arc of time

wow.

i have been delaying writing this post, because i am not sure if i can put this run into words. if you follow me anywhere (twitter, facebook, god forbid in real life) then you already know the outcome. i ran the ing georgia marathon in a record time for me; 4:41:46. it was my best marathon ever by a long shot.

the morning started out great. i learned one of the benefits of raising money for and running with team in training…a heated tent to hang out in at the start. it was really pretty awesome to get there and be with a group that i had been training with for so long. it took a lot of the edge off of the start line and turned it into one of muted excitement.

we all headed over to the start corral around 6:30 and i noticed right away how much more though had gone into the race this time. the start corral was so much better stretching down marietta street than being scrunched onto peachtree at underground. with more room to stretch out there was much less running over people in the start.

the first few miles flew by for me. coming through sweet auburn i got the first sense that i was running an actual marathon again; that all the training and sweat and worry about the foot was coming down to this. i had stopped to pee on a wall somewhere downtown (sorry georgia state) and i had sprinted to finally catch back up with the people i was running with. i caught them on rennasaince parkway and we stuck with each other until decatur when i had to go to the bathroom again.

i will say this, i loved the new start of the course. moving the freedom parkway portion to the beginning of the race was great and the run through candler park was very nice. kudos by the way to candler park and poncey-highlands for the great cheering sections replete with costumes and in the case of poncey-highlands, a band.

it was in poncey-highlands that i first noticed a problem, um, “brewing” that probably ended up costing me the chance to crack 4:40. namely, i had to go. poop. bad. the next several miles were very difficult as mile after mile i felt my need to go get worse and worse and i passed up porta-potty after porta-potty trying to find one without a line. by this time i knew in my mind that there was no way if i got behind i could catch up with the people i was running with and i did not want to get behind.

by mile 11 or so i couldn’t stand it any more and i jumped in line for a porta-john just passed the water stop on college ave. honestly the pain of having to go was so great that i couldn’t even focus on the race. i lost my running partners at that point. i caught back up with another at agnes scott by lost her in decatur as she started running faster again.

sure enough just passed decatur i had to go again. and it was painful. i couldn’t even think about the race. finally i ducked into an academic building on north decatur at emory and went. these bathroom shenanigans cost me at least 6 minutes.

and then came the druid hills section. the dreaded hills on lullwater, oakdale, springdale and the by way. and a weird thing happened. despite the fact that i hate these hills and they were situated at miles 17-20 i started running stronger. amazing, i know, but these were the best miles of my race. i saw several of my twitter friends turning onto lullwater and then again on oakdale and my family a few times. my tnt coach caught up with me on springdale.

my sister and her bf and my daughter saw me five times on the course. a truly amazing feat that i am still not sure how they accomplished, so i have to give them a shout.

coming into vahi was the best. for some reason, maybe because it’s later, that neighborhood feels great. i saw ben at mile 21 and he ran with me for a bit.

i did hit the wall around 23 and the last 5k was tough, but not as tough as any of my other marathons. when i hit the finish i knew, KNEW, it had been my best race. it felt different. i was a veteran at that point so the awe of the first few wasn’t there, but there was an amazing sense of accomplishment. i had stayed strong well past mile 20 and had my best race ever.

i can’t rave enough about the course. i already posted about it over on the metblog, but great job ga marathon. everything was outstanding, course, water stops, crowd support.

two other things i want to mention. first, it was my first marathon in a pair of brooks shoes. what great shoes. the ride over that distance was incredible, lots of cushioning, lots of support and a great bounce on the strike. i am sold on brooks footwear.

and finally team in training. an amazing experience. i loved every minute of being with tnt. i had no real personal connection with blood cancer before i did this race, but now i sure feel like i do. it felt great to run for a cause. everything about the tnt experience was incredible, the training, the friends i made, the coaches, the fun. i loved it.

thanks to everyone who donated money, supported me, ran with me, encouraged me. i never knew if i could come back from the foot injury. i wanted to try but until somewhere along the way toward mile 19 i didn’t KNOW. i had a moment then when i did, but until then all of you kept me going.

stay tuned, the drive for 50 marathons in 50 states is on again and my next adventure with tnt will be up shortly.

