down to 21:54, which is better than 22:36, which was my previous best. Of course, neither of those was in a race, so they don't REALLY count, but it made me smile.

The best part was that the first mile of my course is pretty flat and fast and has minimal traffic issues, so I was able to blow through it in 5:38...the ego was happy enough to almost climb up the obelisk in Constitution Square park in mid-stride.

Oh, and 10 days, 8 hours.

My whole body hurts

And I think it might be because of how bad I tried to hurt myself yesterday.

So I don't know how bad the weather was in Louisville, but when I was running in Danville, which was to say early--had to get up to Ohio for some fraternity business--it was 41, and pouring rain.

I was wearing rain gear of course, and planning on going 14 miles...I got out 7 ok, and at my turnaround point, the wind became a factor.

Now it was raining so much that I was soaked to the bone anyway, but I was wearing it well, until the wind came to bear, and when this happened, it came big--on the level of 20 miles an hour. In ten minutes I couldn't feel my hands, face, or anything from the waist down. Picking up the pace, clapping my hands, etc wasn't helping, and this wasn't just cold--I was starting to think it's time to get off the road before I get seriously sick.

Thankfully I was wearing my fuelbelt, which is the only time I carry my cell phone, and started waking people up--my fourth option, who is now my hero, came and got my at the end of my 9th mile, which I almost sprinted to, and as soon as I was in the car I was stripping off wet clothes and wrapping myself in a towel. I couldn't feel half of my body and half of me felt like knives were being pushed into me.

When I got into the shower, I still couldn't feel anything, and it took a while, but finally, I got everything back--my legs were last, six hours later.

I hope nothing like that ever happens again. That was scary as hell.

Wow, I must be...

...getting stonger.

Or something like it. Spent all day yesterday bouncing around Louisville doing family stuff, and I didn't feel tired, sore, anything. AND I had gottten up at 6am entriely of my own accord. Not quite sure how any of that happened, or how my body took the punch, but...wow.

Anyway, this is going to be another busy school week, but I'll try to write more interesting things, or at least get some nice big ones spun up in advance for the week of the marathon (read:motivation week).

22 in the cold

Because didn't have a good landmark for a turnaround to do 21, which is what I was after.

But what about this cold snap, huh? Ran from Danville to the far side of Perryville (a little further, actually) and back in the wind and cold that was today--and me without my tights, left home after spring break because I thought it wouldn't get this cold again. Whoops.

And the wind was such a joy--13 miles an hour headwind until I turned around, and then it died down a little. It was amazing, I'm telling you. My ears darn near froze, and my face was kind of numb, but on the whole it was a good run--my first, and second ten miles were both faster than the ten-miler last weekend, in worse weather, over a hillier (if gentler) course.

Of course, after all of that, I came home, and spent a long, long time in the shower warming up.

Secondary concern: Saw on marathonguide.com that the USATF has changed their reccomendation that race directors ban headphones to a rule that they do. I'll go out on a limb and call this wrong, imperious hubris, done under the guise of safety, but really aimed at the face that they don't like people that wear headphones. Here's how it works, guys: headphones grow your sport. iPods. and everything like them, help people that wouldn't otherwise run, do it. I know you're worried about people getting tangled and such, but is it really that big of a deal that you'll force RDs to cut their fields? I don't think so, and I think the RDs won't, either.

Finally

I have running back under control. Eight miles tonight, and everything felt great, and I felt like I could have gone further at the end of it all.

Two notable things about this:

First time I've felt like that since the LAST time it was this cold.

I've taken in about 4,000 calories over the past 24 hours.

I really, really hope it's the second, and not the first one of those that's been behind my recent struggles.

More after dinner, maybe; dining hall closes soon, and I don't want to go smelling like I do right now...

Ten-Miler

So the Ten-Miler was yesterday; a few details plucked from my memory, in bullet form.

- I ran a 1:47:45; that was faster than last year, slower than to years ago, and a sign to me that either more was wrong than, you know, losing too much weight and overtraining, OR this stuff has just set up shop in my head. I was really hoping to turn in a 1:30, and just wasn't feeling it, and abandoned it early.

-The pace carrels were properly set up here, and I was still dodging walkers. That said, much, much, much better organized and executed than the first two legs of the Triple Crown, even in the face of...

-The Runner's World Effect. I had previously thought that people were just being jerks--I'll hold up Duluth here, because they seem like a ripe target. When races get a line in RW, people that have been running them for years inevitably complain online because the registration climbs and out of town talent streams in. Well...I have to agree with that, just based on what I saw standing at the start line and listening at the finish. Of course, I think it's awesome, but then again, I think they handled it great, too.

-Marathon on the 28th; time to get my mind right.