10/25/09: All or Nothing

The all or nothing nature of a full effort marathon is one of its attractions. The training cycle for one is six to twelve months. Full recovery for the event takes one is one to three months. There are no second chances for a peak effort in the fall. For this reason, a fall marathon is likened to a report card on one's life for the year.

I arrived at the MCM starting line having run over 1,300 miles in 2009, two dozen long runs in excess of 20 miles, and with a peak of two months of tempo runs with total mileages hovering around 55 miles per weeks. This certainly represents the best running fitness in my life. I joined the 9:10 pace group, shooting for a four hour marathon. My PR was 4:16:22. The pacer took us through the hilly first eight miles at well below a nine minute pace. While I knew that the pace was too fast, my year's training and the fact that I was running with the "four hour" pacer made me complacent as I out ran my legs.

The 4:00 hour group has a very atmosphere than the 4:30 group I ran with in 2006. The latter's pacer chatted on running, nutrition, and health topics throughout the 26 miles. The group itself was chatty as humor slowly gave way to encouragement while the miles ticked by. The 4:00 hour group, on the other hand, was focused and quiet. The group glided through the cheering crowds while the pace occasionally let out a military-style chant of encouragement. I enjoyed being part of the visibly fit half dozen runners clustered around him. However, his surges eventually took their toll and I fell behind somewhere around mile 15.

At mile 21, my left hamstring was caught in an iron claw. I suddenly slowed with a yelp of pain and surprise which even brought glances from the EMTs on the other side of the road. The last 5.2 miles became a balancing act of running, walking, pain, and near exhaustion. I persevered in this final exam for 2009.

I crossed the finish line at 4:15:47, a PR, while not my goal PR.

Its 11 days

until the 09 Marine Corps Marathon. I've never trained so much for any race, having logged over 1,300 miles so far this year. I have a nagging minor pull in my groin from a 21 miler 3 weeks ago. It worries me, not on whether I can do a marathon, rather than whether I can sustain a 9 minute pace. I ran a 24-miler the subsequent Sunday. The question in my mind is whether the intensity of a 9 minute mile might cause it to act up.

(as Denise and I say...) Halibut Taper....

This is a helluva taper. I missed 3 days' running because of school work. This morning was 6 miles easy.....just to hit 1300 miles this year.

Descending into the woods this morning, I saw a fox briefly dart from the clearing into the autumn woods he matches so perfectly.

Last Long Run

I ran 24 miles for my peak for the MCM. It is also my last run over 18 miles this year.

Transformations

I ran 7.5 miles today, to cap off a 55 mile week. I have never run 55 miles a week.

I have had 4 transforming experiences in my life. The first was the Marine Corps. I grew up in another place at another time. In the Marines, I learned my relation to being a male American in the Twentieth Century. In engineering school, I learned the relation of my analytical mind to of my essentially poetic mind. In the marathon I learned my relation with my body, and with hunger, exhaustion and transcendence. Finally in Buddhism I learned my relation to other living beings and the world.


This pursuit of a faster marathon has elements of transcendence. I do not know where it will take me.

Heavy Leaves

At 5 AM this morning, while walking Peanut, I noticed the sound dropping through the leaves of the elms behind our home. I realized that I noticed the new sound because of the absence of others. The frogs and crickets had gone silent for the first time this fall. I was hearing the sound of leaves, heavy with dew, falling through their companions.

We ran with the expectation of the 45F temperature weather.com was promising. From the beginning, it seemed colder. I was lucky I'd thought to bring gloves. At run's end, the themometer on the deck was reading 38F.

First run of the season below 40F. Soon, 38F will be a welcome releaf.