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, marathon, running, team in training

it’s a funny number. say it to any runner and they instantly understand. today brooks running followed me on twitter and it reminded them i was about to run 26.2 in a pair of glycerin 6′s and they knew.

it’s a magical number, one that stretches the limits of what i can achieve, but can still be done.

i am only a little more than 36 hours away now from lacing up for my fourth attempt to run that distance. i spent some time this week looking at the medals from each of my other three and remembering the feelings of each of them; the doubt and terror before vegas, the hard slog through the 12 miles of 30+mph headwinds, the amazing feeling at the finish; the overconfidence and jack-rabbit start at the beginning of the 2007 georgia marathon, destroyed by heat and lack of gatorade and then the grit to finish those grueling 80+ degree miles up peacthree; and the resignation of running vermont sick, doing it anyway and struggling through 9 miles of hell to finish at the end.

they have all been tough for their own reasons. maybe sunday everything will be perfect; maybe it won’t. either way i am going to do it. in some ways the race itself is just a capstone for the training. this one then is especially sweet since i came back from an injury that more than once i thought might sideline me for good. it’s also sweet for the friends i made in team in training and the good work i did as part of it.

and now, there is nothing left to do but run. i picked up my packet today; grabbed my shirt and am icing my foot as i will tomorrow as well. but that’s it. it’s time to go.

hello georgia marathon. i’m back and ready for you.

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, atlanta, marathon training, running, team in training

it’s time for the ultimate week. the last week of training before the taper begins. on the plan we are using to train for the 2009 ing georgia marathon has a 40 mile ultimate week broken down into 5-10-5-20.

i have had mixed results with the ultimate week. back in 2006, getting ready for vegas, i got sick and the ultimate week ended up being a bust, but georgia and vermont both went great. in the end i finished all three marathons in about the same time, so maybe the importance of this week is overblown in my mind, but either way, psychologically it is huge.

i got up this morning and met kw and sl from my team in training team to do the 10 mile midweek run. this is probably one of the hardest runs for me to do. sure it’s only 10, but it’s in the middle of the week without the mental and physical prep that goes into running the saturday long run. and while it’s only 10, that is still a crazy distance that requires recovery.

so it was good to meet them at 5:50 to do this thing, even if it did mean i had to *gasp* drive to work for the first time in more than a year. it was a great run, i am dealing with allergies so the hills were kind of rough, especially the last one on rock springs, but i survived and it’s in the books.

just need to hit that 20 on saturday and then it’s taper time until race day.

rock on.

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, atlanta, marathon training, running, team in training

let me get this out right now. it’s not to late to donate. do you get that? i still need a few hundred dollars more so again, it’s not to late to donate.

almost, almost, almost to tapertown.

yesterday was one of the few “stepback” weeks we have had on the training program we are using to get ready for the 2009 ing georgia marathon. basically we pocketed a 10 mile long run in between last week’s 18 and next weeks 20 (more on last week’s 18 shortly).

so we did 10 in the rain around northwest atlanta.

so here is the deal. i am pretty much running stronger that at any point in the past now. in the past “stepback” weeks have never felt like them. the long runs have felt as bad as if i was up the ladder doing serious mileage.

this week?

