Table of Marathons

11 MCM (not for time) 11 Wineglass (950/1442)
10 MCM (not for time) 09 MCM (348/1076)
09 Washington's Birthday Marathon (22/44) 08 MC Historic Half (51/210)
07 Frederick Marathon (32/60) 06 MCM (394/1076)
05 MCM (547/1047)

Sunday, October 24, 2010

10/24: Only a 10k

I took Denise for 6 today on a beautiful fall day. Years ago, Gatorade ran an advertising campaign aimed at endurance athletes for its endurance athletic beverage. The by-line read "If you use the words "Only a 10 K" in that order....", then you need their special Gatorade formula.

Denise has become one of those athletes. The 6-miler was her last Sunday run before her marathon. As such, it was intended to keep her body's fitness stimulated but not taxed. This allows her to continue her recovery and strengthening from all those months of long miles.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

10/19

Today on our 4.3 miler, Denise and I came across an accident in our neighborhood. On the road - shall I call it raceway? - out the development, a lady had just crushed in her front end on one of the pear trees. The airbag had gone off. She was uninjured, sitting on the curb while a policeman filed his report. It is fortunate she hit a tree: the corner also had children waiting for the school bus in the pre-dawn darkness.

Maybe it is small of me, but I can't say I had any sympathy for her. At 6 AM in our neighborhood, the sidewalks are populated with kids going to school and suburbanites walking dogs, walkers, and runners. While the speed limit is 25 mph, most vehicles come through at much higher speeds. She went off the road, unable to handle a bend. She could easily have killed someone vice demolishing her car against a tree. The neighborhood loses one or two pears elining the drives and courts to cars that go off the road, jump the curb, and smashes into a tree every year or so.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Redemption


Denise had such a lousy 24-miler last Sunday, she really wanted to get it right one last time before the MCM. We did 20 miles today, carefully carbing up, hydrating, and resting yesterday. It worked really well. She had her best long run ever. It was a perfectly planned and executed run in a gorgeous Maryland fall day.  This is a much better "last run in preparation for my first marathon" memory for her. I'm very gratified for her.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Dues

It has been a tumultuous 6 weeks. Denise flew to Florida for her "good bye" party at the Tampa company she started working for 10 years ago after getting her MBA; we flew to Chicago to run the Chicago Half Marathon and sightsee a few days; we travelled to Binghamton, N.Y., for a medical emergency, and return to run 21.8 miles that Sunday; finally, she became ill with strep and spent a weekend very sick.

This weekend, I volunteered yesterday to be "sweeper" after a local 5k. We both spent a lot of time on our feet in the early fall Maryland weather helping prepare for the race and walking the 3.1 miles of the race with the last participant. We know now, this was too much time on Denise's feet.

This morning, I coached and mentored her through 24 miles, travelling from south-east College Park's Lake Artemesia to just short of the Beltway north-west of Silver Spring and back. She was not totally recovered from her illness or the previous weeks' stresses. The distance pummelled her physically and mentally. What I had hoped would be a celebration of her last, longest run, and cumulation 6 months' slow, incremental, training became instead a near death march.

She finished her 24 miles, though it was not pretty. Now, she will taper slowly downward  into her 26.2 mile effort. Our plan is that 3 weeks after doing 24 miles with little rest from the stresses of life and training, she can do well at 26.2 after 3 weeks of careful stress management and decreasing running miles.