]not so much. i flew through the 10 miles. in fact they felt easy and comfortable and good. even with the absurd rain and it was absurd yesterday. it pelted us from our before sunrise start all the way to the finish. we got a break from time to time but for the most part it was on and off heavy rain the whole way. my tweet when i finished read something like “that is the most wet long run i have ever done.” and it surely was. but it felt good and easy too. which is a beautiful thing.

and then there was the 18. so last week the schedule called for 16, but since most marathon training programs have more than one 18-20 and ours only had one several of use decided to go ahead and go 18, which is aggressive since it would represent a 4 mile jump over the 14 we had done the week before. i started out very fast, running with kk, who always runs faster than i really should. i meant to stay with the folks at my pace but we got to talking and before i knew it we were well out in front of the pack.

i hung with her to just before the turn and then dropped back. i had to go to the bathroom BAD and it wasn’t the kind i could sneak behind a tree and do, if you catch my drift. it made miles 8-12 just miserable. there were absolutely no porta-potties or shops or anything anywhere along that route. nowhere to go. coming back i figured the restrooms at the ballfields at the galloway school had to be open, but they were locked.

finally, unable to contain myself any longer i ran into the woods and went. not my proudest moment, but i wasn’t making it to the end of the 18 without going.

anyway, that helped tremendously, but by that point i was behind everyone doing 18 (most people had opted for 16) so i ended up running it in by myself.

the run was great though. minus the bathroom agony, i couldn’t have been happier with how the run shook out. i was sore for sure but i rocked it. plus i know from vegas, that if you can run 18 the marathon is do-able (if you were reading this thing back in ’06 you’ll remember that i never finished the 20 for vegas), so i am really now pretty damn confident that i have come back from injury and am going to do this marathon.

which makes me damn happy.

and doesn’t it make you want to go ahead and donate five bucks?.

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, atlanta, running, team in training

one of the interesting things about having a short training season and the fact that team in training takes it very slow in the beginning to help new runners build a base is that once it’s time to ramp up we ramp up big. in the last three weeks the mileage has gone from 9 to 10 to 12 to 14 a jump of 5 miles in three weeks, which is pretty aggressive.

the run today was 14 and honestly i felt great. we ran from “the river” through marietta and it was a pretty flat course. the only major hill was up johnson ferry. they apparently ran in last week when they did their 12 (i did mine on sunday owing to the flight home from australia) and jeff and kyle talked that hill up so big that i thought i would be climbing mount everest. it was tough, but i didn’t think it was all that bad. certainly not as bad as the “assault on battery” in the vermont city marathon or the east lake surprise in the georgia marathon.

i cranked on this run. it felt really good. i really only struggled form 9 to 12. and even those three weren’t bad, it’s just that mentally, they were tough since the road was boring .

i really cannot wait for this race. it’s 42 days away and i am really ready for it. cannot wait.

i am very impressed by the many people on our team who did very well with this distance even though they have never run it before. like i mentioned earlier, the mileage ramps up very fast and they are doing damn good. the team in training program really is great. i love the experience and i love the camaraderie. the cause is incredible too.

i can still use your donations as well. please go to here and donate even $5. i’ll love you forever.

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, atlanta, running, team in training

it’s the first time i have done a long run on my own since i started the team in training program. but i am in australia and have to keep up so this morning i got up, laced up and headed out to do my ten. i did the above 5 mile course twice. i figured i would keep it simple and NOT get lost.

it has been hard going with the running all week. i am not acclimated to the heat and victoria is in the midst of a crazy heatwave. so today i got on the street by 6:20 figuring i would do my best to beat it.

it was a pretty magical run. i won’t say it was easy, because it sure wasn’t, especially the last two miles when the sun was really bearing down on me along western beach road.

but how can you argue with pushing your body along the shores of a beautiful bay in one of the most picturesque towns i have ever seen. for most of the run i had a nice cool sea breeze with the smell of the ocean floating up from the water just down below. the nice thing about this run is it took me out of town along the bay, the back in to town and the out to the burbs and back. a nice straight run showcasing a lot.

the foot is doing okay. we’ll see how it responds to this run and next weeks 12 miler. either way i am pushing forward. also i took some pics of the run with the iphone and i will try to get them uploaded to flickr at some point.

happy running.

Tags: 10 miler, 2009 ing georgia marathon, geelong, running, team in training

i showed up at the big peach running company store in decatur expecting to find a group run to help me get through my 5 miler. i was really looking forward to it too since i had been feeling kind of sick most of the day and i thought the support of a group would be great to get me through a run that i didn’t really want to do.

of course, no one showed. i waited around for several minutes and then finally grabbed a course from the associate working and struck off on my own, totally unprepared. i didn’t have any water with me and no headphones (i had left them at home owing to my thought that i would probably be running with others.)

and the run was great. seriously, it was the kind of run that makes everything feel like it is meant to be. first the course was perfect. past agnes scott, through oakhurst down east lake and up ponce back into decatur. i was a course that offered wide streets and great scenery even in the dark. it had plenty of rolling hills and few long, but not too steep inclines and declines.

the weather was perfect too – just above freezing, very little humidity – and i really just barreled through the run. everything was about as perfect as a five mile run could be. legs checked in great, lungs and heart were doing there job with no complaint.

it’s the kind of run that keeps me a runner on the days when everything sucks.

rock on. 8 miles this weekend. getting closer.

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, running, team in training

the mileage for saturday was seven. it’s the first time since i had the foot injury. i ended up once again running with the fast group. i am in a bit of a weird sport with the group training runs. there is a group of about four or five girls that run a bit faster than me and then everybody else runs slower. so i am either going to have to speed up or slow down or run by myself. of course, i end up choosing to run faster

so i ran this seven much faster than i would have myself. i stuck with the two girls running the fastest for most of the first half of the run and then fell in with another one running just a bit slower at the water stop on the return.

thank god too. that hill on the way back, which started on rivers drive and continued all the way up peacthree to west paces was brutal. sure it leveled off a bit toward the top, but it really is looong. we made it up it though and it felt damn good.

the whole run felt good. in fact it wasn’t even really work. it was just a whole bunch of fun. it felt great and except for the hill i barely struggled. i feel great today too. the foot is good and my body is that good sore that i have missed for too long.

it’s gettting crunch time on my fundraising too. please give some thought to donating….you can do so here….thanks!

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, running, team in training, training

6 miler today. flat out at the river. i was running good. a nice solid pace for me which i always seem to do at the river owing to several miles of the run being on flat, easy trail.

we headed out on columns drive, hit the turnaround and right before the water stop at the start of the trail i met up with the “fast girls,” who were absolutely blowing the run away. so i hung with them for the remainder of the dirt trail. i have no idea what the pace was we were making but it was much faster than anything i typically run so it had to be above 10:00/mile.

i kept up with them until the big hill and then i dropped off their pace by maybe a minute. i am sore from running flat out like that, but it’s the good sore form a solid, well-executed long run.

no problems with the feet either. they continue to improve. i replaced a bunch of my shoes yesterday with larger shoes too, so being in the right sizes with new soles is going to be huge too.

i am really feeling great. i definitely am starting to truly believe another 26.2 is in the cards for me. i will admit to some doubt early on, but at this point i really feel it. this was the highest mileage week so far, 18 miles, with a 6 miler and a 5 miler and i am feeling very good about it.

i am very glad i hooked up with team in training too. a run like today just crystallizes for me how much fun it is. i had multiple people to run with, which meant i was chatting the whole run and it is just great to be part of a community. and of course, having water stops set out for you is pretty damn nice too, especially as the mileage goes up.

please consider supporting tnt. you can donate toward my goal here.

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, atlanta, marathon, marathon training, running, team in training

drive all afternoon.

unload the car, carrying tons of suitcases, dog cages and other assorted heavy stuff into the house.

do not pass go, do not collect $200, immediately run five miles.

in fairness i could have taken a bit of a break but we needed to head toward naveed’s new year’s eve party (a blast but the subject of another post.)

this was a tough run. i was tired and it was quite cold and windy. i also picked what amounted to a very hilly route, with some brutal hills in the last one mile loop that i ran. but that’s the thing about marathon training. it motivates me to get out and do these runs even when everything says stay in and rest.

and that, besides the feeling of finishing the marathon is why i love to do this

the team in training group run this saturday is six miles which will make for a very fun week of running.

happy new year everyone

Tags: 2009 ing georgia marathon, running, team in training